Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the civil rights movement and fought for racial equality with something much stronger than tolerance.
By Charles Gilmer
Persistent recurrences of racial incidents and the public debate over welfare reform and affirmative action continue to engage the American consciousness with the question of race. The 1992 riots in the wake of the verdict in the Rodney King beating trial were the first signs of fracturing. Varying reactions to the O.J. Simpson trial verdicts revealed the differences in perspective that black and white Americans generally possess. Both cases stirred anger and resentment across racial lines.
Then the 1995 Million Man March led by Louis Farrakhan called on black men to appreciate, demonstrate and appropriately use their power. This march was a stark contrast to the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered. Bigger, blacker, and more masculine, the Million Man March abandoned Dr. King's call for the moral conscience of the nation to awaken. Instead a new, self-authenticating black power dismissed the need to identify any real common ground with the larger society. To the organizers of the march, the pursuit of self definition rendered the feelings and thinking of whites, Jews and other minorities incidental.
How did Martin Luther King's vision of a cooperative, unifying society turn into this very different image? Some would call it a reconciling of King's dream with reality, a more practically grounded approach to positive change in the black community. Others found it disturbing, the positive and hopeful messages of the day tainted by the leadership of a controversial leader of an Islamic sect.
Tensions continue, and weekly we hear of yet another incident somewhere in our country where race is presented as a precipitating factor.
What has become of Martin Luther King's Dream?
In the wake of the civil rights movement in which Dr. King was so dramatically used, there came a flood of social programs that sought to address the causes and consequences of racism. Cultural education, cross cultural dialogue, and the current multi-culturalism all hearken back to the civil rights movement for their mandates.
In the pursuit of the rights of various groups, under the civil rights umbrella, one thing has become clear. That which was called right by one group is often called wrong by another. Rather than resolving the differences, tolerance is championed as the appropriate response to the varying perspectives that have emerged. Yet tolerance has no cohesive nor healing power in society. It means little more than leaving one another alone. It leads to indifference, not understanding. Tolerance allows the gulfs between us to remain in place. In fact, there is little in the concept of tolerance to pull us away from racial isolation.
Tolerance brings with it an implicit moral relativism. Who is to say what is right and what is wrong? Moral relativism suggests that there are no absolutes to which we can all be held accountable. Such a thing was far from the thinking of Martin Luther King. In one of his works Dr. King makes the following statements:
"At the center of the Christian faith is the affirmation that there is a God in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality. A Being of infinite love and boundless power, God is the creator, sustainer, and conserver of values....In contrast to the ethical relativism of [totalitarianism], Christianity sets forth a system of absolute moral values and affirms that God has placed within the very structure of this universe certain moral principles that are fixed and immutable."
Dr. King did not speak in terms of tolerance. His ideal was love.
"Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." (Strength to Love, p. 51)
Yet, in current discussions of race relations the word love is seldom mentioned. Dr. King insisted love was the dominant or critical value by which we could overcome racial strife. The love he spoke of was a biblical love, one that is unconditional, unselfish and seeks the absolute good of another party. That kind of love is a tough love, one that confronts wrong and injustice with the truth--absolute truth as decreed by an all powerful God and enables the individual to love their enemy.
Martin Luther King's Dream
As we consider giving new life to "The Dream," we have to acknowledge that, in Dr. King's speaking and writing, "The Dream" does begin with God. For without God, there is no absolute transcendent truth on which to base a call to justice. Nor is there any source from which to draw the strength to love about which he spoke.
A certain degree of skepticism about this perspective is understandable. Too often, those who claim to be Christians have failed to live in keeping with the clear teachings of the Christian Scriptures. These failures have frequently been in matters of race. It is clear from the Bible (and Dr. King affirmed) that the church ought to provide spiritual and moral leadership in society. However, as we observe the history of the American church, many parts of it have been passive, or even regressive, in matters of race. Even in the current era, the church speaks to the issues of the day with a fragmented voice. A case in point is the tendency for African-American clergy to align with Democratic candidates, while many white pastors align with Republicans. Yet, Dr. King implored people not to dismiss Christianity on the basis of these observations.
Dr. King lived in an era when the leadership of the church in addressing racism was even less credible than it is today. Dr. King clearly understood that to often there was a difference between what Christianity taught in the Bible and the varieties of Christianity observed around him. His life was devoted to challenging this nation to live out a more consistent obedience to the moral absolutes of the Bible. His repeated plea was for men and women to enter into the kind of personal relationship with God that transcended that which could be seen and that which was being experienced.
