The Hoisington Public Library will host a free community presentation titled “William Allen White and the KKK in Kansas” at 10 a.m. on July 11. The program will feature a presentation and discussion by Beverley Olson Buller and is designed for community members to attend.
According to the Great Bend Tribune, the talk will place William Allen White’s anti-Klan views in the context of the Ku Klux Klan’s re-emergence in the 1920s and its growth in Kansas after World War I. As editor of the Emporia Gazette, White saw the increasing presence of the KKK in Kansas, and the presentation outlines White’s political response—during a campaign in which he traveled more than 2,700 miles and delivered 104 speeches aimed at expelling the KKK.
Buller is described as an author and educator, and chairman emeritus of the William Allen White Children’s Book Awards selection committee in Emporia. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas, and the library can be reached at 620-653-4128 for more information.