Kathleen M. Blee | |
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Born | Indiana, USA | March 27, 1953
Academic background | |
Education | BA, 1974, Indiana University MS, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Thesis | The effect of occupational and marital mobility upon political orientation (1976) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Pittsburgh University of Kentucky |
Kathleen Marie Blee (born March 27,1953) is an American sociologist. She is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her areas of interest include gender,race and racism,social movements,and sociology of space and place. Special interests include how gender influences racist movements,including work on women in the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
Blee was born on March 27,1953. [1] She grew up in Fort Wayne,Indiana to a Roman Catholic family [2] and attended catholic school before enrolling at Indiana University for her Bachelor's degree. [3] After graduating with a degree in sociology in 1974,she completed her Master's degree and PhD in the same topic from University of Wisconsin–Madison. [4]
Upon completing her PhD,Blee accepted a faculty position at the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1981. While at UK,she served as Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences and as Director for the Women's Studies Program. [4] During this time,Blee began to study the emergence of women in the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) following World War I after coming across a brochure in favor of women's suffrage published by the KKK. [2] [5] In 1987,she began writing a book about the role of women in the KKK in Indiana during the 1920s. [6] While researching for the book,she interviewed numerous women who were dedicated members of the KKK. [7] The book,Women in the Klan:Racism and Gender in the 1920s,was eventually published by the University of California Press in 1991. [2]
Blee eventually left UK in 1996 to accept a professorship position at the University of Pittsburgh's (UPitt) Department of Sociology. She also served as the Director of UPitt's Women's Studies Program from 1996 to 2001. [4] Upon joining the faculty,she authored more books about the emerging role of women in hate groups. In 1998,she published No Middle Ground:Women and Radical Protest, a book focused on uncovering women's roles in radical and militant movements. [8] She later co-authored The Road to Poverty:The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia with Dwight Billings [9] and co-edited Feminism and Antiracism:Transnational Struggles for Justice with France Winddance Twine. In 2002,Blee published Inside Organized Racism:Women in the Hale Movement, a book in which she interviewed 34 women involved in the Ku Klux Klan,neo-Nazi groups,and Christian identity groups. The book dispelled numerous misconceptions about women in these movements,as she found that they were often educated,did not grow up poor,and had not suffered childhood abuse. [10] Following the publication of these books,Blee was honored with one of the 2004 Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award by Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg for "shaping a new intellectual and research tradition that will inspire future research agendas." [11] She was also elected to a three-year term on the university's Senate Committee against Anti-Discriminatory Policies. [12]
As a result of her academic scholarship,Blee was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences in January 2007. [13] She was also again recognized by Nordenberg with a 2007 Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Teaching due to her "outstanding contributions to teaching in sociology and women’s studies." [14] Later that year,she also received one of four 2007 Provost's Award for Excellence in Mentoring after she had chaired 12 dissertation committees and advised on seven. [15] The following year,Blee was appointed chair of the sociology department while continuing to hold her appointments in history and the women's studies program. [16] While serving in these roles,she published Democracy in the Making:How Activist Groups Form and received the Virginia Hodgkinson Research Prize from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. [17] [18]
In 2017,Blee was appointed Dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences College of General Studies. [19] While serving in this new role,she also accepted an appointment as co-director of the Collaboratory Against Hate,a center dedicated to the study and prevent hate and violence against marginalized groups. [20] In 2022,Blee stepped down as Dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences College of General Studies and resumed her regular faculty responsibilities. [21]
The Ku Klux Klan,commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan,is the name of several historical and current American white supremacist,far-right terrorist organizations and hate groups. The Klan was "the first organized terror movement in American history." Their primary targets are African Americans,Hispanics,Jews,Latinos,Asian Americans,Native Americans,Italian Americans,Irish Americans,and Catholics,as well as immigrants,leftists,homosexuals,Muslims,atheists,and abortion providers.
Daisy Douglas Barr was Imperial Empress (leader) of the Indiana Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) in the early 1920s and an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). People were associated with both the KKK and the WCTU because the Ku Klux Klan was a very strong supporter and defender of temperance and National Prohibition. Professionally,she was a Quaker minister in two prominent churches,First Friends Church of New Castle,Indiana,and Friends Memorial Church in Muncie,Indiana. She served as the vice-chair of the Republican Committee in Indiana as well as president of the Indiana War Mother's organization. She was killed in a car wreck and her funeral was held in a Friends meeting.
Ku Klux Klan auxiliaries are organized groups that supplement,but do not directly integrate with the Ku Klux Klan. These auxiliaries include:Women of the Ku Klux Klan,The Jr. Ku Klux Klan,The Tri-K Girls,the American Crusaders,The Royal Riders of the Red Robe,The Ku Klux balla,and the Klan's Colored Man auxiliary.
The Pillar of Fire International,also known as the Pillar of Fire Church,is a Methodist Christian denomination with headquarters in Zarephath,New Jersey. The Pillar of Fire Church affirms the Methodist Articles of Religion and as of 1988,had 76 congregations around the world,including the United States,as well as "Great Britain,India,Liberia,Malawi,Nigeria,the Philippines,Spain,and former Yugoslavia."
Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK),also known as Women's Ku Klux Klan,and Ladies of the Invisible Empire,held to many of the same political and social ideas of the KKK but functioned as a separate branch of the national organization with their own actions and ideas. While most women focused on the moral,civic,and educational agendas of the Klan,they also had considerable involvement in issues of race,class,ethnicity,gender,and religion. The women of the WKKK fought for educational and social reforms like other Progressive reformers but with extreme racism and intolerance.
