Myth: The KKK Were "Men of Their Time"

We dive into a critical examination of the 3rd Ku Klux Klan. This episode challenges the notion that the Klan was simply a product of its time to be understood as a bad group of individuals representing white supremacy, as opposed to a strain of white supremacy that many people opposed.

We return with Rasul Mowatt to review the history of the KKK's decline in the 1940s and 50s to its resurgence through multiple chapters during the Civil Rights Movement. Discover the tactics, motivations, and ultimate failures of the Klan in preventing the formal end of Jim Crow. We'll also delve into the Greensboro massacre and its precursors, examining the characters involved and the tragic events of November 3rd, 1979, and the accountability (or lack thereof) that followed. Finally, we explore how even within white supremacist circles, there was pushback against their extreme methods, ultimately paving the way for a new, darker white power movement.

Some Sources:

Klansman's Manual (1925) https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/336KKKmanual.html

Hooded Americanism

https://www.dukeupress.edu/hooded-americanism

Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan

https://www.amazon.com/Klansville-U-S-Civil-Rights-Era/dp/0199752028

Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/c/blackmythsth