East Indy News

Brown Bag Book Discussion

GBC Community Room A

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

10:00am - 11:30am

Program Type: Books/Writing

Age Group: Adults

Registration for this event will close on January 10, 2023 @ 10:00am.

There are 16 seats remaining.

Annetta Petty will lead a discussion of James H. Madison's book The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to read the book in advance. Ask for a copy at the library’s information desk.

From the publisher: 

"Who is an American?" asked the Ku Klux Klan. It is a question that echoes as loudly today as it did in the early twentieth century. But who really joined the Klan? Were they "hillbillies, the Great Unteachables" as one journalist put it? It would be comforting to think so, but how then did they become one of the most powerful political forces in our nation's history?

In The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, renowned historian James H. Madison details the creation and reign of the infamous organization. Through the prism of their operations in Indiana and the Midwest, Madison explores the Klan's roots in respectable white protestant society. Convinced that America was heading in the wrong direction because of undesirable "un-American" elements, Klan members did not see themselves as bigoted racist extremists but as good Christian patriots joining proudly together in a righteous moral crusade.

The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland offers a detailed history of this powerful organization and examines how, through its use of intimidation, religious belief, and the ballot box, the ideals of Klan in the 1920s have on-going implications for America today.

Location Details

Central Library

900 West McKenzie Road

Greenfield, IN 46140

(317) 462-5141

See map: Google Maps

Contact Info

Name: Paul McNeil

Email: reference@hcplibrary.org

Phone Number: (317) 462-5141 ext. 240

Presenter: Annetta Petty

Original source can be found here.