URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - A University of Illinois yearbook photo of 22 men over the title Ku Klux Klan just recently surfaced, and though the photograph was taken nearly 100 years ago, it sparked an enormous response online. 

"I saw that on Twitter," said University of Illinois student Randall Tran. "I'm from Chicago and my experience here has been good. We can't really judge what people were thinking back then." 

However, other students took personal offense to the photo saying that there is a history of racism on campus that hasn't gone away but has only diluted. The school releasing this statement: 

"To be reminded that just 100 years ago, an organization that is synonymous with racism, bigotry and hatred had a presence on this campus is profoundly troubling. We have known of this for many years, and have acknowledged it and even documented it on our website 15 years ago, so we can all learn from it. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019 is committed to demonstrating by our words and more critically, by our actions, that diversity and differences don’t divide us. But instead, they bring us together and let us accomplish things that others imagine to be impossible.

We have the responsibility and the power to bring our communities together and to move all of us forward and upward. While much progress has been made over the past century, much work remains at our own university, in our community, our state, our nation and our world."

WAND-TV also reached out to the current student body government on campus by phone and email on multiple occasions  and received no response. In addition to speaking with students, the station also made a call and a visit to the African American Cultural Center on campus. There, a station reporter was greeted by students who were hesitant to speak on camera about their experience on campus. Some said that they did not know the reporter and therefore, were not comfortable speaking about their opinion. 

However, WAND-TV had a conversation with the university archivists who unfolded more of the history behind that photo, putting emphasis on no known connection between the school organization and the national KKK group. It's mystery for many and for others, and not a piece of history that they are willing to revisit.Â