The Ku Klux Klan has a long history of activity in the Midwest and in Michigan (in the 1970s Klansmen in Michigan used bombs to destroy school buses in order to prevent desegregation) and is probably the most well-known racist organization in the United States. However, since the 1980s the Klan’s influence has declined as it has split into different factions while failing to attract the interest of younger racists. Still, the Ku Klux Klan’s various splinter groups have remained active in varying capacities, with Michigan being home to chapters of The Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Imperial Klans of America, United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Of these groups, Michigan is the national headquarters for the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Fraser, Michigan.
Activities in Michigan
- Midland, Michigan Klan member Randy Gray spoke at an August 4, 2007 white supremacist event in Kalamazoo.
- Phil Lawson of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, claims that his group is growing in Michigan due to popular discontent over immigration in an interview in the Oakland Free Press.
- An interview with Proposal 2 supporter and financier Ward Connerly shows Connerly saying “God bless them” regarding the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the anti-affirmative action campaign.
- In October of 2006, the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan distributed literature supporting the passage of Proposal 2.
- During the summer of 2006, Michigan Klan organizer Randy Gray spoke at the Klan’s 50th Anniversary (Knights Party faction) on the use of public access television as a recruiting and organizing tool and airs a show called “This is the Klan” on public access television in Midland, Michigan.
- In 2004, the Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan organized members to collect signatures for the anti-affirmative action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (Proposal 2).
- In the 1990s there were a number of Klan rallies in Michigan, in Grand Rapids in 1995, in Ann Arbor in 1996 and 1998, in Kalamazoo in 1998, Ironwood in 1997, and Lansing in 1994, as well as the Klan associated NordicFest in Traverse City in 1997.
Michigan Members of the Ku Klux Klan
Resources Elsewhere on Mediamouse.org
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Michigan Klan Member to Speak at Kalamazoo White Supremacist Event, July 20, 2007
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New Report Cites National Growth in the Ku Klux Klan; Racist Groups on the Rise in Michigan, February 7, 2007
- The Klan Rally and Counter-Hegemonic Race Talk, November 1995, The FUNdamentalist
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