In honor of Black Heritage Month, which pays tribute to and celebrates the achievements of Black Americans and acknowledges the central role of African Americans in United States history, please enjoy these reading and viewing recommendations. All materials are available as e-books or online resources through the NEIU Libraries.
And check out the Black Heritage Month events led by faculty, staff, and students that celebrate, honor, and recognize the work and culture of Black people.
Join the Northeastern Illinois University Libraries for a virtual conversation with NEIU alumnus Dale Laackman, author of the book Selling Hate: Marketing the Ku Klux Klan, published in 2020 by the University of Georgia Press. This event will take place on Thursday, February 25 at 6:00pm via Zoom.
Register for this event here: https://neiu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwucuCgqjMsGdZX5g529R5W0ag_bq_tNVB4
The event passcode (if you are prompted to enter one) is NEIU.
Selling Hate is a fas
cinating and powerful story about the power of a southern PR firm to further the Ku Klux Klan's agenda. Dale Laackman has uncovered never-before-published archival material, census records, and obscure books and letters to tell the story of an emerging communications industry—an industry filled with potential and fraught with peril.
The brilliant, amoral, and spectacularly bold Bessie Tyler and Edward Young Clarke—together, the Southern Publicity Association—met the fervent William Joseph Simmons (founder of the second KKK), saw an opportunity, and played on his many weaknesses. It was the volatile, precarious terrain of post-World War I America. Tyler and Clarke took Simmons's dying and broke KKK, with its 2,000 to 3,000 associates in Georgia and Alabama, and in a few short years swelled its membership to nearly five million. Chapters were established in every state of the union, and the Klan began influencing American political and social life. Between one-third and one-half of the eligible men in the country belonged to the organization.
Even to modern sensibilities, the extent of Tyler and Clarke's scheme is shocking: the limitlessness of their audacity; the full-scale and ongoing con of Simmons; the size of the personal fortunes they earned, amassed, and stole in the process; and just how easily and expertly they exploited the particular fears and prejudices of every corner of America. You will recognize in this pair a very American sense of showmanship and an accepted, even celebrated, brash entrepreneurial hustle. And as their story winds down, you will recognize the tainted and ultimately ineffectual congressional hearings into the Klan's monumental growth.
Dale W. Laackman is an award-winning television producer, director, and writer turned historian and author whose long career includes positions at WGN-TV and Tribune Entertainment Company. He lives in suburban Chicago.
Questions? Contact Ed Remus, Social Sciences Librarian, at e-remus@neiu.edu.