Many Things Considered
In “Many Things Considered” one-time journalist and full-time political analyst Marc Johnson applies his passion for context to connect current politics with political history. What are the links between the debacle of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign and the Tea Party movement? Did Alexander Hamilton foresee the partisanship that now surrounds judicial appointments? Why haven’t third parties had political success in America? Johnson weaves interviews, archival sound, humor and authoritative narration to connect political history to today’s political stories.
Many Things Considered
Episode 13: The Klan
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Marc Johnson
Since the 2016 presidential election various groups that keep track of white supremacist political activity – the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for example – have reported a sharp increase in such activity. Some have suggested we have entered a new phase where white nationalism, a rejection of a racial diverse society and opposition to immigrants has again risen to the surface of American life.
A similar period occurred in 1920s America. The Ku Klux Klan in the 20s enjoyed a revival that saw upwards of 4 million Americans embracing the Klan as a kind of fraternal order driven by white supremacy and disdain for Catholics, Jews, immigrants and people of color.
I’ll talk with an official from the SPLC and with historians – David A. Horowitz, Tom Pegram and Darrell Millner – who have studied the KKK during the Jazz Age, particularly in the state of Oregon. It’s a history lesson from the 1920s that resonates in our time.