This week, consider making an appointment to tour the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids. The museum, 80 miles north of here, collects racist and stereotypical items — artifacts, if you want to call them that — in an effort to educate the public about hate and ignorance. 

“We try to span the whole spectrum of stereotyping through graphic and material artifacts,” says John Thorp, curator of the museum and a former professor at the university.

Thorp prefers to have people come in groups to the museum because, he says, it allows people to converse about what they're looking at. {mosimage}

A visit to the museum might be a good alternative to an auction planned for this Sunday that will offer for sale, among other things, a Depression-era Ku Klux Klan robe with “patch and hood” and assorted Nazi paraphernalia.

Auctioneer Art Durocher is selling the items this weekend at the Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge on Grand River Avenue in Lansing. The auction, according to a flier, will be “greattt” and promises “fantastic items.”

Durocher wasn't too willing to talk about the Klan and Nazi stuff. All he would say is that he got the items through an estate and is selling them on behalf of a family. He and the family will profit from the items if they are sold, he said.

Aside from the sheet, hood and patch, Durocher is offering “real photos of 1940s concentration camps;” an “original German SS helmet with double decal;” a “Nazi techno standard flag,” and an “LAH Hitler cuff title with original SS RZM tag.” There is a bunch of other Confederate and Nazi nonsense, but the auction is mostly filled with knick-knacks and collectibles like baseball cards, movie posters, Beatles pictures and vintage toys. Would George Harrison  mind his image being sold in the same venue as Nazi trinkets?

Thorp recommends seizing this auction as an opportunity to learn about racism.
“I would hope that the community would take this as an opportunity to learn something about the KKK's past and present functioning, and would stand up and oppose the hatred that's implicit in their activity. I don't think we can ignore the presence of the Klan, at least in an educational setting.”

Most of Michigan probably remembers several years ago when the Klan reared its head in Howell, and the national media descended. Here's the background: The estate of Robert Miles, a former Klan grand dragon (a rank within the group), was auctioned off — including two black Klan robes and a letter supporting the Klan penned by George Wallace, the late Alambam pro-segregationist governor of Alabama (facing death, he repented). Hundreds of Miles' possessions were sold at the auction, according to a New York Times article, and the two Klan robes fetched $6,000.

Durocher wouldn't speculate on how much he thinks his robe will sell for. Thorp said that media attention caused Miles' robes to be sold for such a high price.

The Howell auction was set up by the Old Gray Nash Auction House, which ended up bringing some Klan memorabilia to Mason in 2005. However, the auction was ultimately canceled because someone papered the community with Klan recruitment propaganda.

Vanessa Bishop-Diggs, a Mason resident, remembers trying to stop the Mason auction. She went looking for the owner of the space where Gary Gray was going hold the auction, planning on asking him to stop.

“The day I saw it I said, 'No, not in my town,'” said Bishop-Diggs about reading about the auction in the newspaper.

She met the auction hall owner, David Finetuch, and explained to him her objection to the auction.

“I was saying, 'Please, I don't want to see this in my community,” said Bishop-Diggs. “If it's history, take it to a museum. But frankly, I'm sure that there's enough hoods and sheets around that even museums don't want them.”

Bishop-Diggs suggested that if the Klan and Nazi junk make any money this weekend, the proceeds be donated to funding a class on tolerance.

Durocher seemed to be clear that the auction is a business transaction, not a political rally.

The auction items are “from an estate,” Durorcher said. “I provide a service.”

According to Thorp, the Klan had a large presence in Michigan in the 1920s, as well as around the country. Some historical sources say that the Klan had millions of followers after a rebirth of the group in the early part of the 20th century, the ranks filled with frustrated and impoverished rural whites, a good number of whom were farmers. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says that there are five Klan clubs operating in Michigan in 2008. The Klan has between 5,000 and 8,000 members nationwide.

Klan memorabilia only has value as an educational tool, like in a museum, said Thorp. The Jim Crow Museum contains objects from the pre-Civil War era up to present day. The bulk of the collection spans the 1900s through the 1960s, said Thorp.

And this is why you might consider making an appointment to tour the Jim Crow Museum. Say goodbye to the selling of this dark part of history.

To make an appointment to view the collection, call the museum at (231) 591-5873, or e-mail them at jimcrow@ferris.edu.