WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana will be featured on an episode of “History Detectives” this evening at 8 p.m. for the role the Ku Klux Klan.

The PBS show will feature Cornelius “Neil” Bynum, an associate professor of history at Purdue University who specializes in 20th century African American History. He will answer questions about the role the Ku Klux Klan played in Indiana. He will also be speaking about an old musical record produced by the Klan in Indiana.

“Indiana played a key role in the revival of the Klan outside of the South during the 20th century,” Bynum said.

Bynum recorded the television segment in the spring at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.

He is not sure which parts of his interview will appear in the final show, but during the interview he talked about the role the Klan played in Indiana politics and how the Klan’s focus grew from African Americans to immigrants and religious groups such as Catholics and Jews.

Bynum also is the author of “A. Philip Randolph and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” and he is working on his next book “West Indian Radicals and New Negro Opposition to Jim Crow, 1919 – 1939.” He teaches classes on the black civil rights movement, African Americans and the 20th century labor movement, and African American thought and ideology.

Source: Purdue University