Posted on 01/29/2005 4:24:52 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Auction house to start bidding on KKK robes
1/29/2005, 6:13 p.m. ET
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Gary Gray said he felt more like a teacher than auctioneer Saturday, as visitors perused Ku Klux Klan robes and other KKK items ahead of an auction that has attracted a level of interest he's never seen before.
He said a steady stream of people visited the auction house in Howell, about 35 miles east of Lansing and 55 miles west of Detroit, in the hours leading up to the big evening auction. He plans to sell seven KKK robes and other paraphernalia, including buttons, books, movies and a lantern.
"Maybe I have taught more people about history, at least this week, than some schools," the 51-year-old said in a phone interview. "It's not a question of racism. That's intertwined. But it's not the main focus."
Gray said the auction is a sale of history.
But the NAACP branch in neighboring Oakland County and other civil rights groups have blasted it as insensitive. And community and business groups say the auction does nothing to fix the town's racist reputation. A KKK leader lived on a farm outside Howell until his death in 1992.
A local diversity council, which plans to protest peacefully outside the auction, is raising money to buy a robe, then ship it out of town to an anti-racism museum exhibit.
Jerry Gowlan, 46, of Livingston County's Howell Township, said he planned to bid on KKK literature and pamphlets, but said he wasn't a supporter of the Klan. He said the items being sold are a part of history that should be preserved.
"If we as a society don't learn from past mistakes, we repeat them," Gowlan said.
The auction was originally scheduled for Jan. 15, but was delayed after Gray learned it was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Since one robe was consigned for sale in early January, dozens more items have poured into the gallery because of the publicity.
Howell is a growing city of more than 9,000 people in Livingston County, one of Michigan's least diverse counties. About 97 percent of the county's 157,000 residents in the 2000 census were white. Only a half-percent — fewer than 800 people — were black. In Howell itself, only 29 blacks were counted.
It was bad, and actually they are still around, just as the Nazis are still around after all these years, but no one takes them seriously any more. All this fuss is for nothing.
Hiz Honor from Detroit is the only one who appreciates this non-story being turned into news.
The press missed an opportunity to have an honest discussion about race relations. Instead, they turned it into evil intolerant white guy won't burn the robe.
I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this piece of history, ugly as it is.
My Son and I were in Howell last year. It was a very nice place and the people were very friendly.
The best thing possible was to lowball them so they don't make any money off that shit.
Unfortunatly, the idiot politicians didn't let that happen. They went for big bucks. The blue robe went for $5400+
They are. Especially the old timers. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that 99% of us don't think like Miles.
I'm glad you saw our real side of our county.
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