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

by David Cunningham

In the 1960s, on the heels of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision and in the midst of the growing Civil Rights Movement, Ku Klux Klan activity boomed, reaching an intensity not seen since the 1920s, when the KKK boasted over 4 million members. Most 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. is the first substantial history of the civil rights-era KKK's astounding rise and fall, focusing on the under-explored case of the United Klans of America (UKA) in North Carolina. Why the UKA flourished in the Tar Heel state presents a fascinating puzzle and a window into the complex appeal of the Klan as a whole. Drawing on a range of new archival sources and interviews with Klan members, including state and national leaders, the book uncovers the complex logic of KKK activity. David Cunningham demonstrates that 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. Moreover, by connecting the Klan to the more mainstream segregationist and anti-communist groups across the South, Cunningham provides valuable insight into southern conservatism, its resistance to civil
rights, and the region's subsequent dramatic shift to the Republican Party.

Klansville, U.S.A. illuminates a period of Klan history that has been largely ignored, shedding new light on organized racism and on how political extremism can intersect with mainstream institutions and ideals.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Race, Politics, Read For School

360 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Dave Pier · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the 1960s, North Carolina had the largest Klan institutional presence of any state. Cunningham, a sociologist, argues that this was because racist whites who felt threatened by Civil Rights had few champions in North Carolina's relatively moderate state government, so they were drawn to the Klan. When civil rights legislation passed and the worst fears of whites about losing their racial entitlements failed to come to pass (whites retained the better jobs and educational opportunities), interest in the Klan waned. The Klan was also damaged by internal factionalism, and by crackdowns and infiltrations by the federal government under LBJ.
This is a useful book to read if you live in NC and want to understand the historical background to today's right-wing NC politics. Counties where the Klan was a major presence are now the counties that vote overwhelmingly Republican/Tea Party. Cunningham argues that one of the lasting effects of the Klan surge was the deterioration, in Klan counties, of public trust in government, and the intensification of a politics of paranoia.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you live in the Piedmont of North Carolina, and have any interest in how local crime patterns are connected to the rise and fall of the KKK in our area, you will be stunned by this book. The author's lens zooms into the disparate conditions of Greensboro and Charlotte that precipitated how successfully the Klan could entrench itself into each city - and how the Klan's legacy of vigilantism (and mistrust of authority figures) remains embedded now in so many aspects of communal society. I own a storefront that is pictured on the cover photo of this book; the Klan marched past our door many times within my lifetime. So many things have changed in our town, and yet so many obstacles remain for truth and reconciliation to flourish.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took so long because I kept getting pissed off and had to put it down. It was very descriptive in the way that it explained how such a movement and way of life could take hold in that particular area. The rise of the KKK during the 1960's was a perfect storm - thankfully it didn't last long.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The time was 1950’s-1960’s, the place: United States of America. As the fight for civil rights continued to gather pace, numerous white supremacist organizations sprung throughout Jim Crow’s America, in the south. Vowed to defend ‘southern way of life’ a.k.a racial segregation, one of them was the third reincarnation of Ku Klux Klan, which was scattered into numerous different names. While Klans within the deep south were by far the most violent, the one which was the largest, and the most organized, was the United Knights of America, based in North Carolina.

This made a curious case, as within the south, North Carolina is known as the state with the most progressive outlook in its racial policy. Although still maintaining segregation, it did not fall into ‘massive resistance’-type like Byrd’s Virginia or Wallace’s Alabama when faced with federal mandate for integration. Instead, it choose the path of moderation, integrating at a slow pace while doing its best to appease the racists. This brings us to the author’s assumption of the Klan’s success recipe in North Carolina: Economic-Cultural-Racial tensions coupled with government’s reluctance to persecute the Klan, if not cooperating with them outright.

Throughout the book, the Klan was described in detail, from its past histories, its establishment in NC, how they market themself, recruit people, right to their downfall, as Civil Rights were put into law, the Klan itself was riddled with FBI informants, and it’s violent acts put members off of it. The accusation of Klan leaderships embezzling organization money did not help either.

Overall, this book is very informative in uncovering how a proactive government policing can control pesky but powerful organizations with lots of sympathizers. The author also gives an excellent example in UKA’s failed effort to expand to Florida, where proactive, and aggressive policing prevented the Klan to organize themselves there.

