Edward Ball

Reckoning with the History of Whiteness in New Orleans: A conversation with author Edward Ball and historian Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley
Wednesday, March 31, 6:00 pm CST

Event Video

The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and A Studio in the Woods present a virtual discussion with National Book Award winner and 2016-18 Gulf South Writer in the Woods Edward Ball and Tulane historian Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley about Ball’s book, Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy, which addresses painful truths of America’s racist past and present, engages with the vibrant national discussion of anti-racism, and serves as an anti-racist history of white supremacy in Louisiana. The program includes opening remarks by Dr. Anneliese Singh, Tulane University Associate Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development and Chief Diversity Officer. 

Presented by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, housed within the Tulane School of Liberal Arts, and A Studio in the Woods, a program of the Tulane ByWater Institute, with co-sponsors Amistad Research Center and Garden District Book Shop.

Event Objectives

  • Empower contemporary anti-racist work by illuminating the often purposefully obscured history of white supremacy in order better to understand its patterns, insidious power, and crippling effects.

  • Educate our community about New Orleans’ role in the global construction of theories of race and its intertwined histories of white supremacist and racist mob violence, publications, and governance, and of anti-racist, Black-led organizing, publications, and governance.

  • Respond to the call to expose Tulane’s white supremacist history by educating ourselves about Tulane’s history and relationship to the global construction of race theory, as host of lectures by “race philosophers” instrumental in codifying and popularizing constructs of race, and to white radical terrorism, as meeting hall for local white vigilante terrorists who participated in mob violence, government insurrection, and massacre, which is detailed in this book.

  • Explore how 19th century organized white violence relates to white nationalism and violence today and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

Event Video

FAQ:

Due to the volume of questions we’ve received related to the original iteration of this event, we have developed a FAQ for those interested in learning more.

What is GSWW?

Gulf South Writer in the Woods (GSWW), a program of A Studio in the Woods (ASITW) and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS), supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region. The program was launched in 2016, and a new GSWW is selected every two years. The Gulf South Writer in the Woods which now offers an 18-month fellowship with a $5,000 stipend and six-week residency at A Studio in the Woods and is responsible for participating in a public Residency Dinner, giving a lecture on Tulane’s campus, and leading a community-engaged event during their term. To learn more about our other Gulf South Writer in the Woods recipients, please visit the NOCGS Gulf South Writer in the Woods webpage.

Who is Edward Ball?

Edward Ball is an American author of six books of history and biography. He has been working to uncover and interrogate his family’s history as slaveholders and white supremacists since the 1990s. His first book, Slaves in the Family, an account of his family’s history as slaveholders in South Carolina, received the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1998. In six books of narrative nonfiction, Edward has told stories about film history, slavery, gender assignment, genetics, Black family history, and white supremacy. Edward has taught at Yale University and the State University of New York. He has been awarded fellowships by the Radcliffe Institute, at Harvard, and the New York Public Library, and is the recipient of a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. To view a sampling of previous talks with Ball, please visit the Edward Ball website.

Is Edward Ball a klansman?

No. Edward Ball is not a klansman, nor was he ever a klansman or a white nationalist. His maternal great great grandfather Constant Polycarp Lecorgne participated in antebellum, Confederate, and Reconstruction-era militarized and vigilante racial terrorism. Several of his ancestors, on his maternal and paternal sides, enslaved people of African descent. His book explores the violence of these ancestors through a strongly critical lens.

Why was Edward Ball selected as the inaugural Gulf South Writer in the Woods?

ASITW and NOCGS selected Edward Ball because of the wide impact of his earlier book Slaves in the Family and our understanding that the histories of the global construction of race theory, 19th century white terrorism in New Orleans, and the 19th century Black civil rights movement in New Orleans are all still widely underknown. The selection committee, made up of representatives from ASITW and NOCGS, felt that Ball’s research and storytelling would help make these important, intertwined, and timely narratives accessible to wide audiences.

During his tenure as the pilot Gulf South Writer in the Woods, ASITW and NOCGS hosted Edward Ball in several lectures on the impacts of slavery and a workshop he co-designed and led with Greg Osborn, New Orleans Public Library Archivist, called Inheriting Whiteness: A Workshop About Slavery, Race Mixing, and White Ancestors in Family History.

