I’m the last person to imply there isn’t a vast expanse of history we’re never taught in school, because I know better. There are vast resources even the most dedicated autodidact will never breach. Millions of lives and perspectives making up thousands of years, and it’s all relevant. To that end, however, I’m posting here about caution:
At no time does this article (originally printed by a local history group) say this individual was a part of the vigilante group that was the Ku Klux Klan. If he was a business owner who didn’t want occupying forces interfering with his new business ventures, that’s another matter all together.
The subject heading used by the poster gives the impression of membership, and the comments continue as if they understood that as truth — even though the subject line does not appear to be intended as a statement. It is an interesting article, and well written, and neither should we assume it’s completely wrong, but it’s a local narrative; not intended to function a primary source, or proof. It’s better to be careful how we read things, especially when that reading might promote historical inaccuracies and mistakes of identity.
This individual was arrested with hundreds of others, including other black citizens and those of mixed race, including native. He was also released, along with hundreds of others. He later sued over the exact assumptive leap people are making here. This community, this individual, these events, and this time period can easily be researched, but none of those underlying facts are here. When reading an article like this, it’s useless for us to imply anything further without more research and an educated understanding of the context. It’s very easy to mistake the meaning of a single historical reference with no citation or resource, and many times more easy to mistake the character of events around the social, political, and economic chaos that accompanies war. It’s also a faulty leap to assume that the character or intentions of diverse communities and individuals over thousands of miles and many decades of time were not only similar in feeling or emotion regarding diverse topics, but acted similarly to each other, or to individuals you personally might have known a hundred years later. I’m not trying to discredit anyone’s commentary, simply advocating a minimal amount of academic caution when it comes to history, as well as any unsourced information, whether or not it sounds good or turns out to be correct.