The
S TUDENT P RINTZ www.studentprintz.com
SERVING SOUTHERN MISS SINCE 1927
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Volume 95 Issue 48
SPECIAL
Documenting the Ku Klux Klan Michelle Holowach Printz Writer For the past 13 years USM alumnus James Edward Bates has been working on a photography project documenting the Ku Klux Klan – a group that is still very much alive and active in the South. On April 18 the photojournalist will bring this piece of history to USM that may be met with surprise, shock and even anger. His revolutionary work has been displayed in France, London and Scotland, but The University of Southern Mississippi will be its first stopping place in America. “People would like to believe that the KKK doesn’t exist, and we don’t have this kind of hate groups in the United States,” said Christopher Campbell, chair of the School for Mass Communication and Journalism. “And so I think
that by having this exhibit on campus, we’re interested in generating conversation and dialogue about the fact that these things do exist and what does that mean.” Growing up in McComb, Miss., Bates was well aware of the racial issues still prevalent in his hometown, and this planted the first seed of interest in beginning his long-term photography project documenting a very terrorizing – yet very real – part of our culture. “I was hoping to find something that I could work on for a very long time to hopefully make a substantial contribution to society,” Bates said. When Bates first entered USM he was majoring in advertisement, but after taking a photography class under now retired photojournalism professor Ed Wheeler, he discovered where his real passion lay.
See KKK, 5
Photos by James Edward Bates
(Above) Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan hold a cross lighting ceremony January 17, 2009, in Taylorsville, Miss. (Main) Mississippi White Knights Imperial Wizard Richard Greene is photographed in rural Mississippi January 17, 2009.