Klansville U.S.A

 The documentary, "Klansville U.S.A.," follows the Klan’s early beginnings, dormant stage, its popular resurrection in the ‘20s, and its mid-’60s unexpected rise in North Carolina.

  

The Ku Klux Klan started in 1865, as a Tennessee social club of decommissioned confederate officers. Taking its name from the Greek word for circle, kuklos, it became a brotherhood of people bent on controlling the freed slaves. Klan activities started as pranks to terrify their intended victims. Their acts became increasingly violent, including murder. The federal government’s clamping down on the Klan, in 1871 resulted in the Klan dissolving and lying dormant for decades. Following the popular 1915 film “Birth of a Nation,” which portrayed the Klan as heroic figures who simply restored order to the chaotic South, the Klan was revived. This time the Klan was not a rural group. It was popular in big cities like Denver, Settle, and Detroit. Having a large and growing membership gave the Klan immense political influence. As it grew in prestige the Klan’s practices were investigated. Which lead to allegations of corruption and the Klan being discredited yet again.

In response to the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education U. S, Supreme Court case, ending segregation, many people felt their needs were being overlooked by the civil rights movement. On the heels of this decision, North Carolina’s Ku Klux Klan rose in popularity. This Klan chapter was created and led by Grand Dragon Bob Jones. He is recognized as being responsible for the chapter’s unprecedented growth, from nothing to nearly 10,000 members in just two years. Although a high school dropout, a failed salesman, and a dismissed navy sailor, Mr. Jones masterminded the Klan’s brief North Carolina upsurge in the 1960s. His recruitment strategy capitalized on the growing sector of poor whites in North Carolina that felt they were being pushed down by their progressive politicians. When the Klan seemed to offer this demographic the ability to rise above others, people signed up for the Klan in droves. Mr. Jones saw building the Klan as a means to give it political legitimacy. The innovations in organizing people around racial prejudice, enabling Mr. Jones just enough militancy to attract dues-paying members, but containing it within politically acceptable bounds. Unlike the rampant violence of the Klan’s branches in the Deep South in the ’60s, North Carolina’s Klan advocated nonviolence. Their activities ranged from “Street Walks,” marches, rallies, and burning crosses in public as an intimidation technique. In 1965 the Alabama chapter of the Klan included three men accused of murdering a black civil rights woman. While CBS filmed the North Carolina Klan rally, the three accused murders were applauded by the crowd. Americans were horrified when this program was aired on television. After this incident, the federal government whole-heartedly went after the Ku Klux Klan as a whole. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson warning Klan members to “return to a decent society before it is too late.” Using inside informants and Congressional hearings, the Klan was discredited on the hints of misappropriation of funds and its leaders hiding behind the Fifth Amendment. North Carolina officials cracked down on all Klan activities, making it hard to continue. Klan chapters across America disbanded in shame and amid suspicions. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/klansville/