A doll dressed in an outfit resembling a Ku Klux Klan member with a white hood and a white robe…

From the Klan Room

Artist William Christenberry (American, 1936 - 2016)

Date1982

Mediumchromogenic print

DimensionsImage: 14 1/8 × 9 1/4 inches (35.9 × 23.5 cm)
Sheet: 20 × 16 inches (50.8 × 40.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Rob McDonald.

Object number2019.8.2

On View

Not on view

Copyright© Estate of William Christenberry / HEMPHILL Artworks The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextWilliam Christenberry was born in 1936 in Tuscaloosa, AL, during the Depression. His artwork is deeply rooted in his Alabama upbringing. Since the 1960s, Christenberry returned to the South from his Washington, D.C. home, finding inspiration in the places of his childhood. He began photographing Hale County's battered buildings and kudzu-overrun landscapes, and produced intricate sculptures, prints, and collections inspired by the Deep South. The Klan Room was a work Christenberry developed over three decades after an encounter with a Klansman at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse. Examining the iconography of organized racism, it included nearly 400 objects, including hundreds of dolls menacingly dressed in the hooded disguises of the Klan. From the Klan Room exemplifies the exploration and fascination Christenberry held with the iconography and evil ideologies of the Klu Klux Klan from the 1960s onwards.

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