With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Australian university students dress as Ku Klux Klan and in blackface

Five Australian university students who dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan and one who dressed in blackface as a “cotton-picking” slave for a “politically incorrect” themed party will be investigated after the vice-chancellor condemned their actions.

The men, from Charles Sturt University, posted multiple pictures of themselves to social media on Thursday night, as they attended an end-of-semester party at the Black Swan Hotel in Wagga Wagga.

One photo posted to Instagram and since deleted was captioned “very very politically incorrect”. “Cotton prices are unreal though so it’s a great time to be pickin,” it said.

It showed five men in homemade Ku Klux Klan hoods and robes and one man in blackface and body paint, pretending to be a slave.

Read entire article at The Guardian