Klansville USA

Klansville USA is a documentary focused on the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. It explores the groups damage to the country in the south during the 60's and explains who was involved. The KKK had settled down for a while, but reemerged after the decision of the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954. At the time, North Carolina was considered the most progressive state, and received a new nick name, Klansville USA. The Klan thought that they needed to save America because schools were starting to become integrated. After Civil Rights workers started to migrate south, the KKK felt they needed to do something to stop them. The Klan first started with a small rally with 2,000 in attendance. They began to travel to promote the lan and sign new members. Bob Jones was the first leader of the KKK. He had a way to persuade people like no one else. He was able to convince many people to be apart of the group.

In 1966, a rally was called in Raleigh, North Carolina, called by Klan leader Bob Jones. Hundreds of police surrounded the streets, for one of the largest political gatherings in history at that time. During this time, the KKK reached almost 10,000 members of the group, in North Carolina. Their largest form of protest was burning crosses. Jones claimed his group as non-violent. He thought that his group would be more successful if he said it was non-violent. This was true for a while, but further south klan groups became more violent and got the attention of the FBI up north. A civil rights worker was murdered by a klans men. This got the presidents attention. President Johnson started to threaten the Klan members to get out, before it got worse. This made many klan members very upset, and "mad as hell" according to a north carolinian klan member.

The FBI started to realize that members were getting unhappy with how Jones was handling the money from the Klan members. Money was pouring into the Klan, and Bob Jones wife was handling all of it. This started to open cases on capital hill. He bought a new Cadillac with money from the Klan, and started to deposit money into his personal accounts. This triggered many members, and they started to drop out of the Klan when Bob Jones would not testify. Soon after, members stabled their membership cards to a cross and burned them. After this, the Klan become a shameful thing and started to trickle down. Jones never achieved any of his major goals, and they never built a long lasting political platform. Many members now regret ever being apart of Jones Klan.