the Ku Klux Klan is the most notorious white supremacist group in the world but how did it grow to such large numbers over the last 150 years how is the clan continued to be a malicious force in American society and what has been its impact nowhere else in American history is such Terror so widespread without organization it was war between North and South the clan is the oldest terrorist group in the United States and in a sense really the original one the initial plan was set up very privately the most secret of secret organizations the Ku Klux Klan is a peculiarly American phenomenon but hate in white nationalism is an international one how big is the KKK today and is it still recruiting members the Ku Klux Klan was born here and thrives here I didn't say thrived I said thrives here the advantage of having a secret society is that nobody knows what your numbers are nobody knows where you are I think the Ku Klux Klan will be with us as long as we have people with hate in their hearts and I think the real threat from the white supremacist movement probably takes a different form today and is America heading for a new race war you cut off its head you think it's dead and eventually it grows another head these are folks who have kept away from the cities who want their Countryside preserved they endlessly see an Invader and they endlessly see that any change whether it is with a flag or a ball or a custom will endanger them we have always had political extremism of one stripe or another but never in such a kind of criminal form as we see it in the clan Civil War has never ended still the fight that America fights for its own identity Southerners are still Southerners they've been hundreds of years Northerners are still Northerners what saves us are all the new people who come and keep between us we go inside the KKK today to reveal the truth about the most infamous White Power Group in the world oh in the aftermath of the American Civil War many ex-confederate soldiers paraded the streets in white sheets and hoods in an attempt to attract young men to join their new social group the Ku Klux Klan they saw the abolishment of slavery as a threat to their country and god-given rights [Music] as a result Clan membership quickly grew to Millions across the whole Southern United States the secrecy was tantamount as their crimes escalated often committed by senior Society figures well the clan initially arose and pretty much a direct response to what happened at the end of the Civil War the freeing of the slaves and ultimately the making of citizens of the slaves it began in a small town in Pulaski Tennessee near the Alabama border and really what it was initially was a kind of prankster Society there were six ex-confederate officers who got together who were born in this small town and decided to form a little Club they used the Greek name for Circle kuklos and that is where the name Ku Klux Klan comes from they dressed up in all kinds of wild outfits this pretty quickly turned into more or less harassing black residents in the area making fun of them they would do certain kinds of things like dress up in such a way that was supposed to suggest that they were the ghosts of Confederate officers from the Civil War the story that six young men met to form a kind of social club with a kind of mystical circle in it is probably has a kernel of truth but I have always believed that the clan started in places like Pulaski Tennessee because it was in the edge of what was a cotton growing area almost everywhere you find the clan in 1866 and 1867 it is young men trying to resurrect their lives in places where cotton had once been King and they wanted to restore that the initial Clan was set up very privately the most secret of secret organizations no one really knew for certain who was in the clan but the only name connected with it was the s-confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest it developed into a movement essentially of small like-minded groups that popped up in various places around the South wasn't until about two years later 1867 where a meeting was held in Nashville where Nathan Bedford Forrest a former confederate general and slave master was made the Grand wizard which was the title for the leader of the Ku Klux Klan for the very first time Forrest really led the Klan through its very most violent period and in effect terrorized in particular in the Republican Party into staying away from the polls into backing away from any kind of political work and so on the first Civil Rights Act with any teeth was passed in 1871. along with something called the enforcement acts and they were passed because of the violence being perpetrated by the Klan they were passed by President Grant who had had enough and he also declared the clan a terrorist organization which meant that if you were discovered to be a klansman you could be hanged and so the membership was very secret and we really don't know how many historians play games make estimates maybe 15 percent of the white males but we don't know in fact at the beginning of the 20th century it's estimated that the first incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan membership had grown to an incredible 5 million people some 25 percent of the South control of the clan again these men they lived underground like moles we do know about the dress they were always masked very often they would wear cloaks generally it was putting a potato sack or something over your head putting something around you to hide who you were getting on your horse and riding out yeah even in the early days of the clan its members wore masks to hide their identity but at the same time giving the group a distinctly menacing appearance these gentlemen of the South definitely did not want anyone to know their identity and that was the chief point in being masked the mask is the only thing that would remain with the clan through all of its days is that they had to cover their faces because they were too cowardly to come out and say who they were they didn't want anyone to know who they were I've seen pictures of Clan Riders you do see the occasional conical looking cap but the clinical cap as we know it it's been connected to a dozen things including ironically enough the udenhood the Jewish hat that the Germans often made the Jews wear in earlier centuries but it's believed that the later Clan connected it with the Spanish Inquisition today the mask and conical hoods have become the most powerful symbols of white supremacy and the clan that exists to