An Owatonna historian discovers Ku Klux Klan history in Southeast Minnesota

OWATONNA, Minn. (KTTC)—An Owatonna historian plans to share the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Southeast Minnesota at the state Library Association conference Friday at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Nancy Vaillancourt, who is a local historian and librarian, has been researching the KKK for more than 20 years and is now teaching the community about it through her 'Minnesota Hooded History" lessons.

Her interests in the Klan's history were sparked after her grandfather told her that he had seen crosses being burned in Winona County and a resident who called the Owatonna Public Library and wanted to know why Owatonna was such a hotbed of Klan activity in the 1920's.

"He said you will never find anything because it was a secret organization. So, I took that as a challenge and started to see what I could find," Vaillancourt said.

KTTC's Aaliyah Demry traveled to Owatonna to speak with Vaillancourt to learn more about the organization's origins, their impact and take a look at some of the historical artifacts Vaillancourt collected and had some donated to her.

Vaillancourt learned that most counties in Southeast Minnesota had some Klan activity, but Owatonna had such a big reputation because they hosted three different conclave state conventions from 1925 through 1927.

"They had representatives from almost all the counties in this area that would come," Vaillancourt said.

In the 1920's there weren't many minority residents in Southeast Minnesota which geared the Klan's discrimination and racism toward other groups.

"While there were a few blacks, they also were against Jewish immigrants, but here specifically, they were against Catholics," Vaillancourt said. "They burned crosses on the grounds of Catholic churches."

Vaillancourt also said the Klan used religion as a recruitment technique.

"They'd go to protestant churches, march in and they would give money to the minister," she said.

Despite the Klan's existence being swept under the rug today during that period Vaillancourt said they were a very public organization.

The group had community parades and hosted public meetings in Owatonna's Central Park where they would talk about what the Klan stood for.

The Klan's presence in the public eye was short-lived and by the 1930's Vaillancourt said, the organization had died out.

"Some of that was because of national scandals and just people lost interest and felt like there was more hate talk going on than what they wanted to hear," she said.

Vaillancourt is traveling to public libraries around Southeast Minnesota you canto learn more about her program.