The Mary Buie Musuem at Ole Miss is a very unassuming place to showcase a exhibit like “Site/Possession” by William Christenberry. I only knew the exhibit was centered around the Ku Klux Klan and there were guards. I was intrigued, but I thought nothing else of it until I went to visit the exhibit on Tuesday, August 26. When I walked through the curtain into the instillation piece, I immediately tensed up. Eyes in hooded cloaks stared at me from every angle and my skin crawled as if the hooded figures were actually in the room with me. I was terrified and felt as if I were suffocating. All I could think of was hate, not directed toward the KKK, but what the KKK embodied. The whole experience made me feel awful and I felt awful for the rest of the day.
One of the main things I heard about William Christenberry was that he encountered a hooded Klansmen in a courthouse and as soon as Christenberry saw the man’s eyes he turned and left as fast as he could. From that moment on, the KKK took hold of Christenberry’s life in a way that can only be described as all consuming and obsessive.
The ethical concern that struck me most is that as much as some may hate to admit it, for a true Southerner, the Ku Klux Klan is regrettably apart of a Southerners identity. Unfortunately the KKK has become a part of our lives and although it is phasing out, Christenberry has reminded the public in a very blunt way. His effort is appreciated and hard to swallow, but is it needed? I’m not saying to forget history, but somethings shouldn’t be dwelt on.
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