The Williamson County Historical Society held its quarterly membership meeting on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at their museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion

During the meeting, Sam Lattuca, president of the historical society went over projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, discussed new items taken in, upcoming projects and the state of the museum in general.

The guest speaker was local historian, Darrel Dexter, who spoke about the research he did in his latest book release, “Pulling off the Sheets—The Second Ku Klux Klan in Deep Southern Illinois”. The program covered the origins of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil Ware and spoke about how it compared to the second wave of the Klan from the 1920’s and how it impacted Southern Illinois.  Dexter is an engaging speaker and has done extensive research on the topic.

For those of you who missed the program, you can see Darrel’s program that was recorded by a D.A.R. chapter by clicking this link.