Hear Dr. King as he speaks to the man or woman who contends that God is unnecessary or irrelevant to our modern lives:
"At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith, our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds. There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism." (Strength to Love, p. 51)
Are you discouraged about the prospect of us never overcoming the racial divisiveness that permeates this nation? Or are you frustrated by your inability to genuinely love others who are different from you? Martin Luther King recommended faith in Jesus of Nazareth as antidotes for both maladies.
"Evil can be cast out, not by man alone nor by a dictatorial God who invades our lives, but when we open the door and invite God through Christ to enter. 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' God is too courteous to break open the door, but when we open it in faith believing, a divine and human confrontation will transform our sin-ruined lives into radiant personalities." (Strength to Love, p. 126)
Racial Equality
A relationship with God gives us the power to overcome whatever sin we may be struggling with, including the sin of racism. Racism stands not only as a barrier between people, but as an offense between us and God. The reason Dr. King could recommend Christ as a solution to the problem of racism is Jesus' death on the cross paid the price for all of our sins. He then rose from the dead and now offers us the forgiveness of God and the power to live new lives. Dr. King put it this way:
"Man is a sinner in need of God's forgiving grace. This is not deadening pessimism; it is Christian realism." (Strength to Love, p. 51)
What Martin Luther King described as our need for a "divine and human confrontation" is offered at God's initiative. It requires that we place our faith in what Jesus did as our own personal payment for sin, and inviting Him to enter our lives "when we open the door and invite God through Christ to enter."
Dr. King's words still ring true today. We can give new life to "The Dream," following the path of Dr. King. Our path may not lead to martyrdom by an assassin's bullet as it did for Martin Luther King, but it does lead to dying to our selfish ways and self-sufficiency. Such a faith is not a weak-kneed, escapist religious exercise, but a courageous pursuit of that which is ultimately good, right and true.
"In his magnanimous love, God freely offers to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Our humble and openhearted acceptance is faith. So by faith we are saved. Man filled with God and God operating through man bring unbelievable changes in our individual and social lives." (Strength to Love, p. 51)
"The Dream" starts with God as revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ. Through a relationship with Him, we can be agents of healing in a world that is sick with racial and ethnic conflict. Won't you seriously consider placing your faith in Christ, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did? God offers us this relationship with Him, and we simply respond:
Jesus Christ, I invite you to come into my life, to forgive me of my sin, to give me a new relationship with you. Bring into my heart your love and your power to love others. Thank you for transforming my life right now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 11, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Maoris
Pakeha and Maori are two different kinds of New Zealanders. Pakeha are white people whose ancestors lived in Europe. Maori are brown people whose ancestors have lived in New Zealand for many generations. New Zealand does not have separate class for people of mixed Maori and Pakeha blood. Nor does it insist that all people of Maori descent be classified as Maori. According to recent population estimates, there are about 400,000 Maori in New Zealand's population of 3.5 million-about one Maori for every 12 Pakeha. Most Maori still live in the North Island. They have concentrated in North Auckland, the Waikato-king County. They all have large Maori population. Maori culture continues to exist, but its form has changes greatly since mid 1800s. The Maori way of life has become more like the general New Zealand way of life. regain some of its features of the old Maori culture as it is for them to match the Pakeha in terms of earning money and owning material goods. Such values as aroha (love and generosity), mana Maori (prestige and respect within Maori society) and Maori tanga (Maori culture) are, in this view as important as financial success and status.
MAORI TRIBES TODAY
The Maori still retain membership in their particular tribes, even though the members of each tribe may be widely scattered throughout the country. They know what is their tribal committee and probably still own shares in some of the land there. They may be members of the tribal committee. They will return to their own marae (A piece of land owned in common by a subdivision of the tribe. Used as a meeting place) to some ceremonial gathering.
MAORI POLITICS
4 Maori members elected by the electorates represent the Maori in Parliaments. Since 1975, The Maori, including the descendents have the right to choose whether to vote in a Maori or a general electorate rather than before, where they were required to vote for one of the four. People of the tribe hold Maori seats in the Parliament themselves. Most of the time, they will be in the Labour party. Sometimes they stood for general election and were elected. There are many outstanding talented Maori politicians who helped people through their difficulties associated with changing from the old Maori way of live to the new ways of the modern world.
