The rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon and Eugene in the 1920s will be the subject of a panel discussion on campus tonight.
“The Invisible Empire in Oregon, Eugene and at the UO: The Rise and Fall of 1920s Ku Klux Klan” will take place at the LLC Performance Hall from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The event will host two guest speakers, Portland State University history professor
David A. Horowitz and University alumnus Eckard V. Toy.
The panel discussion will address issues such as the formation and rise to power of Ku Klux Klan groups in Oregon and Eugene, opposing groups of the Klan, membership and the goals and targets of the Klan in the late 1910s and 1920s.
Horowitz will present ideas from his own book on the Klan, “Inside the Klavern: The Secret History of a Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.” He will also present issues brought up in the meeting minutes of some Klans located in La Grande, while discussing the Klan’s involvement in community life and on the University campus.
Horowitz will also explain the differences between the Klan of the 1920s and the modern and post-civil war Klans.
“I think it’s important to explore socially constructive and destructive aspects of Oregon’s tradition to have a sense of what kinds of culture our state has fashioned over time,” Horowitz said.
Toy plans to discuss the history and origins of the Klan. He will also provide context to the role of the Klan on campus, and the political, moral and social issues in Eugene, such as the question of racial attitudes and religion on campus and in the community.
“Present problems are reminders of the past, and we will explore the 1920s in Eugene,” Toy said. “Too often, people have forgotten the past and need to be reminded of the present problems.”
Along with presentations from the guest speakers, Linda Long, manuscript librarian at the Knight Library, will bring two traveling exhibit cases of official Ku Klux Klan group documents that were formed in Oregon.
Kevin Hatfield, assistant director for academic initiatives and University instructor of history, led the planning of this event.
Community Conversations, hosted by University Housing, is its sponsor. Community Conversationsis a program that hosts events on campus and allows undergraduate students to pitch ideas for future campus events.
“Although the visiting scholars for this Community Conversations panel discussion will not know the details of current events at the UO, the event will provide a historical framework for critically examining questions of race, religion, community, intolerance, prejudice and hate, by interpreting Oregon’s peculiar past of countervailing currents of progressive and anti-progressive thought and action,” Hatfield said.
Planning began in October 2009 when the student group Oregon Think Tank presented the idea of bringing in guest speakers to discuss the history of the Ku Klux Klan movement
in Oregon. The event is not a debate, but rather a presentation of the history of this movement.
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