Alan thought I ought to blog this story...
We were talking about racism in light of former president Carter's moronic statement, and someone suggested - entirely in jest, out of frustration, that since they were going to call us racists, we might as well get white sheets and be done with it. I had to disagree, having a little experience with the white-sheeted cowards in my family's history...
You see, my grandfather took up arms against the Klan, mainly because, well, they were trying to kill him. They view Catholics - and immigrants who don't really speak the language all that well - as barely one step above Jews and blacks. So the whole idea - that we're horrible racists no better than the Klan - that's kind of a sore spot with me.
It's actually one of my favorite stories from my grandfather. The Klan was trying to get a foothold in the north. They had made it as far as NY, and were trying to gain ground in New England after WWII. They had held some rallies, stirred up some shit, tried the age-old intimidation. So Grampy and some of his transplanted paisans grabbed one of the flatbeds from the farm and drove out to a meeting.
Here they are, this bunch of greasy-haired, Catholic, Italian dago immigrants, showing up at a Klan gathering. The Klansmen started making veiled threats. Hurling epithets. Various and sundry comments - "Go back where you came from". Things of that nature. Then they tried to strongarm the group, use a little muscle.
Remember I said these were farmers?
Well, they might have been simple farm boys, but they weren't stupid. They'd brought their squirrel guns, and were not going to be cowed by faceless cowards in sheets. So the leader changed tactics. Starts trying to make this a First Amendment case.
"We have a right to meet here. I should call the police"
It was at this point that my grandfather opened his jacket, revealing his badge.
"This? This-a-my town. You leave. No come back. [pause] Or we keel you. Capiche?"
It would be several decades later before they even tried to come north again... That's my namesake right there. That's the man I'm named after, and my son is named after. My house stands on the land he bought to farm back when he came to this country in the run-up to WWII. His land. My land now.
I'm proud to live here, even if it is in Massa-fucking-chusetts.
That is all.
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19 comments:
Well put. And as much as you would be welcome as a neighbor and friend here in NH, you must continue the fight for freedom in Massachusetts. If everyone left, who would be there to fight the good fight?
Awesome post JayG. It is wonderful to have a heritage like that you can be proud of and pass on to your children too!
AWESOME.
Have you told your son this story yet? I bet he takes such pride in his name!
Knew I liked you for some reason, Jay. Good for your grandpa.
I find it offensive when someone suggests that I'm racist or compares me to the Klan for the simple reason that my grandfather's cousin was lynched by those cowardly bastards. Google the name Leo Frank and read all about it.
Jay,
That was a great story. Unfortunately my ancestors were less than stellar in the race relations department. Being the guy that made the comment about putting on the white sheet, it was made from the stand point of fighting back against Alinsky's rules for radicals. I believe it is rule #5. I do not condone the original purpose of men marching in white sheets, burning crosses, lynchings, etc.
libertyman,
Oh, don't get me wrong. If Mrs. G. came up to me today and said, "It's time to move", I'd have a truck ready to go within the hour...
It just makes it a little more bearable to have a connection to the area.
reputo,
Thanks. This really is one of my very favorite stories, and it's one of the biggest reasons I get so pissed off when I see douchebags like Carter use "racism" as a catch-all for "something we use to shut our opponents up with". We've faced racism. Disagreeing with the President's policies is not racism.
Lissa,
Not yet. I am reluctant to bring up a group such as the Klan at his young age - it's far too easy to turn them into cartoonish monsters that can summarily be dismissed.
I'd rather wait until he's a little older so I can give him some of the background - how the Klan was formed, "Birth of a Nation, etc. Give him the background behind it, then describe what it turned into - in my mind, that makes the horror behind it more *real*. Instead of the Klan being this faceless entity of evil - like we're doing with Nazis - it should be held up as an example of why we don't have a pure democracy.
Because sometimes, "mob rule" is just that...
Ross,
Heh. Thanks.
It's funny, isn't it, that people assume that the North is immune from racism.
It's there, it's just hidden a little better. Yet it simmers, just below the surface, waiting for its chance to slither up from the depths...
Top of the Chain,
You'll notice I didn't mention who said it - that was intentional - because I knew *EXACTLY* what you meant by it. I knew you didn't REALLY mean we should join the Klan, but that that, in the eyes of the perpetual victims, we'd already done so.
And I have no doubt that you'd stand beside Ross or I should the Klan start burning crosses on our lawns.
