Minnesota is the State known for its ten thousand lakes but in the 20th century, it was also known as the hotbed for racism. It seems that local inhabitants of the State resisted the idea of integration with people of other races especially African-Americans, Jews, and Europeans who are non-Protestants.
Even at the dawn of the 21st century, there are still traces of bigotry in the State as evidenced by a recent spate of hate crimes particularly spray painting of racist slogans against blacks. On a wall outside the Mediterranean Restaurant and Grocery in St. Cloud, Minnesota a spray-painted racial slur reads, “Get out of St. Cloud Nigger” (see African American Registry, 2005).
The reason for such an outburst can be traced as far back as the 19th century gaining momentum in the early part of 1900 and then declining in the latter part of the 20th century. This paper will present an overview of racism in the State of Minnesota with a particular interest in the Klu Klux Klan.
Racism
Racism is rooted in ideology for there is no physical evidence or any natural law that makes a convincing argument that there are groups of people superior to others. In the case of Minnesota, the idea came from leading universities of the time arguing that there is indeed a hierarchy of the races in the following order: 1) Northern Europeans; 2) central Europeans; 3) Southern Europeans; 4) Asians; 5) American Indians; 6) Africans (Hudelson & Ross, p.95).
Duluth
The above-mentioned theory did not stay long in the academic world and it seeped right through Minnesota and affected the way towns are organized and how their inhabitants organized themselves into different groups. In Duluth, Minnesota racial discrimination dictated how people of each race should interact with each other, “…to a greater or lesser extent and in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, this sense affected people’s lives” (Hudelson & Ross, p.95).
Klu Klux Klan
The Klan or KKK was a prominent fraternal organization in Minnesota and was known as the Invisible Empire in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes (Chalmers, p. 149). The Klan needed no ideology to encourage them in their extreme race discrimination. Their motivation lies beyond university theories and lies in the fact that the South was laid waste after the Civil War and these vigilantes are about to set things right.
And so a new breed of terror was sweeping through Minnesota and it was especially traumatic for African-Americans. It is just fortunate for them that the Klu Klux Klan was dealt a severe blow even before it became powerful enough to control the whole nation. The reason for their eventual demise was summarized by Chalmers who wrote, “The very dynamics of Klan organization dictated violence, which initially brought respect and members, but eventually created revulsion. The godly came to realize that the Klan was not” (, p. 4).
Conclusion
The preceding discussion offered a limited view of racism in Minnesota. It shows the danger of promulgating an idea based on bias and insecurity. There is no need to find scientific evidence for the superiority of a favored race. Life is complicated enough to give room for such corrupt ideas.
One only has to look at the racial discrimination that occurred in the towns of Minnesota between 1900 to 2000 to realize the negative impact of such views. But the more convincing argument is the rise and fall of the Klu Klux Klan. Yet even if the KKK’s power was seriously reduced in the latter part of the 20th century, it is not easy to kill an idea and so even today traces of bigotry can still be found in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.
Works Cited
African American Registry. 2002. Racism Continues in Minnesota! 2007. Web.
Chalmers, David. Hooded Americanism. New York: F. Watts Publishing, 1981.
Hudelson, Richard & Carl Ross. By the Ore Docks: A Working People’s History of Duluth. MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.