Abstract
In the 1960s, on the heels of the Brown decision and in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Ku Klux Klan activity boomed, reaching an intensity not seen since the 1920s, when KKK membership extended into the millions. Surprisingly, the state with the largest Klan membership-more than the rest of the South combined-was North Carolina, a supposed bastion of southern-style progressivism. Klansville, U.S.A. documents and explains the civil rights-era KKK's astounding rise and fall, by focusing on the under-explored case of the United Klans of America (UKA) in North Carolina. Like its contemporaries in the Deep South, the massive Carolina Klan engaged in secretive campaigns of terror and intimidation, but also developed a strong public presence, spreading its message and supporting its members at massive nightly rallies, afternoon street walks, weekend church services and turkey shoots, and through local radio shows and roadside billboards. The UKA's successes in the Tar Heel State provide a window into the complex appeal of the KKK as a whole, demonstrating how the Klan organized most successfully where whites perceived civil rights reforms to be a significant threat to their status, where mainstream outlets for segregationist resistance were lacking, and where the policing of the Klan's activities was lax. By connecting the KKK to the more mainstream segregationist and anti-communist groups across the South, this book offers new insight into southern conservatism, resistance to civil rights, and the region's subsequent dramatic shift to the Republican Party-shedding new light on organized racism and on how political extremism can intersect with mainstream institutions and ideals.