(lively piano music)
- [Narrator] We're in the Motley Study Center,
part of the Amistad Center for Art and Culture,
housed in the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut,
looking at one of the most troubling objects
that I've ever worked with.
This is a robe from the Ku Klux Klan
that dates to about 1928.
I think in the north we have this reassuring myth
that the Klan is of the south,
but this is from Connecticut, this is from New England.
- [Narrator] One of the things we'd like to remind people is
that there was slavery here in Connecticut
and then Klan was active here as well
and was a significant presence into the 20th century.
- [Narrator] Most of the videos that Smarthistory focuses on
are looking at subjects that are
things of beauty, paintings and sculptures
that are technically excellent,
that are intellectually profound.
This is an object that is very different
but it is a part of our material culture.
It is a part of our history
and it is a history of terror that should not be forgotten.
- [Narrator] This came into the collection pretty recently
and there was an intense conversation
about why we would have it,
what it would mean to bring it to this collection
that is primarily a resource for celebrating black history
and the achievements of African Americans.
But this is a collection that represents the highlights
and the struggles of African Americans and others
to push for freedom and equity across the centuries.
And so we have an obligation
to celebrate the stories that are important
but also to confront and to challenge.
- [Narrator] Maybe it makes sense to spend a moment
giving a quick history of the Ku Klux Klan.
- [Narrator] I certainly think of the Klan
and it's earliest moments as being local
and tied to the history of enslaved blacks
needing to be controlled and managed
as a constantly resisting
and struggling population of workers.
In the years after emancipation we see the Klan emerge
as a force but still a local force.
Still doing the work to control people
and not thinking of themselves
as this vast national conspiracy.
- [Narrator] This transformation
into a national fraternal order
is helped along by Hollywood.
- [Narrator] In the late 19th century the images
that we have of Klan activity present us
with carnival characteristics,
people with big puppet heads or animal heads and furs
and that does change as we get into the 20th century
and an important impetus for that is The Birth of a Nation,
the film and the costuming and the people's realization
that that could be appropriated
and put to use in daily life.
- [Narrator] And so in the wake of D. W. Griffith's film
which is often credited with being
the first feature length film in American history.
A film, by the way that was shown in the White House,
a film that enjoyed broad popular acclaim
and is often credited with reviving the Klan
and heroizing it,
has the effect of creating
this national organization of terror.
And it is at about this time
that the Klan becomes a centralized organization
with centralized control.
- [Narrator] Griffith's film helps to galvanize the NAACP
as people are out there protesting this film
and working hard to keep it from being shown in places.
It also perpetuates the myth
of rape as the cause of lynching,
so lots of activism around that as well.
So for black activists and people who are committed
to the civil rights struggle,
it is a watershed moment
and while we don't think of it as also giving birth
to the Klan costume, it's also doing that work.
- [Narrator] It's important to remember that the Klan was
not only intent on forcing African Americans
as it had so much in the 19th century
but was reacting against the influx of immigrants,
especially of Catholics, of Jews, of Eastern
and especially Southern Europeans.
But the focus remains clearly on enforcement
against African Americans.
It is a movement that arose against the autonomy
that was claimed by former enslaved peoples.
- [Narrator] The Klan at it's root is definitely
a white supremacist project.
Whether it's controlling and dominating people
of African descent in the south
who were either enslaved workers or free workers
and trying to make sure that they either stay put
or they worked in a certain way
or remained poor (laughs) or lost property.
Or whether it's looking at new immigrants,
who the Klan did not see as white,
showing up to challenge their domination.
It's still a white supremacist project.
- [Narrator] This robe was meant to transform it's wearer
into a member, into a symbol,
into a non-individualized member of a larger group.
I can tell from the stitching, from the cloth,
this was a mass produced object, meant to be inexpensive
and as a result to reach the widest possible audience.
- [Narrator] It's the cheapest model.
It's a basic cotton without a lot of ornamentation.
We have seen images of the catalog
where you could purchase this piece.
It's really smartly designed.
- [Narrator] One of the things
that it was intended to achieve
was to create a sense of a larger than life figure.
And one of the ways that that was created
was the addition of the cape
to accentuate the breadth of the shoulders of the wearer.
- [Narrator] It gives permission
for the person who's wearing it
to act outside of societal boundaries,
that they no longer need to follow rules,
that they can act violently
without fear of retribution.
- [Narrator] We haven't had this piece
in the collection for very long.
We've had it on exhibition,
it's been a prompt for other institutions
around the region that have had complicated material
that they haven't shown, to bring those things out
and have conversations about
what it means to have racist material
from early 19th century,
what it means to have Klan robes
and that's been a really great thing to just learn
from each other about what these things mean
to Connecticut history.
It's also allowed us to talk about things
that we feel we need to talk about here in Hartford
and in Connecticut and to push us as an institution.
And given what's happened in America
in the past two to three years,
it's been important to think
about confronting these bigger questions.
So when David Duke gets to stand on the stage
at HBCU in Louisiana as a candidate,
given his history with the Klan,
it's important that we have a Klan robe
in our collection and we're able to remind people
that the things you think you may remember about the Klan,
well these are the things that we know about the Klan
and as people are marching in Charlottesville
and talking about blood and soil with tiki torches,
it's important to have these artifacts that we can go to
and remind people of that history
because it's just too easy to forget.
(lively piano music)