What is Life of a Klansman: A Family History of White Supremacy about?

Life of a Klansman is an anti-racist microhistory focused on Ball’s great great grandfather, Polycarp Constant Lecourgne. Microhistory is a historical method that takes as its object of study the interactions of individuals and small groups with the goal of isolating ideas, beliefs, practices, and actions that shed light on larger social movements and issues. Through his focus on one ancestor, Ball tells the story of white supremacy in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the country at large. In the book, Ball tracks the construction of race theory, campaigns of white terrorism, and the history of Black-led resistance to that violence. Along the way, Ball reckons with his personal relationship to this history—addressing how recent this past is and how it lives in his body, imagination, and reality today. In effect, within this personal strand, he stands in for the millions of white people in the United States who are contemporary descendants of the Klu Klux Klan and for all people who benefit from white privilege. He interviews multiple descendants of the 19th century Black-led civil rights movement to better understand the lasting impacts of klan violence today. Throughout the book, Ball reckons personally with these intertwined histories and their implications for our nation today.

Is Tulane University part of this story?

Tulane University appears throughout Life of a Klansman. In the 1850s, Tulane—then named the University of Louisiana’s School of Medicine—was the premiere white academic setting in New Orleans and home to faculty and national-circuit lecturers who were instrumental in creating and popularizing cruel, pseudo-scientific codifications of race and false representations of human biology that fueled white supremacy, violence, and terrorism. (For further detail, see Dr. Josiah Nott, Tulane professor of anatomy and author of Indigenous Races of the Earth, pp. 97-101, and Dr. Samuel Cartwright, “race philosopher” circuit lecturer, pp. 107-108.) During Reconstruction, on Commons Street, Tulane—while still named the University of Louisiana—was the meeting hall for one of the councils of the white vigilante terrorist group Knights of the White Camellia. Today, there is a growing call for our institution to expose its white supremacist history, and we intend for this event to add to the collective working knowledge of this history.

Why was this book discussion rescheduled?

The Life of a Klansman book discussion was originally scheduled for August 2020 and had more than 240 registrants. The event was timed to coincide with the national release of the book and organized in accordance with the intentions outlined in the Event Objectives section above. However, these intentions were not adequately publicized and many Tulane community members raised concerns related to the event, including but not limited to its timing, framing, publicity, and potentially harmful impact. We decided that rescheduling the event would give us time both to frame it in better accordance with our intended goals and to organize the event more rigorously to achieve those goals. In our planning for the rescheduled event, we have tried to address concerns brought up by our community. From multiple correspondences and meetings, we understand that our choice to host the event remains controversial and that our campus community holds a wide spectrum of opinions as to whether it is healing or harmful to host critical discussions about the histories of and ongoing presence of white supremacy in our lives, institution, and the world writ large.

Why should a descendent of a KKK member be leading a conversation about whiteness and white violence and domestic terrorism right now?

As an academic institution, we believe the conversation about the history of white supremacy in our institution, city, and nation should be ongoing. The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 makes clear the need for us to understand from where—psychologically and logistically— white radical terrorism erupts and is sustained and maintained. The Civil War and Reconstruction-era insurrection and sedition detailed in Ball’s book serves as an historical precedent to what unfolded this year and illuminates what made conditions ripe for this sort of terrorism. By Ball’s estimate, 50% of white people in this country have ancestors who belonged to white supremacist groups at some point in its history, and Ball provides a powerful example for how this large portion of the population can begin to face and reckon with their own families’ participation in anti-Black violence. This recognition and self-knowledge is an anti-racist act and a vital step towards undoing systems of oppression.

Is Edward Ball profiting off of his family’s history of racism?

Edward Ball is the author of two books that chronicle the histories and living legacies of racism and racialized violence in his family. These first-person projects and their distribution draw out questions about whether it is ethical for white scholars and artists to profit, financially or in reputation, from anti-racist work. What does it mean for white people to earn compensation or stature for their time, skillsets, and energy attempting antiracist work? This is a complex question that has been and will

continue to be addressed by anti-racist organizers. As acknowledged above, our groups chose to support Edward Ball in the creation of this manuscript.

What is the value of this book?