me the clan has always been a very logical manifestation of rural life that you band together for survival that you go through certain rituals that give you power in a place that often makes you feel powerless by banding together that power can manifest itself far more effectively than through individual protests or shall we say individual acting out Clan has an ethic of the group dynamic that I think reappears each time the clan reappears a klansman or Clans woman they come from all walks of life so they have different perspectives but one thing they all pulled at the top of their priority list is Preservation of the white race still brilliant we're all good I mean look despite the fact that the clan today is incredibly weak the reality is is that individual klansmen still pose a very real and significant danger at least to people immediately around them side of the Christian religion symbol of faith who we love amen amen the Ku Klux Klan is the most notorious white supremacist group in America but how did this group grow to such large numbers over the last century what impact has it had on politics and what influence does it still have today in 2015 there are estimated to be about 5 000 Ku Klux Klan members in the U. S nearly all in the southern states they regularly get together for rallies barbecues and even cross burnings members include teachers accountants Hospital staff and even local politicians a lot of clan members are also in the military and carry concealed weapons they allowed our cameras to film a gathering in Roxboro North Carolina this is a social Gathering that we're having it's a part of the plan white Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and our goal here today is to have a meeting to gather our white race together and wake up White America and let them know what's going on in the world our race our history our culture Our Heritage comes from thousands of years of history and we don't want to lose it and it's being destroyed by Zog Zog it's a Zionist occupied government the Jews own everything and through all the retail stores and advertising Flyers that you receive in the mail all they show is this racial mixing and we're tired of it well being a this is the national rally brothers from all over the states are coming in and uh it's a good place where we're all together and can do this we're part of this organization to help save our history because we are losing our history I want my son to grow up knowing what's right I mean you know black and white dating just ain't I don't agree with it son needs to learn and know how I feel you know I mean we try to that's what we're here for fighting for every day that's what I'm doing for that's what I want my son to say I mean it's all about the white kids that's that's what we're here for for the future generations to teach them if nobody teaches them they won't know the truth okay the clan has always brought the family along because if what they're trying to perpetuate is family and what they perceive to be the pure Family Values it's very much like Farm life always Watts the kids learned the chores from early on they increased their ability to do the chores as they mature and when the adults aged out they took their place the clan today is really a shadow of its former self the clan is the oldest American terrorist group and probably will be the longest lived but many people in the white supremacist movement today would rather identify with something that maybe had a more modern heir to it uh you know a different kind of white nationalist group like the National Socialist movement so although the clan is you know kind of falling on Hard Times they're probably 70 chapters 23 or so different organizations all fighting amongst themselves maybe four or five thousand klansmen the white supremacist movement is actually quite large for example there are at least 300 000 registered users on something called Stormfront which is the leading Neo-Nazi port and most of those people are of course some people in this country and so you know the number number of people involved in the white supremacist movement is large they don't typically identify with a clan and in many ways there's a kind of a floating away from organized groups because you know the the internet is so powerful I don't have to go to a clan rally I don't have to go to cross burning to get my fill of hate I don't need to go into a meeting to get my racist views validated any longer I can get them validated you know just sitting in my pajamas at my house you know Dylan roof was someone like that the Charleston shooter is kind of radicalized online no evidence that everybody went to a meeting of any sort but he clearly had you know drunk the Kool-Aid of white supremacy two members of the Ku Klux Klan were arrested today in connection with the death of a young black man who was beaten and hanged from a tree in Mobile Alabama the FBI says Michael Donald was killed in a random act of Clan Revenge with a murder of a white police on March 21 1981 a 19 year old African-American man Michael Donald was stopped by klansmen in Mobile Alabama he was then viciously beaten hung from a tree and then dragged down the road behind a vehicle on a rope it remains one of the most brutal racist attacks in American history [Music] the local police chief today is Lawrence Batiste we are headed to an area of town where Michael Donald was hanged by a number of individuals in his community which claimed Association or ties with the Klan the death of Michael Donald created a feeling of fear and apprehension didn't really know where you could and you could not go as a result of Mike O'Donnell's death [Music] first became involved in the Michael Donald Case by really reading about in the newspaper I know there was this talk that it was a drug deal gone bad we were suspicious of that always the FBI and the justice department broke the case you know we saw the two people who were convicted one person that pled guilty another person was convicted at a trial and the rest of us thought you know it wasn't just these Two Fellas there must have been something more behind it the client had a long long history of violence and we began to investigate the case uh quite extensively we're currently on Michael Donald Avenue this sign here is a landmark for Michael Donald says on March 21st 1981 19 year old Michael Donald was abducted beaten killed and hung from a tree by members of the Ku Klux Klan to have a black man hanging from a tree sent a message that racism still exists it may exist in