[Phil Sageser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a relatively dense study of the Klan focused on its hay day in North Carolina. In spite (or, as the book argues, because) of its reputation as the progressive bastion of the south, more than half of all Klan members were in North Carolina. While the topic is a disturbing one, l came away somewhat encouraged that the darkest hour is just before the dawn.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped to learn something about the history of the KKK in the state where most of my closest colleagues work, but the author failed to make it interesting. It is all very factually and academically written. Even though obviously well-researched, none of it comes alive, let alone captivates.

[Dave Fransen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Spent lots of time in North Carolina, so it's really interesting to learn all the backstories from the 60s and the 3rd rising of the Klan.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard subject matter but handled quite well by Dr. Cunningham.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book thoroughly describes the trends and reasons for the growth and decline of the racist Ku Klux Klan organization. Some of the facts are surprising; the background and infighting is interesting. Klansville, USA does a good job of telling the story, but its thoroughness can be a bit much.

I heard of this book when I saw a fact that surprised me: the Klan wasn't largest and most active in the deep South, as I would have expected, but in North Carolina. Cunningham does a great job in describing where the KKK came from and how it gained members in the Civil Rights era. He describes many of the organizers and leaders -- one of the best parts of this book is the description of internal politics and power struggles within the organization.

Cunningham does a good job of presenting the facts: not shying away from the horror the Klan caused, but also not presenting it in an exploitative way.

The author covers the story of the Klan through the civil rights era in great detail. In fact, it's weird to say, but at some point the descriptions of basic aspects of running the organization -- setting up meetings, trying to increase membership, running internal elections, etc -- almost took on the feeling of monotony.

Ultimately, the details in this well-written book were interesting -- but the sheer volume of information ended up feeling overwhelming.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's insane to think that during the lifetimes of our parents and grandparents, a person could drive down a rural road in the South and come face-to-face with a billboard showing a hooded horseman holding a burning cross, exhorting people to join him. The ugliness that met the civil rights movement of the 1960s included murder and acts of intimidation and terror against anti-segregation workers.

Interestingly, the klan members used some of the same arguments that opponents use today against various progressive causes--such as claiming that the causes aren't about helping others at all, just making money or that proponents of the cause are really just Communists in disguise:

The framing of the civil rights movement as a duplicitous front for raising funds, and by extension as a plot by communists and Jews to use the race issue as a wedge to consolidate power, had considerable resonance across the white South.

Sound familiar?

The author could have made this book more interesting by telling more personal stories of those who lived this history.

[David Lucander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensively researched and analytically savvy book about a vital and under-studied subject: grassroots mobilization in opposition to the "Black/Jew/Communist" civil rights movement. Scholars have built an impressive corpus of literature about grassroots civil rights activism, but organized white supremacy from the era has been overlooked. Jason Sokol's "There Goes My Everything" covers the entirety of the South, but Cunningham's case-study of North Carolina's various Klan iterations is a very important step in fleshing out the details of how ordinary people fought against the struggle for Black equality. As a professional historian I really liked this book, but I could see how lay readers would get frustrated with the level of details that Cunningham provides. If you're not going to read this one, plug the author's name into NPR's webpage for a really informative interview.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a former North Carolinian with only a rudimentary knowledge of the history of white supremacy in the state, I was very interested in the subject matter, but the author's disorganized and repetitive style was maddening. An editor with an eye for unnecessary repetition could have cut the book down by half without having lost any depth or historical detail. I did learn a little thought-provoking state history, but as I had expected to learn much more, I ended up disappointed.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish. The style was not easily accessible as other books I've read recently. There was little depth to the development other than the fact that there were lots of KKK groups in North Carolina. As a North Carolinian I did appreciate the pieces about the political history of North Carolina in the 1940's 50's and 60's.

[Nancy Pitre]

I did not finish this book. As a sociological perspective , it was interesting but I became too angry to read it at night before bed. I was really interested in learning more about the women's auxiliary of the kkk, but to my dismay it was only mentioned once- it figures.

[J.D. Brayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

KNOW. YOUR. ENEMY.
Just started this one. Research for my new novel. Thus far a little bit of a dry read, but this isn't exactly light reading- so I'm not ready to judge it by any other criteria than as an essential research book on this subject.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

I heard the author on the radio and enjoyed listening to him. The subject matter seemed interesting, but the book was not. I just could not get into it, I gave up after 50 pages.

[Ted Rolfs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good - difficult to read - no story just a repetition of facts.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still in the early stages of reading this book. So far it's filled with a lot of names, dates, and places, but I'm hoping that as it progresses it will be a little less dry.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The remarkable story of the rise and fall of the Klan in the 60s in opposition to the “agitators” of the Civil Rights movement.