Dubuque: A Shady Past, Perhaps Perhaps

Although Dubuque is not my hometown, since going to school here for the last four years I've grown incredibly interested in Dubuque's history- particularly some of its more controversial or "shady" past. I've long heard from professors or other Dubuque natives about some of the "culture" type wars - such as the Irish Catholic church vs. the German Catholic church, but something that I found particularly shocking is Dubuque's history of racial discrimination/prejudices. I learned a few years ago that Dubuque used to have a very active Ku Klux Klan group that had marches and burned crosses. I also learned that after the Civil War when former slaves were being shipped up North, the citizens of Dubuque refused to let any black people off the trains that stopped in Dubuque. However, there are other instances in Dubuque where the people have been quite forward in their treatment towards other races.

I think that my interest would be narrowed to focus more on the Klan presence in Dubuque. I would try to research this group by going through old Newspapers most likely. I would also try to talk to older citizens of Dubuque and also younger citizens to see what they can remember about the Klan's activities. I would also try, somehow I haven't quite figured yet, to maybe talk to someone who is supposedly a member of the Klan. Herein lies the biggest obstacle when doing research on this particular topic, Klan membership is supposed to be secret. People most likely won't want to talk too much about their involvement. Also, a lot of people won't want to talk about Dubuque's association itself with the Klan just because it isn't pleasant and it looks poorly on this community. I feel like a lot of people would rather just bury this part of their history under the rug instead of acknowledge its reality. This is something that Kammen focuses on in his writing. He says that most people don't like to discuss the negative aspects of a community because those things aren't pleasant. Kammen says, however, that "This looking on the bright side of things might be a good philosophy for individuals, but it is not always the best way to tell the complete story when we apply it to the past" (Kammen, 5). Some people might want to pretend that the Klan didn't/doesn't exist in Dubuque's past or present, but that simply isn't the truth and it shouldn't be ignored.

While I think this is already a fairly interesting topic, I would still try to write this as entertainingly as possible. I would want everything to be factual, but I think I would try to write it sort of like an E! True Hollywood Story. I would want a lot of personal testimony. I just think this kind of story that touches on secrets and scandals would do best in this kind of format. I would draw a bigger audience because of its entertainment value as well as its factual relevance. The juicier it's presented, the better the story seems. I would want this to be a dry history writing that we are forced to read in some textbook.

Just a side note, Wikipedia totally has a "History of Dubuque" page. FYI.