Greenwood County Historical Society will host “William Allen White and the KKK in Kansas,” a presentation and discussion by Beverley Olson Buller on Monday, March 31, at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood County Museum, 120 West 4th Street, Eureka. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas.
The 1920s saw the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan across America, and sparked fear and violence against African Americans and other minority groups. As the editor of the Emporia Gazette, White was acutely aware of the growing presence of the KKK in Kansas following World War I. Seeing no candidates free of Klan influence, White declared, “I want to be governor to free Kansas from the disgrace of the Ku Klux Klan.” This presentation follows the raucous two-month campaign that had White traveling over 200 miles to deliver 104 speeches, all directed at expelling the KKK.
Beverley Olson Buller is an author, an educator, and chair of the William Allen White Children’s Book Awards selection committee in Emporia.
“William Allen White wrote in 1922, ‘When anything is going to happen in this country, it happens first in Kansas.’ Accordingly, Kansas became the first state in the union to outlaw the Ku Klux Klan,” Buller said. “The story of White’s role in history is fascinating and one of which his fellow Kansans can be very proud.”
“William Allen White and the KKK in Kansas” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau, featuring humanities-based presentations designed to share stories that inspire, spark conversations that inform, and generate insights that strengthen civic engagement.
For more information about the “William Allen White and the KKK in Kansas” presentation, contact the Greenwood County Historical Society at 620583-6682. Submitted by Jan Stephens
