So, Why Exactly IS Your Town Called Knightsville?
Over the past two days, I've been in Indiana for work. It's flat. It's cold. However, the leaves are changing and falling from the trees and that's really pretty. Plus, prices here are fairly reasonable.
That got me thinking...
Recent statistics have revealed that 80% of people that live in LA cannot afford to buy a home in LA. So, all the fat squirrels running across the lawns here made me wonder what it would be like to move back to the Midwest. Would my husband and two sons be happy in Indiana?
Hmm?
Many folks don't know that Indiana, not Alabama or Mississippi, was home to the largest numbers of Ku Klux Klan members in the US. In the 1920's, one in three white males in Indiana were part of the Klan and female membership was even higher.
Just in case you think that's just the tarnished past of our nation, when I was in undergrad at Northwestern, I remember my mom telling me about the Klan marching in Michigan City, Indiana, only an hour away from Chicago.
Over the past couple of days, while driving from Chicago to Indianapolis and then on to South Bend, I kept thinking what a good scary movie it would make to have someone from the big city have their rental car break down in the middle of nowhere and then they get some "assistance" from their local Klansman.
I especially thought about this when I drove past a sign for a town called Knightsville.
I bet I could afford a house there. But would I be welcome in Knightsville? The place has a population of 625 and is 99% white. If you know anything about the Klan, then you can connect the dots on why I'd be wary of someplace called Knightsville.
But you feel free to visit there and tell me how it goes.
That got me thinking...
Recent statistics have revealed that 80% of people that live in LA cannot afford to buy a home in LA. So, all the fat squirrels running across the lawns here made me wonder what it would be like to move back to the Midwest. Would my husband and two sons be happy in Indiana?
Hmm?
Many folks don't know that Indiana, not Alabama or Mississippi, was home to the largest numbers of Ku Klux Klan members in the US. In the 1920's, one in three white males in Indiana were part of the Klan and female membership was even higher.
Just in case you think that's just the tarnished past of our nation, when I was in undergrad at Northwestern, I remember my mom telling me about the Klan marching in Michigan City, Indiana, only an hour away from Chicago.
Over the past couple of days, while driving from Chicago to Indianapolis and then on to South Bend, I kept thinking what a good scary movie it would make to have someone from the big city have their rental car break down in the middle of nowhere and then they get some "assistance" from their local Klansman.
I especially thought about this when I drove past a sign for a town called Knightsville.
I bet I could afford a house there. But would I be welcome in Knightsville? The place has a population of 625 and is 99% white. If you know anything about the Klan, then you can connect the dots on why I'd be wary of someplace called Knightsville.
But you feel free to visit there and tell me how it goes.
Comments
My dad was a Golden Gloves boxer and he came to know and respect athletes of various races. When I was a teenager I used to dig him about boxing, that it was such a brutal sport. (O, from the mouths of brutal teens!) But I see these days that it did probably more for me and my sibs in terms of us being able to see people for who they are than I ever realized.
My dad was a big guy (heavyweight), a respected guy in his little pond, and I hope his attitudes helped influence more than just us. He's the guy that brought the stranded African American man home during a blizzard after his car broke down outside of the town of 150 where my dad owned a service station. And helped him get on his way the next day.
It was probably a very very strange night for that man, but it was just another act of kindness I witnessed in my preteens.
Not defending everyone there, but just saying there might be a low magnitude hero available for your plot.