KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In the back storage area of the Black Archives of Mid-America, among rows of shelves, sits a box containing a chilling and eerie sight to behold: a set of Ku Klux Klan robes, complete with a pointy hood.
“We do not put that robe on display,” says Carmaletta Williams, the archives’ CEO. “If someone wants to see it, we will show it to them.”
Though the Klan emblem itself is kept out of site, the museum does not hide that bit of history in its messages, she said. “We must include (the Klan) when we talk about our history and the creation of a strong Black community,” she says.
