Detroit mechanic hid life as clandestine Klansman

[fujiyama]

http://detnews.com/article/20090730/OPINION01/907300347/Detroit-mechanic-hid-life-as-clandestine-Klansman

Jim Burwell worked to heal the racial wounds that festered in the wake of the 1967 riot -- or so it seemed. The squat, bespectacled white man from Ohio, who ran a truck repair shop in the Cass Corridor from the early 1960s until his death in 1990, had a reputation as a color-blind businessman who gave back.

He drove thousands of black children to church services and field trips in his bus. He ran a jobs program for ex-convicts that was partially funded by a civil rights group. African-American, Catholic and Jewish-owned newspapers praised his efforts.

The Detroit Black Panther Party sometimes came to him for money. He gave generously.

But Burwell had a secret that stayed buried with him until a box of weathered documents discovered in his old garage revealed the other half of his bizarre life story:

The civil rights champion who drove the church bus also wore the robes of the Ku Klux Klan.
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I didn't think this was breaking news but the story is fascinating....Do you know people that keep their racism hidden and revealed in the company of members of their same race?

[BlooInBloo]

1. I know dozens upon dozen of white folks who say things only among white folks...

That they would never say if brown folks were present.

The linked story is pretty extreme, though.

[realisticphish]

2. very interesting

I have a lot of questions I wish I could ask him

[ColbertWatcher]

3. At the time of his death was Burwell a klansman, or did he used to be? n/t

[TlalocW]

4. That's weird but...

I've known a few people whose interests have become obsessions to the point they do something that would seem off-kilter. I could see that maybe he felt he could be some sort of double agent, infiltrating the Klan to see how they operated.

That's my PollyAnna side, of course.

TlalocW

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Damn, that's a weird story.

I know a lot of racist people, but I don't think any of them would give money to the Black Panthers.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. That's why I'm wondering when he was a klansman.

Maybe he used to be and just kept the robes?

[LuvNewcastle]

7. That is a possibility. Just like some

Germans kept their old Nazi uniforms after the war.