Tracing The Dark Origins Of Charlottesville's KKK
In the comments of residents processing what happened in Charlottesville, a common refrain emerged: "This is not us." But the city's history tells a different story.
The front page of The Daily Progress, Charlottesville's local paper, on June 28, 1921, offers a mix of local minutiae folded in with larger news.
"VALUABLE DOG DEAD," shouts one headline.
"WON'T ACCEPT WAGE CUT," says another.
And then, right up near the top, bordered with teeny asterisks, is this headline: "KU KLUX KLAN ORGANIZED HERE."
What follows is this reverential, two-paragraph recounting of the local Klan's birth:
"The spirit of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest hovered over Charlottesville recently, and the fiery cross, symbolic of the Invisible Empire and of the
