Yes, the KKK is alive
and well in Illinois. Chapters include Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Nashville,
Illinois and related groups such the Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls MC in Canton,
Illinois (near Peoria) and the newly unearthed White Rabbits in Ford County.
A research article
sheds light on the KKK in Illinois: Edgar F. Raines, Jr., The Ku Klux Klan in
Illinois, 1867-1875, Illinois Historical Journal (1985). Raines makes a point
about southern Illinois counties that essentially holds true in much of rural
Illinois, including areas just outside Champaign-Urbana.
“The local white gentry . . . were adamantly opposed to the
introduction of more blacks into the region. Cultural change in Egypt thus
began at the peripheries. Before 1860 the interior counties were the most
homogeneous in terms of the ethnic origin and political preference of the
inhabitants. Their relative isolation meant that they did not come into contact
with ideas or lifestyles other than their own.”
In that vein, see
this interactive map, titled “Mapping Segregation” produced by the New York
Times (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/us/census-race-map.html).
Using the cursor for Champaign County, the population is 71% white, 12% black,
5% Hispanic, 9% Asian and 2% other.
In adjacent Ford
County, the population is 95% white, 2% Asian. 0.5% black, and 1.25 others.
Ford County is home to the recently discovered white hate group known as the “White
Rabbits.”
In Washington County,
where the Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Nashville, the population is 97%
white.
Whether it’s the 1870s
or 2010s, when a county is nearly all white, residents have little direct
experience with people of different races and ethnicities. Hate is not an
inevitable outcome—but as Raines noted, this type of homogeneity is conducive
to bigotry.
No comments:
Post a Comment