These two responses to the book resonated for our teams:

"In this compelling narrative of the life of a klansman, Edward Ball reckons with the history of whiteness that has shaped the U.S. and which is his personal inheritance. Ball confronts the violence and hatred at the foundation of white authority and privilege by recounting his great-great-grandfather’s worldview and acts of brutality. It is easy to recoil from the ugliness documented in these pages; much more difficult is the task of acknowledging that murder and terror are the bedrock of the nation. Life of A Klansman is a must-read, now more than ever." — Saidiya Hartman, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

“Ball’s direct but nimble prose cuts the contours of Constant Lecorgne’s life and grapples simultaneously with the coherent outline and structure that whiteness imposes . . . Though he claims Life of a Klansman is an investigation of his matrilineal ancestor, Ball has engineered another kind of coup: a public reckoning with white supremacy . . . Ball’s book is about the postbellum US and the US in 2020; it’s looking both directions at once.” — Walton Muyumba, The Boston Globe

How can I directly address questions and concerns to the organizers of this event?

Please email info@astudiointhewoods.org (ASITW team) and gulfsouth@tulane.edu (NOCGS team) with questions and concerns regarding this event.

How can I learn more about the presenting organizations?

Please begin by visiting our websites and reach out if you would like to connect with our teams. A Studio in the Woods www.astudiointhewoods.org

New Orleans Center for the Gulf South www.liberalarts.tulane.edu/programs/nocgs Amistad Research Center www.amistadresearchcenter.org

Garden District Book Shop www.gardendistrictbookshop.com

Life of a Klansman A talk by author Edward Bell

Tuesday, March 6, 2018
7:00 pm First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans

Writer Edward Ball tells the story of a foot soldier in the race battles that erupted in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana during the period after the Civil War. This talk is one part history, one part family memoir.

As racial violence returns to public view today, Edward Ball explores the birth of tribal white identity through the eyes of his great-grandfather, a man active in the founding generation of the Ku Klux Klan. Whiteness has a history that is hidden and intentionally forgotten. Edward Ball seeks to revive and explore it.

Edward Ball has written about the legacies of slavery in the Deep South. His book “Slaves in the Family” tells the story of his family who were major slaveholders for 170 years, as well as the stories of ten of the African American families they once enslaved.

This lecture is the third public event in the inaugural Gulf South Writer in the Woods program, a two-year study with Edward Ball. The program is co-sponsored by A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and includes a residency, public lectures and a workshop exploring race, family and place.

For more information, please contact Regina Cairns at the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at rcairns@tulane.edu or (504) 314-2854 and visit us at our website: tulane.edu/NOCGS.

Inheriting Whiteness

The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, A Studio in the Woods, and the New Orleans Public Library will host the workshop Inheriting Whiteness: A Workshop About Slavery, Race Mixing, and White Ancestors in Family History.

*SPACE FOR THE WORKSHOP IS LIMITED. PLEASE APPLY TO BE CONSIDERED.

Date: Saturday, March 3, 2018
Time: 9 am–12 pm (workshop)
12–1 pm (lunch and conversation)
Location: New Orleans Public Library, Algiers
3014 Holiday Drive, New Orleans 70131

Description:

Inheriting Whiteness: A Workshop About Slavery, Race Mixing, and White Ancestors in Family History offers an opportunity to look at challenging facts of family and racial identity and to learn more about one’s own ancestry through research. People of African and European descent are welcome. In this three-hour genealogy workshop, participants explore subjects like slaveholding or enslavement, race mixing, and the role of whiteness in family memory. In the first half of the workshop, participants will be asked to share a brief family story that they have begun to research or wish to investigate. In response, workshop leaders Edward Ball and Greg Osborn will offer guidance and research advice about archives and genealogical methods. During the workshop’s second half, participants will discuss the promise and troubles that come with “difficult” stories of race in family history. After the workshop, participants are invited to share lunch and further conversation. In the South, monuments are coming down, while nationally, stories of race and memory compete for our attention. Inheriting Whiteness, a workshop in genealogy, offers to spread understanding through the shared project of storytelling in family history.