MAORI RELIGION
Both Protestant and Catholics began to work in New Zealand early in the 1800s. By 1840, almost all Maori had become Christians. Today, some Maori belong to the churches with Anglicans having the highest percentage of members from both races. Equal proportions of the Maori and Pakeha are Catholics, while more Maori than Europeans are Mormons.
MAORI SPORTS AND RECREATION
Maori athletes excelled in ruby, basketball, tennis and most recently, golf. Most Maori community has a club that promotes Maori song and dance, which cater for their liking in music and singing. Maori musicians play string instruments like ukuleles and guitars at social gatherings.
url:http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/9338
MAORI TRIBES TODAY
The Maori still retain membership in their particular tribes, even though the members of each tribe may be widely scattered throughout the country. They know what is their tribal committee and probably still own shares in some of the land there. They may be members of the tribal committee. They will return to their own marae (A piece of land owned in common by a subdivision of the tribe. Used as a meeting place) to some ceremonial gathering.
MAORI POLITICS
4 Maori members elected by the electorates represent the Maori in Parliaments. Since 1975, The Maori, including the descendents have the right to choose whether to vote in a Maori or a general electorate rather than before, where they were required to vote for one of the four. People of the tribe hold Maori seats in the Parliament themselves. Most of the time, they will be in the Labour party. Sometimes they stood for general election and were elected. There are many outstanding talented Maori politicians who helped people through their difficulties associated with changing from the old Maori way of live to the new ways of the modern world.
MAORI RELIGION
Both Protestant and Catholics began to work in New Zealand early in the 1800s. By 1840, almost all Maori had become Christians. Today, some Maori belong to the churches with Anglicans having the highest percentage of members from both races. Equal proportions of the Maori and Pakeha are Catholics, while more Maori than Europeans are Mormons.
MAORI SPORTS AND RECREATION
Maori athletes excelled in ruby, basketball, tennis and most recently, golf. Most Maori community has a club that promotes Maori song and dance, which cater for their liking in music and singing. Maori musicians play string instruments like ukuleles and guitars at social gatherings.
url:http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/9338
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of several past and present fraternal organizations in the United States that have advocated what is generally perceived as white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism. These organizations have often used terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups.
The Klan's first incarnation was in 1866. Founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, its main purpose was to resist Reconstruction, and it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves. The KKK quickly adopted violent methods. A rapid reaction set in, with the Klan's leadership disowning violence and Southern elites seeing the Klan as an excuse for federal troops to continue their activities in the South. The organization was in decline from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed in the early 1870s by President Ulysses S. Grant's vigorous action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
In 1915, a second distinct group was founded using the same name. It was inspired by the newfound power of the modern mass media, via the film The Birth of a Nation and inflammatory anti-Semitic newspaper accounts surrounding the trial and lynching of accused murderer Leo Frank. The second KKK was a formal membership organization, with a national and state structure, that paid thousands of men to organize local chapters all over the country. At its peak in the early 1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4-5 million men. The second KKK typically preached racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism, and some local groups took part in lynchings and other violent activities. Its popularity fell during the Great Depression, and membership fell further during World War II, because of scandals resulting from prominent members' crimes and its support of the Nazis.
The name "Ku Klux Klan" has since been used by many different unrelated groups, including many who opposed the Civil Rights Act and desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, with members of these groups eventually being convicted of murder and manslaughter in the deaths of Civil Rights workers and children (such as in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama). Today, it is estimated that there are as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide. These groups, with operations in separated small local units, are considered extreme hate groups. The modern KKK has been repudiated by all mainstream media and political and religious leaders.
First Klan
Creation
The original Ku Klux Klan was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated, middle-class Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee, who were bored with postwar routine. The name was constructed by combining the Greek "kyklos" (κυκλάς, circle) with "clan".
The Ku Klux Klan soon spread into nearly every southern state, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders both black and white. Those assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds, three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who had served in constitutional conventions."
From 1866 to 1867, the Klan began breaking up black prayer meetings and invading black homes at night to steal firearms. Some of these activities may have been modeled on previous Tennessee vigilante groups such as the "Yellow Jackets" and "Redcaps."
