We reported on last Sunday's International Peace Walk around Ada Hayden Park sponsored by IRIS International Resource for International Service , which coordinates home-stays and activities for High School Exchange Students. One of those students, Maria Tesalonicha (Icha), came to our studio to give her impressions of the events, her experiences in Iowa, and told us a little about her country of Indonesia. We followed this by a collection of interviews of other exchange students who gave presentations during the walk. Ursula Ruedenberg was on hand to record these. The student's reviews were the epitome of "Iowa Nice."
The second half of the program revealed an ugly side of Iowa history that has been almost completely forgotten -- the Reactionary Movements from 1914-1934, especially the Second Wave of the Ku Klux Klan, which gathered millions of members in the midwest. The guest telling us about these was Michael Luick-Thrams, whose presentation "The Klan: The White Cancer," will be at the Ames Public Library on October 2. A brief description of the relation of the other movements, from the Anti-German reaction starting with the US entry to World War I is available at http://traces.org/pdf/1918_
Originally broadcast 09/26/2018
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