Right in Michigan's Grassroots by JoEllen Vinyard

Michigan’s archives are a treasure trove for researchers, Vinyard notes, and made even more useful with the inclusion of knowledgeable staff at places like the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library. She grew up and lived in Nebraska until migrating to Michigan “following a husband, graduate school, and a job.” While not condoning their actions in any way, the author manages, in trying to understand why these people would come together in grassroots efforts, to shine light on some of the darkest parts of Michigan’s past.Ī professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, Vinyard is the author of a number of books on the state’s history, and brings not only a scholar’s perspective, but also an outsider’s.

Town bakers, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and next-door neighbors were all involved in throwing on a white sheet late at night to try to eradicate immigrants from an area. While she expertly uses a level of academic detachment to describe the motivations and actions of these organizations-which many would decry as hateful and destructive-the author also highlights the fact that these groups were made up of ordinary citizens. Vinyard digs deep into the factors that fostered the rise of groups like the Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society, anti-Communists, and the Michigan Militia. Throughout the twentieth century, Michigan was home to nearly every political movement that emerged from grassroots origins, notes JoEllen Vinyard in her compelling, lively history. The University of Michigan Press ( July 2011)

Right in Michigan's Grassroots by JoEllen Vinyard