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 several 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.

Product Description
Review
The book is written in a lively and accessible style and is based on a solid array of archival sources and personal interviews, including with Klan leaders and members. (Glenn Feldman, Journal of American Studies)
About the Author
David Cunningham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University and the author of There's Something Happening Here: The New Left, the Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence.

Publisher: OUP USA (22 November 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199752028
ISBN-13: 978-0199752027

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

KKK fades away in North Carolina and returns to the polling booth 23 December 2012
By C. Wagner -
Though a very specific subject examination, Cunningham begins with the basic historical information concerning origins of the KKK and the agenda of keeping the white protestant contingent pure, through oppression, segregated schools, etc. in North Carolina. Interestingly enough, the Klans of America supported Richard Nixon as they tussled for membership and feared the "communist-Jew conspiracy," although I should have figured that out.
Perhaps the Klan was the most successful in North Carolina because NC attempted to comply with federal regulation to a greater extent than other southern states where the governments were doing the Klan's dirty work.
Chapter 5 Joining the Klan was insightful. Basically, I see the same type of general membership in the local Tea Party marching down Main Street in the annual parade waving their Chinese made American flags purchased at the dollar store. The local hierarchy also seems to fit the pattern.
Chapter 7 The Fall of the United Klans shows the organization infiltrated, unfunded, and losing members. The hate was still there without the organization, leaving a Republican controlled South. Once the F.B.I was forced to take a hand, one dirty trick after another was sprung upon the Klan, which also makes me wonder how much false data is disseminated by secret PACs and governments.
Includes notes, bibliography and index.

"The processes that link the presence of racial competition to klan action." 18 February 2013
By Amelia Gremelspacher -
This is a scholarly book written to explore the seeming contradiction of the large Klan membership in the liberal based North Carolina. Cunningham sees this as the outcome of a threatened racist minority perceiving no other support for their views. The supporters view themselves as competing for limited resources in an unfairly based market.

This book does provide a broad base of information of the Klan in general. While the group was born in 1866, the actual first cross burning was documented in 1915 in a resurgence prompted by the movie A Nation is Born. The white robes were meant to invoke ghosts to impart a supernatural threat. And the first members conceived a social club.

Nonetheless, the announced victimless meetings did indeed invoke terror and some deaths. The book goes on to explore these as well as federal success is finally effecting its collapse. One interesting fact is the defeat in 1950 of Graham whose success had been widely accepted. In terrifying prequel to todays's hate filled campaigns, he was defeated with whispers of hate and threat.

The klan is dramatic and seemingly marginal, but the facts in this book are meticulous. In documenting how the perception of scarcity and powerlessness can turn to hate and threat, this is a vital book