The workshop Inheriting Whiteness will be led by nationally-known author Edward Ball (Slaves in the Family) and by archivist and genealogist Greg Osborn of the New Orleans Public Library’s Louisiana Division. Inheriting Whiteness is sponsored by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University, A Studio in the Woods, A Program of Tulane University, the New Orleans Public Library’s Louisiana Division/City Archives and Special Collections, and the Algiers Regional Library.

Inheriting Whiteness is a workshop in two parts, followed by lunch.

Part 1 / Sharing Family Stories (90 min.)
What is the “hard stuff” to investigate or talk about in your family history?
Part 1 of the workshop is a story-sharing circle led by archivist and genealogist Greg Osborn of the New Orleans Public Library’s Louisiana Division. Each participant will be asked to share a brief (three-minute) family story that they are investigating. Perhaps it is about the role of slavery, or the behavior of white ancestors, or about mixed-race forebears in the family tree. Workshop leaders will offer feedback and guidance for further research in available archives. By sharing personal histories and by building common questions, the circle of understanding about race and family memory grows.

Part 2 / The Dialogue (90 min.)
How do some stories in the family tree stir emotions—such as those about race mixing, or white supremacy, or slavery and Jim Crow—and what is to be done with those stories? What is the meaning, for us today, of slaveholding or enslavement in the family past?
In Part 2, author Edward Ball leads a conversation about themes and family histories that emerge during the Story Circle. Edward Ball and Greg Osborn together support a dialogue about the racial inheritance that whites and blacks share and seek ways to process it. The aim of the workshop is to help participants claim family stories that remain hidden or are purposefully forgotten.

Lunch
For those who wish to continue the discussion after the workshop, a brown bag lunch will be offered.

Registration
To attend the workshop, please submit an application by February 15th. To enable discussion, the workshop will be held to 20 participants. Only those who complete an application may attend.

A notice about attendance will go out by email on February 22nd. The workshop takes place on March 3rd.

Workshop Leaders

Edward Ball —

Edward Ball has published five books of history and other nonfiction, including Slaves in the Family, an account of his family’s 170-year history as slaveholders in South Carolina, and The Inventor and the Tycoon, a story of the birth of moving pictures. Currently, he is writing about the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana, examining the race terror that spread through the South after the Civil War, during Reconstruction.
Winner of the National Book Award for Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball is the recipient of a Cullman Fellowship from the New York Public Library and a Public Scholar Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has taught at Yale University and was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, at Harvard.

Greg Osborn —

Gregory Osborn is a native of Southern California with deep Louisiana roots. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a B. A. in Anthropology: Social Sciences. In 1991, he moved to New Orleans to work with Professor Gwendolyn Midlo Hall on her ground-breaking project “Africans in Colonial Louisiana” as a research assistant. He has worked at the Historic New Orleans Collection, Amistad Research Center, Xavier University, Louisiana State Museum and since 1997 he has worked in the Louisiana Division/City Archives of the New Orleans Public Library as a Library Associate and Archivist. He has been a licensed New Orleans tour guide since 1995, conducting tours in the city’s oldest graveyards. He is an avid genealogist and an expert on Louisiana’s African, Caribbean, and Creole history and cultures.

For more information, contact Regina Cairns at rcairns@tulane.edu or 504-314-2854.

Slave Trail of Tears
THE FORGOTTEN JOURNEY A Lecture with Edward Ball
GULF SOUTH WRITER IN THE WOODS,
2016–2018

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 at 7 pm
Freeman Auditorium
Woldenberg Art Center
Tulane Uptown Campus

During the fifty years before the Civil War, close to one million enslaved African American people were pushed out of the Upper South and forced to journey to the Deep South to work the cotton and sugar plantations. On this “Slave Trail of Tears,” people marched 1000 miles in chained “coffles” or were herded onto ships that sailed from near Washington, DC to be sold in New Orleans. This forced migration changed 500,000 families, populated the Southeast, and reshaped America.

Ball recounts our nation’s legacy of oppression by telling the story of a trail that traverses time. Historians and descendants of slave owners and the enslaved grapple with our nation’s legacy of oppression through research, hope, and reunion.

The Gulf South Writer in the Woods program is cosponsored by A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and includes a residency, public lectures and a workshop exploring race, family and place.

For more information, contact Regina Cairns at the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at 504-314-2854 or rcairns@tulane.edu and visit our website at https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/programs/nocgs.