Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Ku Klux Klan (KKK) medal acquired by Sanford Vandifer Rogers Jr. in Spartanburg County, South Carolina during the 1920s while he was a member. Sanford was born in 1864. His father, Sanford senior, was a Confederate soldier who died in a Union prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York just before he was born. The KKK promoted the idea that whites are inherently superior to other races. This idea was supported by the racially motivated, pseudoscientific American eugenics movement, which attempted to establish a hierarchy of races. These racist ideas were used to justify the exclusion of African Americans from their inherent rights and the creation of segregation and sterilization laws. Before Nazi Germany, the United States led the world in forced sterilizations. The United States’ Jim Crow and sterilization laws, as well as the eugenics program, served as precedents and helped enable passage of the Nazi Nuremberg Laws which excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having relations with persons of “German or related blood.”
- Date
-
received:
1920-1928
- Geography
-
received:
South Carolina
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Descendants of Sanford Vandifer Rogers, Jr.
- Markings
- front, center, engraved : MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING
front, center, punched out : KKK - Contributor
-
Subject:
Sanford V. Rogers Jr.
- Biography
-
Sanford Vandifer Rogers Jr. (1864-1928) was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina to Sanford senior and Demy Ann Pearson Rogers. Sanford senior was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War who died in a Union prisoner of war camp in Elmira New York. Sanford Jr. married Selena Bagwell and the couple had nine children. Sanford lived in Spartanburg South Carolina his entire life.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Awards
- Category
-
Medals
- Object Type
-
Medals--United States (lcsh)
- Genre/Form
- Medals.
- Physical Description
- Thin, circular, brass medal with cut out letters in the center and a line of engraved text above and below. An additional line of text is engraved along the curved, bottom edge. A small circular hole with slight green discoloration is at the top. The surface is smooth and the medal has a plain back.
- Dimensions
- overall: | Depth: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Diameter: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm)
- Materials
- overall : brass
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Geographic Name
- Spartanburg County (S.C.) South Carolina
- Corporate Name
- Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by the descendants of Sanford Vandifer Rogers Jr.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:11:17
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn619899
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- By Appointment
- Request 21 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Request to See This Object
Contact Us
Also in Sanford Vandifer Rogers, Jr. collection
The collection consists of American Ku Klux Klan pamphlets, medal and hood relating to the experiences of Sanford Vandifer Rogers Jr. in South Carolina during the 1920s.
Date: approximately 1920-1928
Sanford Vandifer Rogers, Jr. collection
Document
Collection of American Ku Klux Klan pamphlets which were acquired by Sanford Vandifer Rogers, Jr. while he was a member of the KKK in Spartanburg Country, South Carolina in the 1920s. Pamphlets are entitled "The Klan Spiritual" by Dr. H.W. Evans (1924, two copies); "The Obligation of American Citizens to Free Public Schools (undated); "The Practice of Klanishness" (1924); "The Jewish Problem in the United States" by Rev. Sam H. Campbell (undated); and "Principles and Purposes of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" (undated).
Hood
Object
Handmade KKK hood worn by (and possibly made by) Sanford Vandifer Rogers, Jr. The hood was homemade out of a flour sack.
