Keith J. Sampson just wanted to read. But last November, reading a book checked out from the IU library system got him in serious trouble with the University.\nSampson, a student and janitor at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, was taking his break from work last fall when he began reading “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” by Todd Tucker. The book recounts two days in May 1924, when a group of Notre Dame students got into a street fight with members of the KKK. The book cover depicts Klansmen burning two crosses.\nSampson, who was reading the anti-Klan book in front of black co-workers, received a letter on Nov. 25, 2007, from the IUPUI Affirmative Action Office. Lillian Charleston, the affirmative action officer, wrote in her letter that after investigating the situation, Sampson’s “repeatedly reading the book” in front of his co-workers “constitutes racial harassment.”\n“One cannot commit racial harassment by reading an anti-Klan history that is in the IU Library system,” Sampson said in an e-mail interview.\nIn the letter, Charleston said Sampson used “extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject.”\nSampson said he felt the racial harassment allegations against him portrayed him as an “Indiana Klansman,” a title which he resents.\n“I detest the Klan,” he said in an e-mail. “So the (Affirmative Action Office) made a big mistake in taking me for a Klansman.”\nIn early February, Sampson received another letter from the Affirmative Action Office, stating the Nov. 25, 2007, letter was not meant to put a limit on his ability to read books \nduring break times.\nCharleston wrote in the letter that the previous letter was to only address the concerns raised by Sampson’s co-workers that he was creating a hostile atmosphere of antagonism.\n“I am unable to draw any final conclusion concerning what was intended by the conduct,” Charleston wrote. “... No such adverse disciplinary action has been or will be taken in connection with the circumstances at hand.”\nCharleston and Joseph M. Scodro, IUPUI’s lawyer, could not be reached by press time.\nSampson said before he was able to go public with the issue, he felt isolated because he didn’t want to be judged as someone who committed racial harassment.\n“I am a very open-minded person on the issue of race,” he said in an e-mail.
‘Context is everything’
Khalil Muhammad, assistant professor of history at IU in Bloomington, said on the face of the issue, people are entitled to read whatever they want to read on their own time, but there are consequences.\n“Historical books that draw on the Klan can be jarring,” he said, “but that’s not grounds upon to impute racist intentions.”\nMuhammad said because the legacy of the Klan is “alive and well” in Indiana, people elsewhere might perceive the book as racist, not historical.\nIU Bloomington is home to the controversial Benton Murals, which depict scenes from Indiana’s history, including a panel named “Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press,” which shows members of the KKK burning a cross. The murals are part of a collection called “Social History of the State of Indiana,” by Thomas Hart Benton. \nAfter debating whether or not the murals should stay in the lecture hall, former IU President Adam Herbert said in a May 12, 2005, Indiana Daily Student article that the murals should stay where they are because it ensures the tragedies of racism will not be forgotten.\nWith racial imagery such as the Benton Murals, Muhammad said it does require context to appreciate the intent for its presentation.\n“Indiana’s connection to the Klan, it is not clear to an observer ... If the same mural showed up at Princeton University, it would be a representation of a racist past,” Muhammad said. “Context is everything.”\nEric Love, director of the Office of Diversity Education, said he doesn’t think IUPUI overreacted in claiming there was racial harassment, but believes the situation is a tough call.\n“Part of harassment, is discomfort of a co-worker,” Love said. “You should know if you’re making your co-workers uncomfortable.”\nLove agreed with Muhammad that depictions of racial and historical pasts, such as the Benton Mural and the book, cause different reactions from different people.\n“The images of the Klan elicit a strong reaction in people,” he said, “and not just in African-Americans, but in Jews (and) Catholics.”
Is it over?
Despite the IUPUI Affirmative Action Office dropping the racial harassment claim, Sampson said he doesn’t feel the situation is over.\nSampson said Scodro, the lawyer, told the author, Todd Tucker, that Sampson was being investigated by the IUPUI Human Resources Department and that there is “more to the story,” suggesting that an additional investigation could be taking place behind the scenes.\n“If there is more to the story, then it is being discussed behind closed doors and in secret,” Sampson said in an e-mail. \nScodro was not available to comment by press time.\nEven after all of this, Sampson is only looking for an apology he feels he deserves. But he feels the University will never give him one.\n“The IUPUI Affirmative Action Office made a fallacious lapse of judgement in confusing an Indiana scholar’s history book, on the Indiana KKK, with actual Klan propaganda,” Sampson said.
