Hoisington Public Library will host a free presentation and discussion titled “William Allen White and the KKK in Kansas” at 10 a.m. on July 11. The program, offered by Beverley Olson Buller, will explore White’s resistance to the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas and how his newspaper leadership informed his opposition as the KKK’s presence grew after World War I.
The presentation draws connections to White’s awareness of Klan influence in Kansas while he served as editor of the Emporia Gazette. It also describes a campaign in the 1920s in which White traveled extensively to deliver speeches focused on expelling the KKK. It further notes that Kansas became the first state in the union to outlaw the Ku Klux Klan.
Buller is identified as an author and educator, and as chairman emeritus of the William Allen White Children’s Book Awards selection committee in Emporia. The event is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau, and the library encourages community members to attend. For more information, contact the library at 620-653-4128.