In an 1867 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, an effort was made to create a hierarchical organization with local chapters reporting to county leaders, counties reporting to districts, districts reporting to states, and states reporting to a national headquarters. The proposals, in a document called the "Prescript," were written by George Gordon, a former Confederate brigadier general. The Prescript included inspirational language about the goals of the Klan along with a list of questions to be asked of applicants for membership, which confirmed the focus on resisting Reconstruction and the Republican Party. The applicant was to be asked whether he was a Republican, a Union Army veteran, or a member of the Loyal League; whether he was "opposed to Negro equality both social and political;" and whether he was in favor of "a white man's government," "maintaining the constitutional rights of the South," "the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights," and "the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power."
Despite the work that came out of the 1867 meeting, the Prescript was never accepted by any of the local units. They continued to operate autonomously, and there never were county, district or state headquarters.
According to one oral report, Gordon went to former slave trader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Tennessee, and told him about the new organization, to which Forrest replied, "That's a good thing; that's a damn good thing. We can use that to keep the niggers in their place." A few weeks later, Forrest was selected as Grand Wizard, the Klan's national leader. In later interviews, however, Forrest denied the leadership role and stated that he never had any effective control over the Klan cells.
Second Klan
In the four and a half decades after the suppression of the first Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the United States remained very bad—the nadir of American race relations is often placed in this era, and according to Tuskegee Institute, the 1890s was the peak decade for lynchings.
Creation
Movie poster for The Birth of a Nation
The founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 demonstrated the newfound power of modern mass media. Three closely related events sparked the resurgence:
• The film The Birth of a Nation was released, mythologizing and glorifying the first Klan.
• Leo Frank, a Jewish man accused of the rape and murder of a young white girl named Mary Phagan, was lynched against a backdrop of media frenzy.
• The second Ku Klux Klan was founded with a new anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic agenda. The bulk of the founders were from an organization calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan and the new organization emulated the fictionalized version of the original Klan presented in The Birth of a Nation.
Decline
The second Klan collapsed partly as a result of the backlash against their actions and partly as a result of a scandal involving David Stephenson (at the time a member of the Republican Party, after previous active membership in the Socialist Party and then in the Democratic Party), the Grand Dragon of Indiana and fourteen other states, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer in a sensational trial (she was bitten so many times that one man who saw her described her condition as having been "chewed by a cannibal").
The Klan fell out of public favor in the 1930s and withdrew from political activity. Grand Wizard Hiram Evans sold the organization in 1939 to James Colescott, an Indiana veterinarian, and Samuel Green, an Atlanta obstetrician, but they were unable to staunch the exodus of members. The Klan's image was further damaged by Colescott's association with Nazi-sympathizer organizations, the Klan's involvement with the 1943 Detroit Race Riot, and efforts to disrupt the American war effort during World War II. In 1944, the IRS filed a lien for $685,000 in back taxes against the Klan, and Colescott was forced to dissolve the organization in 1944.
Folklorist and author Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Klan after World War II and provided information on the Klan to media and law enforcement agencies. He also provided Klan information, including secret code words, to the writers of the Superman radio program, resulting in a series of four episodes in which Superman took on the KKK. Kennedy's intention to strip away the Klan's mystique and trivialize the Klan's rituals and code words likely did have a negative impact on Klan recruiting and membership. Kennedy eventually wrote a book based on his experiences, which became a bestseller during the 1950s and further damaged the Klan.
year membership
1920 4,000,000
1924 6,000,000
1930 30,000
1970 2,000
2000 3,000
The Klan's first incarnation was in 1866. Founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, its main purpose was to resist Reconstruction, and it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves. The KKK quickly adopted violent methods. A rapid reaction set in, with the Klan's leadership disowning violence and Southern elites seeing the Klan as an excuse for federal troops to continue their activities in the South. The organization was in decline from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed in the early 1870s by President Ulysses S. Grant's vigorous action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
In 1915, a second distinct group was founded using the same name. It was inspired by the newfound power of the modern mass media, via the film The Birth of a Nation and inflammatory anti-Semitic newspaper accounts surrounding the trial and lynching of accused murderer Leo Frank. The second KKK was a formal membership organization, with a national and state structure, that paid thousands of men to organize local chapters all over the country. At its peak in the early 1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4-5 million men. The second KKK typically preached racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism, and some local groups took part in lynchings and other violent activities. Its popularity fell during the Great Depression, and membership fell further during World War II, because of scandals resulting from prominent members' crimes and its support of the Nazis.
