Suffolk KKK photo needed context, not condemnation

When the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum published its February newsletter earlier this month featuring a Riverhead Ku Klux Klan rally and a picture of the event from the 1920s, it erred badly in failing to condemn the materials it had chosen. Highlighting the "Photo of the Week" illustrating the "Ku Klux Klan in Suffolk County, 1920s" demands clearly stating that the group was, and still is, morally reprehensible in promulgating a vicious ideology against Blacks, Catholics and Jews.

Those trying to spark productive conversations ought to be particularly sensitive to that need during Black History Month, and museum director Victoria Berger has acknowledged the criticism leveled at her as fair, and promised to do better.

And she must. Republishing an invitation by the "Riverhead Klan, No. 31" to a "Monster Klan gathering at Riverhead LI" touting "Dinner and Supper on Grounds" and "Camping Facilities Excellent," without comment, is unacceptable.

In the 1920s, the KKK was integral to the politics of Suffolk County. Three consecutive chairmen of the county Republican Party were reportedly members. The flagpole at Islip Town Hall had been donated by the local branch of The Ladies of the Klan, and during the Catholic Democrat Al Smith’s presidential run in 1928, burning Klan crosses lit the night skies of Suffolk.

Ten years later, with the KKK heyday past and the nation gearing up for a war with Germany undergirded by race hatred, huge crowds would come to Yaphank’s Camp Siegfried to cheer Nazi propaganda and hear plans for an Aryan future out east.

Even today, there are small but loud movements in Suffolk County focused on issues of race and ethnicity. They dog-whistle the stale idea that minorities and their supporters keep beleaguered white county residents down. That’s also what they told Long Islanders in the 1920s, at Klan rallies, and in the 1930s, at Nazi jamborees.

There is little evidence of intent by museum officials to inflame bigotry with this mistake. The museum used the Klan photo in its 2013 exhibit "Hidden and Forbidden," which provided the proper context about racism on Long Island. Yet that is not a good enough excuse. This might have been prevented if more diverse voices had been heard during the planning process.

But we cannot allow this delicate, crucial conversation — about how humans treat each other, about race and rights, about the impact of racism and how it can be remediated — to be chilled by fury. Well-intended participants in this conversation must have room to make mistakes without facing condemnation.

Addressing bigotry and prejudice takes a courage we don’t want to sap.

There can be no glorifying the past racist movements in Suffolk County. But knowing we can discuss it, even when we do so imperfectly, is crucial if we are to avoid sweeping that history under the rug.