Shopping with the Hooded Order: The Ku Klux Klan Retail Landscape in 1920’s Indianapolis, Indiana

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“And in his needy shop a tortoise hung”: Construction Of Retail Environments And The Agency Of Retailers In Historical Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Ku Klux Klan is best-known for theatrical public events and subterranean violence, but in the 1920’s it was Indianapolis, Indiana’s most popular social organization, and it aspired to be viewed as a prosaic feature of everyday social life. The Klan’s effort to normalize itself occurred in part through a network of pro-Klan stores selling commonplace goods and services. Stores celebrating themselves as “100% American” were commonplace features of the retail landscape that tapped into existing racism and approached consumer citizen rights as appropriately restricted to White Protestants. This paper examines Klan marketers in Indianapolis and illuminates their commonalities with the prevailing racism of consumer space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• “And in his needy shop a tortoise hung”: Construction Of Retail Environments And The Agency Of Retailers In Historical Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 290