Join the West Des Moines Historical Society as they host speaker Darcy Maulsby for the Speakers Bureau presentation “Uncover the Secret History of the KKK in Iowa.”

White hoods and robes. Cross burnings. Parades of Ku Klux Klan members on the streets and fairgrounds of Iowa’s small towns and cities. It all seems improbable—and yet it happened repeatedly in countless rural and urban communities across Iowa in the mid-1920s.  While much of this history is shrouded in mystery, and some has been lost, a surprising number of stories, photos and news clippings still exist, when you know where to look. This powerful program takes you back in time to better understand why the “second coming” of the KKK occurred at this point in American history, how the secretive group gained traction in Iowa, why the KKK faded into history (at least in Iowa) prior to the Great Depression, and what this history means for us today.