Howell’s undeserved KKK reputation will be focus of ‘Stateside’ segment

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Howell’s longstanding – and undeserved – reputation as a Ku Klux Klan hotbed will be the focus of a special segment on Michigan Radio’s “Stateside” program, set to air Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Buddy Moorehouse, a blogger for the Livingston Post who recently wrote about the origins of Howell’s KKK reputation, will be the guest of “Stateside” host Cynthia Canty. In this piece he wrote about former KKK Grand Dragon Robert Miles, Moorehouse made the case that Howell’s lingering reputation is totally undeserved.

The “Stateside” program will air at 3 and 10 p.m. Tuesday on Michigan Radio’s statewide network, which includes WUOM 91.7 FM in southeast Michigan, WFUM 91.1 FM in Flint, and WVGR 104.1 FM in West Michigan. Most of Livingston County can listen to the program live on 91.7 FM.

You can also listen online at michiganradio.org, and the program will be available as a podcast after it airs. Michigan Radio is part of the NPR network.

Moorehouse wrote that Howell’s reputation as a KKK hotbed is solely because of Robert Miles, who has been dead for 25 years. Miles held cross burnings and other hate rallies at his farm in Cohoctah Township, attracting Klansmen, Nazis and other white supremacists from across the country. Even though Cohoctah Township is about 15 miles from Howell, media members and others began to report that this activity was taking place “in Howell,” thus the reputation was born.

When Miles died, the Klan activity died with him. Nobody else has been holding cross-burnings and hate rallies, and the Southern Poverty Law Center confirms that there’s no active KKK chapter anywhere in Livingston County. Still, Howell continues to fight this reputation.

Moorehouse said he’s hopeful the “Stateside” conversation will help put that reputation to rest.

“As we saw in Charlottesville, the hatred and ignorance that Bob Miles represented is still alive and well, and we need to focus our attention on that,” Moorehouse said. “And as we do that, we need to leave Howell’s name out of this. Howell’s a warm, wonderful, welcoming place, and it has no connection whatsoever to the Ku Klux Klan. We need to let people know that.”

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The Livingston Post is the only locally owned, all-digital information and opinion site in Livingston County, Mich. It was launched by award-winning journalists who were laid off from the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by Gannett Co. Inc. in 2009.