Ku Klux Klan
According to the Encyclopedia of Terrorism, "The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by several Confederate Civil War veterans. It has seen several cycles of growth stemming from periods of rapid social and political change, such as the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s."
- The Civil Rights era and the rise of the Ku Klux KlanIn the 1960s, the South, was rife with racial tension. The Supreme Court had just declared, in its landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education, that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and the country was in the midst of a growing Civil Rights Movement.
- Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism and ViolenceA resource compiled by the staff of the Klanwatch Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871The bill authorized the President to intervene in the former rebel states that attempted to deny “any person or any class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or immunities under the laws.”
Research & Reference
- Ku Klux Klan (1915- ): The American Folklife CenterThe Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories.
- Ku Klux Klan: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on the Ku Klux Klahn. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
Streaming Media
- The Mississippi Burning TrialDiscover how the Mississippi Burning case took the nation deep into the darkness of the Ku Klux Klan and its hatred. By the end of this lecture, you'll learn how the trial would go on to change the Klan, change Mississippi, and change the course of civil rights in America.
- From the KKK to the Black ShrinersProfessor Spence turns his focus to the United States and uniquely American secret societies, including the sham group known as the U.S. Secret and Civil Service Society, Self-Supporting Branch. He also covers the disturbing emergence and evolution of the Ku Klux Klan. Discover how the secret societies that emerged during this period acted as a reflection of America at the turn of the century.
- Who Put the Klan into Ku Klux Klan?In this surprising documentary, archaeologist and historian Neil Oliver examines the links between racism today in the Deep South and the Scots who first occupied it.
Perspectives
Black Klansman
The #1New York Times Bestseller! The extraordinary true story and basis for the Academy Award winning filmBlacKkKlansman, written and directed by Spike Lee, produced by Jordan Peele, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver. When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he'll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community. A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he'd never have to answer, "Would you like to join ourcause?" This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows, and major magazine interviews preaching a "kinder" Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage, and to restore a nation to its former glory. Ron answers the caller's question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the "white" Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself. Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back.
Mississippi Burning
Set in Mississippi in 1964, this controversial film is based on the true story of the case of three young civil rights workers (in real life they were named James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) who were brutally murdered in June of 1964. The chaotic aftermath was dubbed Mississippi Burning. This movie is told from the perspective of the FBI's operations to uncover evidence and bring the killers to justice. Anger over the real incident prompted the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Although the fim was nominated for six Oscars and won the award for Best Cinematography, it stirred a great deal of controversy when it was released. In the years since, it has come to be considered a classic.
Notre Dame vs. the Klan
In 1924, two uniquely American institutions clashed in northern Indiana: the University of Notre Dame and the Ku Klux Klan. Todd Tucker's book, published for the first time in paperback, Notre Dame vs. The Klan tells the shocking story of the three-day confrontation in the streets of South Bend, Indiana, that would change both institutions forever. When the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to stage a parade and rally in South Bend, hoping to target college campuses for recruitment starting with Notre Dame, a large group of students defied their leaders' pleas to ignore the Klan and remain on campus. Tucker dramatically recounts the events as only a proficient storyteller can. Readers will find themselves drawn into the fray of these tumultuous times. Tucker structures this compelling tale around three individuals: D.C. Stephenson, the leader of the KKK in Indiana, the state with the largest Klan membership in America; Fr. Matthew Walsh, the young and charismatic president of the University of Notre Dame; and a composite of a Notre Dame student at the time, represented by Bill Foohey, who was an actual participant in the clash. This book will appeal not only to Notre Dame fans, but to those interested in South Bend and Indiana history and the history of the Klu Klux Klan, including modern-day Klan violence.
The Racist Mind
Klansmen and neo-Nazis speak of their lives, many times revealing cases of poverty, poor education, medical problems, ignorance, and dysfunctional families as the root of their hatred.
Behind the Mask of Chivalry
On Thanksgiving night, 1915, a small band of hooded men gathered atop Stone Mountain, an imposing granite butte just outside Atlanta. With a flag fluttering in the wind beside them, a Bible open to the twelfth chapter of Romans, and a flaming cross to light the night sky above, William JosephSimmons and his disciples proclaimed themselves the new Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, named for the infamous secret order in which many of their fathers had served after the Civil War. Unsure of their footing in the New South and longing for the provincial, patriarchal world of the past, the men ofthe second Klan saw themselves as an army in training for a war between the races. They boasted that they had bonded into "an invisible phalanx...to stand as impregnable as a tower against every encroachment upon the white man's liberty...in the white man's country, under the white man's flag."Behind the Mask of Chivalry brings the "invisible phalanx" into broad daylight, culling from history the names, the life stories, and the driving passions of the anonymous Klansmen beneath the white hoods and robes.