Considering the Past: Topics in M.C. History

The original Meredith College art club was called "KKK.” It first appears in the 1906 yearbook, the Oak Leaves. Mary Lynch Johnson, who had deep roots with the college as a student, teacher and the daughter of a trustee, writes in her book, A History of Meredith College, a vague explanation of the club’s name and origins, "The art club adopted the name of an informal organization which Miss Poteat had formed many years earlier, the K.K.K." The members of the club apparently met for programs and discussions about artists, artistic movements, etc. And although the subjects of the lectures seem high-minded, the mood of the membership appears to have been lighthearted and the goal to have fun. 

Ida Poteat (1858-1940), who taught art at Meredith College from 1899 to 1940, and for whom  a residence hall was named in part in 1962, belonged to a family well-known in education circles in North Carolina. The family was from Yanceyville, North Carolina, located in Caswell County, a county with an active Ku Klux Klan presence. The Caswell County Courthouse was the site of a notorious Klan-related murder of state senator John W. Stephens in 1870. Still, research has not found an explicit association between Klan ideology and the Poteat family. Ida Poteat did appear to have a Confederate flag, along with a United States flag, displayed in her campus studio that points to a sympathy with the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War. 

Nevertheless, this association does not clarify the origin of Poteat’s art club's name. Dan Fountain, Professor of History at Meredith College, has speculated that Miss Poteat  might have associated the "romance" of the "Old South" with the high-mindedness of art.

In the club’s early years, as it appears in the yearbook, the multiple uses of K's seem to be a strange alphabetical joke. For example, the club’s motto was, "Krank Kriticism: 'It is pretty, but is it art?' – Kipling." The club members were called "Komrades." The year's schedule was the "Konfab Kalendar" and their faculty sponsors, including Miss Poteat were "Kaptains of the Klan.” The art club existed at Meredith with this name throughout the teens and twenties. Then in 1929, where a photo of the club would normally might have appeared in the yearbook, there was an essay/satire titled, "The Ghost of the K.K.K," in which a ghost

…between wails, explained that he was the ghost of the K.K.K., doomed to wander until the activities of the Club are resumed....At the end of (the writer's) story...the little ghost agreed that even though no attention had been paid to him during the year, the studio folks had not been idle, and perhaps next year the regular meetings will be resumed.

Without any further explanation, the organization disappears from the Oak Leaves from 1930 to 1934 - although graduating seniors have it listed as an activity during their college career, so presumably it still existed in some form. It may be that the members simply did not organize a time for a page in the yearbook - or perhaps the name had started to create some concern; at this time, we simply do not know.

The art club reappears in the yearbook in 1935, where it is now called either the "K.K. Klub" or the "K.K. Club" until 1942. During this same period, the art club is referenced in the student newspaper, The Twig, as the “Kranky Kritics Klub” (1931) and the "Krazy Kranky Kritics Art Club" (1935.)

Ida Poteat, still an art professor at Meredith College, died in 1940. Perhaps this is the reason that in 1942, the name of the “K.K. Club” name was expanded, eliminating the name listed only by its initials: "Realizing that there are many Meredith girls who would like to become acquainted with various aspects of art, the Art Department started the Krazy Kritics Club."

Finally - in 1943, the simply named "Art Club" appears with the caption, “The Art Club is a new organization on the campus. With a combination of programs, demonstrations and various field trips, the group endeavors to encourage understanding in an application of the fine and applied arts.” Perhaps it had taken Poteat’s death plus a little time to transition for a real change. In 1947 there is an announcement that the art club will be reorganized and by February 1948, it has debuted as the "Alpha Rho Tau Art Club.”

For 36 years, in some form, the name “K.K.K,” was associated with an art club at Meredith College. The use of the acronym, “K.K.K.” or “Klan,” with or without an explanation, is disturbing and raises serious questions about the sponsor’s and members’ intent or understanding, especially in this era of North Carolina history.