About

"Exalted Cyclops" of Champaign County and family - Champaign County Historical Archives

This webpage highlights a mostly forgotten part of our local history in Champaign-Urbana and Champaign County generally. The information within was acquired from local newspaper archives, local historical archives, local research and local historians. The content may be disturbing and use archaic and offensive language of the time.

The history of the second Klan nationally and locally is often far more complicated and messy than most people realize. Simple narratives, especially politically motivated ones, can be hard to mesh with the depictions in primary sources. Below is a brief overview of the local Klan during this time. We will be expounding on these and other topics in future posts and pages on this website.

This project is to make this information freely available to the public in a non-partisan and objective way. It is being done with the help of volunteers, library and archive staff, and other assistance for free. There is no funding or advertising (other than some from the 1920s newspaper clippings).