A Century Ago, White Protestant Extremism Marched on Washington
Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times interviews Kelly J. Baker, a writer and scholar with expertise on the intersection of religion and racism. Baker sees parallels between the Capitol insurrection and the 1925 Ku Klux Klan march on Washington, especially in their religious fervor and white nationalism. The KKK, Baker says, “stood for, explicitly, white supremacy and white Protestantism.” She continues, “Some of the differences are kind of interesting. Klansmen went around with hoods and robes, so they are not sharing their identity. One of the interesting things to me about this movement now is the willingness of people to be so public about their beliefs. I think they’ve been emboldened by Trump’s behavior.”