The name "Ku Klux Klan" has since been used by many different unrelated groups, including many who opposed the Civil Rights Act and desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, with members of these groups eventually being convicted of murder and manslaughter in the deaths of Civil Rights workers and children (such as in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama). Today, it is estimated that there are as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide. These groups, with operations in separated small local units, are considered extreme hate groups. The modern KKK has been repudiated by all mainstream media and political and religious leaders.
First Klan
Creation
The original Ku Klux Klan was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated, middle-class Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee, who were bored with postwar routine. The name was constructed by combining the Greek "kyklos" (κυκλάς, circle) with "clan".
The Ku Klux Klan soon spread into nearly every southern state, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders both black and white. Those assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds, three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who had served in constitutional conventions."
From 1866 to 1867, the Klan began breaking up black prayer meetings and invading black homes at night to steal firearms. Some of these activities may have been modeled on previous Tennessee vigilante groups such as the "Yellow Jackets" and "Redcaps."
In an 1867 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, an effort was made to create a hierarchical organization with local chapters reporting to county leaders, counties reporting to districts, districts reporting to states, and states reporting to a national headquarters. The proposals, in a document called the "Prescript," were written by George Gordon, a former Confederate brigadier general. The Prescript included inspirational language about the goals of the Klan along with a list of questions to be asked of applicants for membership, which confirmed the focus on resisting Reconstruction and the Republican Party. The applicant was to be asked whether he was a Republican, a Union Army veteran, or a member of the Loyal League; whether he was "opposed to Negro equality both social and political;" and whether he was in favor of "a white man's government," "maintaining the constitutional rights of the South," "the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights," and "the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power."
Despite the work that came out of the 1867 meeting, the Prescript was never accepted by any of the local units. They continued to operate autonomously, and there never were county, district or state headquarters.
According to one oral report, Gordon went to former slave trader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Tennessee, and told him about the new organization, to which Forrest replied, "That's a good thing; that's a damn good thing. We can use that to keep the niggers in their place." A few weeks later, Forrest was selected as Grand Wizard, the Klan's national leader. In later interviews, however, Forrest denied the leadership role and stated that he never had any effective control over the Klan cells.
Second Klan
In the four and a half decades after the suppression of the first Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the United States remained very bad—the nadir of American race relations is often placed in this era, and according to Tuskegee Institute, the 1890s was the peak decade for lynchings.
Creation
Movie poster for The Birth of a Nation
The founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 demonstrated the newfound power of modern mass media. Three closely related events sparked the resurgence:
• The film The Birth of a Nation was released, mythologizing and glorifying the first Klan.
• Leo Frank, a Jewish man accused of the rape and murder of a young white girl named Mary Phagan, was lynched against a backdrop of media frenzy.
• The second Ku Klux Klan was founded with a new anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic agenda. The bulk of the founders were from an organization calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan and the new organization emulated the fictionalized version of the original Klan presented in The Birth of a Nation.
Decline
The second Klan collapsed partly as a result of the backlash against their actions and partly as a result of a scandal involving David Stephenson (at the time a member of the Republican Party, after previous active membership in the Socialist Party and then in the Democratic Party), the Grand Dragon of Indiana and fourteen other states, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer in a sensational trial (she was bitten so many times that one man who saw her described her condition as having been "chewed by a cannibal").
The Klan fell out of public favor in the 1930s and withdrew from political activity. Grand Wizard Hiram Evans sold the organization in 1939 to James Colescott, an Indiana veterinarian, and Samuel Green, an Atlanta obstetrician, but they were unable to staunch the exodus of members. The Klan's image was further damaged by Colescott's association with Nazi-sympathizer organizations, the Klan's involvement with the 1943 Detroit Race Riot, and efforts to disrupt the American war effort during World War II. In 1944, the IRS filed a lien for $685,000 in back taxes against the Klan, and Colescott was forced to dissolve the organization in 1944.
Folklorist and author Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Klan after World War II and provided information on the Klan to media and law enforcement agencies. He also provided Klan information, including secret code words, to the writers of the Superman radio program, resulting in a series of four episodes in which Superman took on the KKK. Kennedy's intention to strip away the Klan's mystique and trivialize the Klan's rituals and code words likely did have a negative impact on Klan recruiting and membership. Kennedy eventually wrote a book based on his experiences, which became a bestseller during the 1950s and further damaged the Klan.
year membership
1920 4,000,000
1924 6,000,000
1930 30,000
1970 2,000
2000 3,000
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