Notre Dame vs. The Klan
How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan
The history of Notre Dame includes many key events, but perhaps none so important as the 1924 violent face-off between students of the University and members of the Ku Klux Klan. This shocking and true hidden chapter in Notre Dame's history, as well as Catholic and American history in general, is recounted in Notre Dame vs. The Klan.
Pieced together from firsthand accounts and newspaper reports, this story is told from the perspectives of the then-president of Notre Dame, the former Grand Dragon of the KKK, and a Notre Dame student who participated in the riot. Through author Todd Tucker's Notre Dame vs. The Klan, we witness the rise of a great university against the backdrop of a little-known yet pivotal event in the cultural history of American Catholics.