Meet the man who gave Livingston County its racist reputation
There is one reason why Livingston County has long battled a reputation as a haven for racists, a place where minorities, especially blacks, should fear to tread: Bob Miles.
Miles, who died in 1992, was a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. He lived about 10 miles north of county-seat Howell on a 70-acre compound in Cohoctah Township called “The Mountain.” It was to that compound that white separatists, neo-Nazis and members of the Aryan Brotherhood swarmed from across the country for camaraderie, shared dreams of a whites-only world, and the burning of crosses.
The activity at Miles' Cohoctah compound was captured in “Blood in the Face,” an amazing 1991 documentary by a team that included Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, who conducted some of the interviews.
“Blood in the face” refers to the belief of some hate groups that dark-skinned people can’t blush, or show blood in their faces, which somehow makes them unable to feel shame. How this makes any sense at all is puzzling to me, but it’s enough of an explanation for those who believe it.
Cross burnings at Miles’ compound, his prominence in the white supremacist movement, his loquaciousness, his notoriety and movements in the community, all added up to the county being painted as racist.
That Livingston County’s racist reputation took on a life of its own is testament to the power wielded by Miles, who also served prison time for bombing Pontiac school buses in 1971 during the busing-to-achieve-integration era. It’s a reputation of which Miles was proud: He took credit for Livingston County’s growth as white flight followed the I-96 corridor out of Detroit, as well as for keeping the community’s population almost all-white.
“Blood in the Face” is a frightening yet fascinating look at the American hate movement. The documentary takes a hands-off approach to telling the story; those in the hate movements speak for themselves. It makes for a movie that is sort of like an accident along the side of the road: You don’t want to look, but you just can’t stop yourself.
Perhaps most startling about the film is the casual, picnic-like atmosphere of the convention, which drew racists to Livingston County from throughout the U.S., people who Miles said are “more Nazi than the Nazis.”
“Blood in the Face” is an interesting and often-inspired documentary that I wish hadn’t been filmed so close to my home.
If you’ve not seen “Blood in the Face,” it’s available in eight segments on YouTube. Bob Miles is prominently featured in the beginning of this segment:
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About Maria Stuart
Maria Stuart is the managing editor of Livingstontalk.com. Her career in journalism began at the Livingston County Press in 1990; she later became managing editor of the paper, which earned numerous awards during her tenure. Her interest in online communications spans back to the early 1990s when she ran a discussion group on “The Newspaper” for a community bulletin board service. She’s won numerous state and national awards for her columns and editorials, and maintains a blog on Open Salon.com (http://open.salon.com/blog/maria_stuart). Stuart is also a long-time member of the LACASA board of directors, which oversees the community’s domestic violence shelter.
Follow her on Twitter @mariastuart.
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Interesting
I viewed the film “Blood in the Face” after reading the article in Livingstontalk.com. I was amazed at the alliance with Ayran nations and the Nazi movement.
As I understand, the KKK movement has several different segments or incarnations to it. The original founds of the KKK left the organization shortly after its founding, because it had taken a different turn than originally intended, taking an ugly turn the original founders never intended. John Lester, James Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, and Frank McCord they were friends and often, met in a law office in Pulaski, TN., on Christmas Eve, 1865 and, innocently enough, decided to form a social club for the purpose of mutual entertainment and did not know their social club was going to turn ugly. The club adopted the style of the college fraternities “in vogue at the time”, doing goofy college fraternity antics. They would dress up in weird costumes and play practical jokes on unsuspecting people. To create an aura of mystery they invented an unusual name and called their social club: the Ku Klux Klan.” The KKK disbanded in 1869.
Doesn’t seem unusual, something starts out one way then when others come in, it takes an ugly turn when others ambitions and agendas come into play. There must have been something in Livingston County for this to have developed here. A cursory look at the county, most of the county leadership seems to have arrived when white flight occurred.
I think this subject needs to be buried
Reading this and the comments.
I've been in Livingston County over 30 years (both Brighton area and Howell). Unlike Miles, I'm a native of the county. Miles has been dead for 20 years. Still, I see this stuff pushed out in front, especially by guilty white liberals. The Argus/LCP loves to pimp these types of stories out for viewers, at the cost of putting it through the mud. About the only responsible story from the Argus or Howell City Council about the auction four years ago or so was the Buddy Moorehouse editorial. The impression I got is a "what are you trying to hide with all this outrage"
Interesting, when I was in law school, one of our black students was up in Brighton for a few things, liked the area, and had no idea about the ghost of Miles that gets brought up on the other side of the county line. He's not from Michigan either.
As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to confront except those who shove this in our faces. Every time they put out the words "Howell" and "Klan" together, they show their ignorance and do not have their facts straight. Those are the only ones that need confronting. I'm not saying there aren't idiots out here, but there are no more here, than there are elsewhere.
Miles is dead. His ghost loves it every time it's discussed. Buddy hit the nail on the head with that editorial. It's time he rested in peace, along with his trash that invaded my county.
Thanks
Thanks for keeping this hideous and immoral movement in our sight, Maria. I know there are plenty of good, well-meaning people in Howell who just wish everyone would stop mentioning Robert Miles-- and dragging the town's reputation through undeserved mud.
But--in order to confront an ugly past, we have to constantly remember it, and guard against its return. There are real reasons-- actual evidence-- for being vigilant and speaking out against racism, right here in Livingston County. Sweeping our embarrassment under the rug isn't a good idea.
Pure evil
Thanks for posting the video, Maria. I think it's important that people get to see the man who dragged the county's reputation into the mud.
I had the misfortune of meeting Miles in person and hearing him speak his hate. People shouldn't get any false impression of this man - he was pure evil.
Miles
Another tangent to this story is newspaper reporters who came out to Livingston County to cover Robert Miles would frequently use Howell on the dateline to their newspaper copy because they could not spell or pronounce Cohoctah correctly. So what happens in the movie "Blood in the Face" - its misspelled, and its the opening graphic (omg lol).
Watching Robert Miles in the movie I get the impressions that even Miles thinks he has a bunch of knuckleheads on his farm.
Out-of-area media
Good points, Lindsay. I've always been concerned about the way in which out-of-area media sometimes portray Howell. I can't remember the year, but it was after Miles' death. and Detroit's Channel 7 did a report on Mr. B's (a Royal Oak-based company) not hiring a woman because she was black. The reporter said that in order for viewers to understand how this could happen, they had to understand Howell -- then, the report cut to footage of a burning cross.
My impression of Miles is that he thought he was way, way smarter than everyone, including the knuckleheads on his farm. But he needed them to make good on his world vision.