THREAD: The Ku Klux Klan had a chapter at Harvard University in the 1920s

[Nevilledog]

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Simon J. Levien
@simonjlevien
THREAD: The Ku Klux Klan had a chapter at Harvard University in the 1920s; in 1952, students held a cross burning in Harvard Yard.

After a year's worth of research, I attempted to construct a history of the KKK's long presence at Harvard. https://tinyurl.com/njsnwmru 1/

The Crimson Klan | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson
The Crimson Klan | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson
thecrimson.com

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THREAD: The Ku Klux Klan had a chapter at Harvard University in the 1920s; in 1952, students held a cross burning in Harvard Yard.

After a year's worth of research, I attempted to construct a history of the KKK's long presence at Harvard. tinyurl.com/njsnwmru 1/

The Crimson Klan | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson
The Ku Klux Klan’s presence at Harvard throughout the twentieth century, though it waxed and waned, was clear. Yet attempts to recognize and reckon with the Crimson Klan, a brazen symbol of racism and…
https://tinyurl.com/njsnwmru

Harvard historian Zach Nowak was stunned when I showed him photos of Harvard Klansmen posing around the John Harvard Statue.

"This is part and parcel of a long Harvard tradition of support for white supremacy," Nowak said. 2/

I ended up finding out that the University's Legacy of Slavery initiative—tasked with reconciling Harvard's residual ties to slavery—broadly skips over the 20th century history of racism at the University, including the KKK's presence at Harvard. 3/

The Legacy of Slavery Initiative director said only "allusions" to the 20th century are made in their efforts, as that history is "fairly well-known."

Initiative members and other scholars said they didn't know of the existence of the Harvard branch of the Klan. 4/

Throughout the 20th century, Harvard students formed a quasi-chapter of the KKK, held screenings of "Birth of a Nation," burned a cross on campus, openly threatened the Klan's enemies, and attended official klonvocations. Most of it is absent from University history. 5/

Read about the horrifying history of the Harvard Klan and the 20th-century gap in the University's historical reconciliation attempts here:

The Crimson Klan | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson
The Ku Klux Klan’s presence at Harvard throughout the twentieth century, though it waxed and waned, was clear. Yet attempts to recognize and reckon with the Crimson Klan, a brazen symbol of racism and…
https://tinyurl.com/njsnwmru
• • •


Article:

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/3/25/harvard-klan-scrut/

When J. Max Bond Jr. ’55 entered Harvard at the age of 16, he was among 15 Black students in his class, most of whom lived in the north corner of Harvard Yard.

As his freshman spring semester began, two other Harvard freshmen erected a wooden cross facing that corner of the Yard, formed by Stoughton and Holworthy Halls.

And around midnight on Feb. 5, 1952, not long after Bond’s 16th birthday, the students lit the cross on fire.

“Some of the onlookers cheered when, after ten minutes, the cross was knocked down,” Bond and his Black classmate wrote in a letter to The Crimson at the time. “But we are sorry to say that others expressed indignation at its destruction. Minutes later a Negro student passing thru the Yard was hailed with remarks such as might be expected in the Klan-dominated States of the South.”

Save a few miscellaneous Crimson articles, Bond’s memory of the incident is the strongest account of the Harvard Yard cross burning, which nearly every biography of Bond’s — he became a well-known architect — invariably notes as formative in his college years.

“I saw the flames,” Bond told The Crimson a few weeks after the incident. “I didn’t think of the Klan right off the bat. When I did realize what it was, I was shocked and I didn’t know what to do.”

*snip*

[bahboo]

1. jesus christ...and make no mistake, this is the power structure of this country...

shit runs very, very deep...

[jimfields33]

3. This doesn't surprise me in the least

I’d say if a full history was done on every aspect of life, we’d find some very disturbing racist behavior. It was rampant in our country at the time. Today we still see it unfortunately. However, I hope this is the last of it. It’s gone on way too long.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. A white supremacist instition in a white supremacist country had a white supremacist club on campus?

Huh.

[Martin68]

4. We all need to learn about the racist structure of our country. One reason is that it is about us.

The other reason is the you can't root it out unless you understand where it came from, and how deeply rooted it is in this country.

[NNadir]

5. They have a chapter in the US Senate right now, and in the Georgia legislature as well.

[czarjak]

6. Here a Klan, there a Klan, everywhere a Klan clan. I have pictures.

[msongs]

7. the GA governor's office is infested with them these days nt

[Nevilledog]

8. True

[madville]

9. Their current crusade is against Asians

Harvard openly discriminates against Asians in admissions because they score too high on tests.

[pidge]

11. The Asians sued....and lost,thanks to a judge who sided with Harvard.

[sop]

10. I'm shocked, but not surprised.

.