Especially given the chance for a live-fire exercise... ;)
Fantastic post Jay.
"Or we keel you".
Fantastic.
Good or bad, I'll not hide from what I've said and face the consequence of it. Especially given the chance for said live fire exercise. :)
Ever notice how if we're a bunch of black-hating racists, as Carter et al proclaim, we seem to take an awful lot of glee of some racist asshole Klansmen getting what they deserve.
BTW do you know what gun your Grampy brought with him?
His service revolver, most likely. Might have been one of the 12 gauges. Never thought to ask him, actually.
I imagine in his day Mass was a nicer place to live.
I can't stand those white-sheeted assholes. They tokk the battle flag my ancestors fought under & gave it a bad name.
"..people assume the North is immune from racism"? Southerners don't. Most of us who have traveled Up There have noticed that y'all, as a rule, have much worse race-relations problems than we do.
Good for your grandfather!
Great story, Jay.
Hey, I just remembered, I still haven't mailed that shirt! [sending e-mail to home account for a reminder]
You know, this is a great example of why the Second Amendment has been important, in our lifetimes (well, mine, anyway).
Great story, Jay. Thanks for putting some of your family history out for us to read.
If it ever happens again, good to know you'll have not only a shotgun with a bayonet but a pistol with bayonet to run the Klan off.
Tennessee Bud: Back in the 1920's, the state with the highest proportion of KKK to population was Connecticut.
Google around for some of the pictures and you'll see the biggest KKK parade ever, in front of the State Capitol in Hartford. It stretched for miles.
As a Navy brat in rural north Florida in the late 50's, I learned early to portray myself as Scottish and Presbyterian, rather than Irish and Catholic.
The Baptists didn't know exactly what a Presbyterian was, but they knew it was Protestant and it's what their people were before they left Scotland, so it kept me out of more than a few fistfights.
For reference, I'm as much Scot as Mick, and a backslider from both the Presbyterian and R.C. churches of my parents, but my mother was serious about the bead wrattler thing and I wa always a bit protective of her.
My mother worked at the telephone company days, and the lady watching us until my Dad got home from the base was Mrs. Wilson, a very classy little black lady with three kids and a dead husband.
The lady next door to us was a big, pink, florid complected Cracker woman. Think of a redneck steriotype. She, like most Southerners, was the soul of polite and friendly when dealing with equally pleasant people.
One day, as Mrs. Wilson was leaving, she commented over the fence, "Oh Mrs. Wilson, you might want to walk down K street this afternoon". "The Ku-Ku Klux are out down around Main today".
Mrs. Wilson smiled, thanked her, and allowed that might be a good idea. Then two nice women went on about their business. White sheeted Yankees and considerate Crackers. What a concept.
Always remembered that line. Ku Ku Klux.
Oddly, before the civil war, most abolishonists were in the south. Given the horrors of the reconstruction era, none of which are PC enough to teach in school, it's easy to understand how an organization like that could evolve.
But how clueless does one have to be to wear the same silly get-up today, destroying any semblance of respect for your views while giving a hostile media ammunition to smear every conservative and moderate in the country as an angry, slow-witted sociopath?
Hmmm... is there any way we can modify the regalia of the Kluckers, to show we're the opposite?
I think I'll have to do some research into Klan symbols...
And Jay, I KNEW there had to be a serious reason for you to stay there, instead of moving into the US...
Jay, I'm not sure I understand your comment to me. Leo Frank was a Jew who was lynched in GA. Go to wikipedia and RTWT. It's an interesting story, that didn't even end until the '80s. (deathbed confession by the ONE witness exonerated Leo Frank... and the Governor of GA refused to grant a posthumous pardon clearing his name.)
Anyway, here's a true story for you:
I grew up in a town in Northern NJ, population ~35,000. There were, when I was a teenager, about 64 blacks in the town. ONE in my junior high school. Never thought much of it; I didn't have anything to do with Mark as he was a year ahead of me. I just knew who he was.
Well, for reasons that have nothing to do with the story, my parents sent me to a private high school in another town. One day my mother asks me if I have many black kids in my classes. So help me, I had to mentally picture each one of my classmates before I could answer that - I simply did NOT think of them as black or white or oriental. I'd never been taught to differentiate between them, you see.
Ross,
Comment was just a general comment, from one Yankee to another... *g*
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