Talk:Binghamton, New York/Archives/2013

While not glorious, Binghamton, NY was also the head of the K.K.K.

I have a wealth of information on Fraternal Organizations, and Broome County. If one goes to the locale Roberson Museum, here in Binghamton, NY they will learn that Binghamton was once the headquarters for the Clan. This should be included, but we want to be respectful of Binghamton as a community. So we can provide information, but are looking for others to help word the information. We also have information on B. F. Johnson as it relates to the New Deal, and the town houses built for immigrant. At the same time, Johnson also encouraged Anglo Saxons to buy up all the good land. We will be providing sources very soon. But on a brighter note, we also have some delightful information on local lodges, such as the Order of the Red Man, info on the Rotary Club in the area, as well as Freemasonry. Please let me know if you are interested in helping with these various additions to the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Spiritualistic23 (talk • contribs) 12:23, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I think it would be good to include these topics, as long as they were very well cited, and presented in a sensitive manner as you suggest, and I would be willing to help word the info. I recall there was a book out some years ago about corporate paternalism focused on Endicott Johnson; I might have to look into it. The strategy was to engineer contentment among the workers, many of whom were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, in part to prevent them from organizing unions. Tactics included the construction of housing, parks, etc., but also probably actively discouraging African-Americans from settling and working in the area, which would have involved the businesses, municipalities, and undoubtedly organizations like the Klan. My grandmother lived in the Binghamton area from the 1920's to the 1960's, and basically told me as much. And having lived in Binghamton and Ithaca in the 1990's, and spending time in Elmira, I can tell you that in the latter two cities the African-American communities were much larger and more long-established. Some of the history going back to the Underground Railroad era would be well worth presenting.Bardobro (talk) 12:46, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

I agree that this is important to include, though I don't know how in depth we want to go in this article (since other historical events in the History section are also not much more than brief mentions). One thing to clarify, just to make sure that we're on the same page: Binghamton was the NYS headquarters, never the overall Klan headquarters, and was only so from 1923 to 1927/1928. Semi-relevant, the reference to the KKK was removed from county pamphlets in the early 1990s due to some people being upset at the mention: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/12/nyregion/ku-klux-klan-reference-deleted-from-pamphlet.html Vmanjr (talk) 00:47, 10 July 2013 (UTC)