I came upon this picture on the internet yesterday, and for the past twenty-four hours, I’ve been trying to define what I think/how I feel about it.
My source for the picture said it was taken in Cañon City, Colorado in the 1920s. The owner of the amusement park was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and invited his fellow Klansmen for a day at the park.
I have a friend who disputes that. He claims the story is a fake, and the picture is actually a still from a scene cut from the Mel Brooks’ movie, History of the World- Part One.
Either way, I guess the main lesson I take from this photo is how insidious hatred and bigotry can be. We think of the KKK in terms of cross burnings and hangings, when the majority of their time had to have been spent in ordinary, everyday pursuits.
Still, how odd to think of them having a harmless good time.
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