Storm Warning is a 1950 American thriller film noir starring Ginger Rogers,Ronald Reagan,Doris Day,and Steve Cochran. Directed by Stuart Heisler,it follows a fashion model (Rogers) traveling to a small Southern town to visit her sister (Day),who witnesses the brutal murder of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The original screenplay was written by Richard Brooks and Daniel Fuchs.
The Wisconsin Union Theater is a performing arts center in Madison,Wisconsin,located in the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Memorial Union. Wisconsin Union Theater performances include world stage,concerts,dance,jazz and other special events.
Heroes of the Fiery Cross is a book in praise of the Ku Klux Klan,published in 1928 by Protestant Bishop Alma Bridwell White,in which she "sounds the alarm about imagined threats to Protestant Americans from Catholics and Jews",according to author Peter Knight. In the book she asks rhetorically,"Who are the enemies of the Klan? They are the bootleggers,law-breakers,corrupt politicians,weak-kneed Protestant church members,white slavers,toe-kissers,wafer-worshippers,and every spineless character who takes the path of least resistance." She also argues that Catholics are removing the Bible from public schools. Another topic is her anti-Catholic stance towards the United States presidential election of 1928,in which Catholic Al Smith was running for president.
The Indiana Klan was a branch of the Ku Klux Klan,a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition,education,political corruption,and morality. It was strongly white supremacist against African Americans,Chinese Americans,and also Catholics and Jews,whose faiths were commonly associated with Irish,Italian,Balkan,and Slavic immigrants and their descendants. In Indiana,the Klan did not tend to practice overt violence but used intimidation in certain cases,whereas nationally the organization practiced illegal acts against minority ethnic and religious groups.
The Good Citizen was a sixteen-page monthly political periodical edited by Bishop Alma White and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. The Good Citizen was published from 1913 until 1933 by the Pillar of Fire Church at their headquarters in Zarephath,New Jersey in the United States. White used the publication to expose "political Romanism in its efforts to gain the ascendancy in the U.S."
The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy is a 144-page book written by Bishop Alma Bridwell White in 1925 and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. In the book she uses scripture to rationalize that the Ku Klux Klan is sanctioned by God "through divine illumination and prophetic vision". She also believed that the Apostles and the Good Samaritan were members of the Klan. The book was published by the Pillar of Fire Church,which she founded,at their press in Zarephath,New Jersey. The book sold over 45,000 copies.
Klansmen:Guardians of Liberty was a book published by the Pillar of Fire Church in 1926 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White and illustrated by Branford Clarke. She claims that the Founding Fathers of the United States were members of the Ku Klux Klan,and that Paul Revere made his legendary ride in Klan hood and robes. She said:"Jews are everywhere a separate and distinct people,living apart from the great Gentile masses ... they are not home builders or tillers of the soil." Her book,which contains many anti-Catholic themes,became popular during the United States presidential election of 1928 when Al Smith was the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party.
The Ku Klux Klan has had a history in the U.S. state of New Jersey since the early part of the 1920s. The Klan was active in the areas of Trenton and Camden and it also had a presence in several of the state's northern counties in the 1920s. It had the most members in Monmouth County,and operated a resort in Wall Township.
Guardians of Liberty is a three volume set of books published in 1943 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White,author of over 35 books and founder of the Pillar of Fire Church. Guardians of Liberty is primarily devoted to summarizing White's vehement anti-Catholicism under the guise of patriotism. White also defends her historical support of and association with the Ku Klux Klan while significantly but not completely distancing herself from the Klan. Each of the three volumes corresponds to one of the three books White published in the 1920s promoting the Ku Klux Klan and her political views which in addition to anti-Catholicism also included nativism,anti-Semitism and white supremacy. In Guardians of Liberty,White removed most,but not all of the direct references to the Klan that had existed in her three 1920s books,both in the text and in the illustrations. In Volumes I and II,she removed most of the nativist,anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology that had appeared in her predecessor books. However,in Guardians Volume III,she did retain edited versions of chapters promoting nativism,anti-Semitism and white supremacy.
Daryl Davis is an American R&B and blues musician and activist. His efforts to fight racism by engaging members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) have convinced dozens of Klansmen to leave and denounce the KKK. Known for his energetic style of boogie-woogie piano,Davis has played with such musicians as Chuck Berry,Jerry Lee Lewis,B. B. King,and Bruce Hornsby.
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a group styled after the original Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Formed around 2012,it aims to "restore America to a White,Christian nation founded on God's word".
The Southern Publicity Association was a fund-raising agency whose clients included the Anti-Saloon League,the Ku Klux Klan,the Red Cross. The firm was owned and operated by Edward Young Clarke and Mary Elizabeth Tyler. While working with the Klan during its resurgence in the 1920s,the agency was paid for signing up members. They organized recruiters on the national level who were also paid a commission. Their Klan recruitment operation was largely successful in the Southern United States.
One Hundred Percent American:The Rebirth and Decline of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s written by Thomas R. Pegram chronicles the rise to prominence and fall from grace of the Ku Klux Klan,during the 1920s. This book was published by Ivan R. Dee (Chicago) in 2011.
Women of the Klan:Racism and Gender in the 1920s is a non-fiction book written by Kathleen M. Blee and published by the University of California Press,Berkeley,in 1991.