BCHS 96th Annual Meeting
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BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
96th ANNUAL MEETING
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12th, 2026
Turner Hall, New Ulm, MN
with featured speaker Dr. Anita Talsma Gaul presenting “The (Not So) Invisible Empire: The KKK in Southwest Minnesota in the 1920s".
The event begins at 5:30 PM
5:30 PM Social | 6 PM Dinner
7 PM Business meeting with program to follow
Tickets are $35.00
and can be purchased online at https://www.browncountyhistorymn.org/programs-and-education/, in person at BCHS, or by contacting [email protected] or 057-233-2616
Dr. Anita Gaul currently teaches at Minnesota West Community & Technical College. Her work as an historian focuses on local and regional history. Her published works include The Women of Southwest Minnesota and the Great War (2018), Homely Girls and Pretty Babies: A History of the Murray County Fair (2013), and “Living in Perfect Harmony: A Multiethnic Catholic Parish on the Minnesota Prairie, 1881-1910” in the Journal of American Ethnic History (2010). She is the winner of the 2026 Minnesota Board of Trustees Educator of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In a period of rapid change, many Americans felt a sense of nostalgia and fear in the 1920s – nostalgia for an idealized, simpler past and fear that America was in a state of moral decline. This prompted the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, particularly in the Upper Midwest. This “new” Klan (as opposed to the original, post-Civil War Klan) expanded its list of threats to America beyond Black Americans to include Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and “degenerates.” Presenting itself as a respectable, patriotic, Christian organization, the new KKK attracted millions of new members in the 1920s.
Klan activity in Southwest Minnesota began in 1922, peaked around 1924, and virtually disappeared by 1927. Dozens of cross burnings occurred, but there were also Klan rallies, parades, picnics, meetings and speakers.
What attracted rural Minnesotans to this organization? How and why did it become popular in the Midwest? And what accounts for its sudden demise? The brief but intense presence of the KKK in Southwest Minnesota is a hidden chapter in the region’s history and one that merits closer scrutiny.
96th ANNUAL MEETING
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12th, 2026
Turner Hall, New Ulm, MN
with featured speaker Dr. Anita Talsma Gaul presenting “The (Not So) Invisible Empire: The KKK in Southwest Minnesota in the 1920s".
The event begins at 5:30 PM
5:30 PM Social | 6 PM Dinner
7 PM Business meeting with program to follow
Tickets are $35.00
and can be purchased online at https://www.browncountyhistorymn.org/programs-and-education/, in person at BCHS, or by contacting [email protected] or 057-233-2616
Dr. Anita Gaul currently teaches at Minnesota West Community & Technical College. Her work as an historian focuses on local and regional history. Her published works include The Women of Southwest Minnesota and the Great War (2018), Homely Girls and Pretty Babies: A History of the Murray County Fair (2013), and “Living in Perfect Harmony: A Multiethnic Catholic Parish on the Minnesota Prairie, 1881-1910” in the Journal of American Ethnic History (2010). She is the winner of the 2026 Minnesota Board of Trustees Educator of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In a period of rapid change, many Americans felt a sense of nostalgia and fear in the 1920s – nostalgia for an idealized, simpler past and fear that America was in a state of moral decline. This prompted the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, particularly in the Upper Midwest. This “new” Klan (as opposed to the original, post-Civil War Klan) expanded its list of threats to America beyond Black Americans to include Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and “degenerates.” Presenting itself as a respectable, patriotic, Christian organization, the new KKK attracted millions of new members in the 1920s.
Klan activity in Southwest Minnesota began in 1922, peaked around 1924, and virtually disappeared by 1927. Dozens of cross burnings occurred, but there were also Klan rallies, parades, picnics, meetings and speakers.
What attracted rural Minnesotans to this organization? How and why did it become popular in the Midwest? And what accounts for its sudden demise? The brief but intense presence of the KKK in Southwest Minnesota is a hidden chapter in the region’s history and one that merits closer scrutiny.
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Where is it happening?
New Ulm Turner Hall, 102 S State St, New Ulm, MN 56073-3156, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherBrown County Historical Society MN
