The Klan Unmasked
The Klan UnmaskedThe Ku Klux Klan has been the most organized of the many
different White supremacy groups that came into being after the Civil
War. The ill-reputed Knights of the Klan have been involved in countless
incidents of human rights violations against blacks and other minority
groups in America. Especially in the South, during and after the
Reconstruction period, the Klan played a major part in formulating and
forcefully employing many of the Jim Crow laws, that delayed black man�s
true freedom for a century.
Stetson Kennedy is a native of Jacksonville, Florida
where the Klan was very active. Kennedy saw first hand the working of the
Klan when a maid in his house was taken for a ride by the Klan and badly
tortured. Kennedy developed a hatred for the Ku Klux Klan and wanted to
do all he could to limit the influence of and put a stop to its hate
mongering. He wrote a book �Palmetto Country� in which he blasted the
myth that the Klan was formed to �save the South� from Scalawags,
Carpetbaggers and Negroes. This was the view held widely throughout the
South and took root more so as it was romantically depicted in Southern
writers publications and the ground breaking movie �The Birth of a
Nation�. Kennedy noted that the Klan was actually the handiwork of the
rich Southern plantation holders, who wanted to keep the black labor
force under chains similar to those of slavery.
Also, Kennedy noted that the few things written about the
KKK were editorials rather than exposes. He felt the need for not just
words but for legal evidence against the Klan�s inside...
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