To further explore the White supremacist dynamics that were on display last weekend in Idaho, we spoke with Capó, whose research focuses on how gender and sexuality have historically intersected with ethnicity, race, class and other aspects of identity.
Julio Capó Jr., an associate professor of history at Florida International University, analyzes how the raid and transnational forces shaped the city’s history in his 2017 book, “ Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami Before 1940.”Ĭapó has written before that the Klan claimed that its actions during the raid and elsewhere “ represented its commitment to saving White homes, families, women and traditions.” Then they descended on La Paloma nightclub, where they assaulted patrons in an attempt to close a joint that the Klan saw as an affront to tradition. In November 1937, nearly 200 members of the Klan, wearing spectral robes, publicly burned a cross during an induction ceremony. Take a long-since-forgotten Ku Klux Klan raid on a gay nightclub in what’s today Miami-Dade County.
