Seaman district's namesake was long rumored to be tied to the KKK. These student journalists found proof of it.
Rafael Garcia
rgarcia2@gannett.com
The most significant piece of Seaman High School student journalism in recent history started like a lot of history's bombshell investigative stories — with an anonymous source tipping the journalists in the right direction.
Fred Seaman, the namesake of the high school and district and a prominent education figure in early 20th century Kansas, had long been rumored to have ties to the Ku Klux Klan. But in the decades following his death in 1948, those rumors remained just that in the district.
But then seniors Tristan Fangman and Madeline Gearhart — co-editors-in-chief of The Clipper, the high school's student newspaper — got the tip of their high school journalism careers: Seaman was not just tied to the KKK. Per newspaper reports, he was also an "exalted cyclops," or chief officer of a local klan in the organization whose nomenclature borrows heavily from European mythology.
On Friday, after weeks of work on corroboration and further research, Fangman and Gearhart published their online story on Seaman's KKK connections. Since then, they said their article has attracted plenty of attention from students, staff, parents and alumni alike.
"It's hard to connect Fred Seaman with the school if you didn't actually know he was the founder," Fangman said. "For the longest time, I just thought that Seaman and Vikings were connected, but figuring out that the founder was connected with (the KKK), it was just so shocking."
Earlier in the school year, an anonymous source provided a newspaper clip directly tying Seaman and the KKK to history teacher Nathan McAlister. The source remains unknown to him, but with that tip, print journalism teacher Amy Riley, McAlister and the students were able to find further newspaper clips tying Seaman to the KKK.
In a Topeka Journal article on April 7, 1925, the students said they found a direct mention of "Fred Seaman and his robed brothers," who were pushing for a slate of candidates favorable to the KKK.
"The Klan ticket, the first of its kind in a Topeka city election, appeared at the election polls… the tiny two inch by four inch slips bear across the face of the endorsement of Fred A. Seaman, exalted cyclops of the Klan organization," the Journal reported. Seaman had been principal of Seaman Rural High School, one of the state's first rural high schools, at the time.
Later, when Seaman was under discussion as a potential Klan candidate for the Republican nomination to become Kansas' superintendent of public instruction, The Kansas City Star reported in its Jan. 29, 1926, issue that the KKK had opted to "soft-pedal" candidate connections to the organization, and Seaman was "so well known as a klansman that his claims cannot be ignored entirely by the Klan."
McAlister and Riley, who themselves had graduated from Seaman High in the 1990s, had also heard rumors about Seaman's KKK connections when they were students, and how important the old newspaper clippings were in corroborating the rumors. But they also said they knew how important it was to guide the students in reporting accurately on the newly found newspaper clippings, since it was their story to tell as students at the school.
In addition to teaching history as a subject, McAlister teaches it in practice with a museum class where students help preserve the school district's history by operating a museum at the district's headquarters, located in the former Seaman Rural High School. As part of Seaman High's centennial last year, both Fangman and Gearhart helped sift through the school's history, but other newspaper stories and historical documents make no mention of Seaman's KKK connections, and the students said they were shocked to find the few clippings that did make mention.
"I think, part of the reason this is coming to light now is the fact that we're getting to a point where more newspapers are being digitized, and so it's easier for people to find information in those newspapers," McAlister said. "As this goes along and as these get easier access, I think we're going to find more stories similar to this."
After they found the newspaper clippings, Fangman and Gearhart said they knew they had to report on the story carefully, since they knew the issue was bound to be divisive for the district. Additionally, they wanted to wait for the district's board to respond to the story, and they allowed the district time to work through other issues like COVID-19 and news in September that a teacher and basketball coach had been accused of sexually exploiting children online.
"The district is still trying to heal and figure its way through, so to have such a bomb dropped, it would be pretty devastating, so we had to bide our time, in some ways," Gearhart said.
"But we definitely knew that we needed to share it, because as journalists, it's our job to put the information out there, even if it's a sensitive topic or even if it's controversial," Fangman said.
In statements to both the The Clipper and The Topeka Capital-Journal, the Seaman Board of Education said it was planning a process for community input and board discussion after The Clipper made board members aware of the issue.
"We are grateful our district today is inclusive as we welcome and embrace all students regardless of color, race, ethnicity, etc. and we will continue to listen and support the research of our students and teachers in this ongoing investigation," the statement read.
With the story now public, the student journalists said they hope their reporting sparks discussions in the school community, in which they anticipate there might be division on the issue.
Fangman said she'd heard school organizations like the Young Democrats are already pushing for a possible change to the district's name, as well as that others are pointing to the fact that a change could be expensive for the district, and that Seaman's KKK connections don't have much relevance today.
In any case, the students said they know the conversation will continue, and that as student journalists, they'll look to cover the issue from all perspectives.
"I think we've come a long way as a society and been more accepting," Fangman said. "Naming the school after someone who was a part of that, it just comes off bad. Right now, we're in a time that when people are tearing down statues of former slave owners, so for us as a school to have that name, it just becomes really controversial.
"It also changes the narrative of who Fred Seaman is," Gearhart added. "I think a lot of us regard him as some sort of kind founder of our school, and we don't know his motives for why he would have created the school now or what actions he took throughout the district that might still be affecting us now that we might need to re-evaluate."
Teaching Topeka Ep. 3
Listen to student journalists Tristan Fangman and Madeline Gearhart tell the story of how they investigated and reported on Fred Seaman, namesake of Seaman Unified School District 345, and his ties to the Ku Klux Klan on episode four of The Capital-Journal's Teaching Topeka podcast, where education reporter Rafael Garcia hosts education leaders for discussion on school issues.
To listen to all of the Teaching Topeka episodes, as well as other newsroom podcasts, search for "From the Newsroom: The Topeka Capital-Journal" wherever you stream your podcasts.