As early as 1868 the Ku Klux Klan was active in Michigan. This first Klan was the Klan of Reconstruction. There would be two subsequent iterations of the Klan, through the 1910s and ’20s and in the 1960s.
This website stands against the Klan. It’s authors believe that chronicling an evil does not mean an endorsement. You will find several dozen interviews here with those who have spent considerable portions of their lives researching that who, why, what, when, where, and how of the Klan especially the Klan in Michigan.
And in dealing with the Klan we have had to broaden our scope to include the issues and issues of the times. We use the KKK to focus the conversations but the interviews often tend to broaden out into questions of race and racial justice.That said the documentary is absolutely about the Klan.
You can access those interviews via a dropdown menu at the upper right in red. Just hover your cursor over it and choose what you will.
In addition to the filmed interviews we have had transcriptions rendered algorithmically of the 1007 minutes of interviews. As such, there are some real howlers in there–Claude Busters for clod busters and such. A perfect set of transcriptions will have to await the interest of an advanced undergraduate or a graduate student in history who wants to take part in this project. The .pdf files that accompany each interview are searchable. For a Mac user, open the document and use command F. For the rest???
And, yes, since you wondered, the Klan is still active, sometimes linked with NeoNazis and The Michigan Militia. They need watching.