secrecy but it still exists and that there are people in this community that have a stake in saying we don't want you guys here and so it did send a loud message sent the message that you need to be careful about where you go when you go and who you go with now stop the clown now in the end the accused Clan member Henry Hayes was tried and sentenced to death for the lynching and murder of Michael Donald a dramatic decision today in a courtroom in Mobile Alabama a judge has sentenced a member of the Ku Klux Klan to death for the murder of a young black man what happened to Michael Donald was a terrible thing these men who lynched him one of them's been sentenced to death one was in jail for the first of his life and that's where they should be but you can't hold the organization responsible that's why we proved that the clan had a policy or a custom in practice of carrying out its goals through violence we had a very graphic thing from the Clans newspaper the Clan's newspaper was called the fiery cross right the ideas were purifying Christianity and you know this is what black people deserve you turn the page and there's a black man lynched and you know that was a message you know that violence was okay that black people deserve to be lynched the lynching and death of Michael Donald at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan shows all too dramatically just how brutal they were in the 20th century and this tragic incident proves what many still fear that the clan still has an extreme element or willing to torture maim and kill to get their dangerous ideology across [Music] the Ku Klux Klan are a white supremacist organization with its roots in the deep south of America at its peak towards the end of the 19th century it could boast millions of members but today those numbers have shrunk to a few thousand hardcore followers who are all the more radical and dangerous the U.
S government and the FBI are well aware of the kkk's brutality they spent a great deal of time and money trying to infiltrate the clan to get first hand and eyewitness accounts of exactly what's been going on Michael friesen's father was an undercover FBI agent working for J Edgar Hoover inside the clan in the 1960s [Music] my dad got out of Army Air Corps in World War II and went directly into the FBI and was an FBI agent from say 1948 to about 70. he came to Greensboro because Greensboro was one of the centers of the racial unrest in the 60s he was assigned to work on the Klan and develop informants in the clan through a program that Hoover called cointelpro White hate which was basically investigation of all the white hate groups in the United States he was fortunate to get a lot of people at the top of the North Carolina Clan the United clans of America in North Carolina his primary informant was George Dorsett George Dorsett was a house painter and a preacher he had a very powerful fire and brimstone speaking style the Devil is a roaring meshed well in the clan because he was one of the primary speakers at the rallies so he became sort of the fiery voice of the clan in North Carolina the peanut brain got approached Dorset four or five times before he was willing to actually cooperate with him give him information I think there was a reluctance initially to work with the FBI but I think the money was good Frierson was one of the FBI's best agents gaining valuable information about the KKK from informants for many years including details of members rallies and potential targets his work was recognized by J Edgar Hoover the bureau's chief over the years MrHoover sent my dad many letters of commendation many of them were for work he had done in the racial field he was one of the top FBI agents recruiting Clan informants in North Carolina he says pleased to commend you and advise you that I've approved an incentive award for recognition of outstanding services in a matter of considerable interest to the bureau in the racial field your skillful and effective efforts in developing and handling confidential sources resulted in a great deal of success in this area of our operations this is counterintelligence right goes beyond information gathering they're basically trying to break the clan off you know so dissent and cause Splinter groups to be formed and that kind of things with expanded jurisdiction in the fields of organized crime and civil rights the FBI scored decisive blows against Ku Klux Klan biome when details of George Dorsett spying for the FBI emerged in 1965. it caused a huge upset within the clan he was forced into police protection for his own safety and banned from attending Clan meetings as is well known now George corset was also the Informer he was in a sense the snitch even at the time he was rallying the troops frankly I don't think anyone's ever come to grips with that even he before his guilt or whatever it was he ended up with he essentially was doing something I think that he truly believed in and at the same time selling it out so you could argue that George Dorsett was the true realist he knew that the days of the clan were measured they were numbered they would end but he wanted to get the truth in as long as he could [Music] there's little doubt that the FBI did have some success with their infiltration of the clan but in turn it also led to a deeper radicalization of Splinter groups who have gone further Underground [Music] despite the jokes making their way around the South that half the people in any Clan meeting were FBI informants that wasn't true the clan was being reborn it was being reborn quickly there were lynchings by the score there were beatings there were people being threatened it it was very much a replay of something that I think most Northerners and intellectuals thought was long dead it was it was a replay of the old plan Chrissy has always been an important element in the clan Susan Sutton from the Indiana Historical Society has found a small figurine which used to be placed outside meetings to indicate whether it was a fully Clan event or whether non-clan members were present what we have half use by the individual claverns the statuette would stand at the point of entry for members and the story is that if both arms were in place including this one which is removable then the people present were all members and it was safe to speak about anything if the arm was not in place like this then there were people present who were not members and so any kind of secret business was not to be discussed [Music] it says on the bottom k-i-g-y which means klansmen I greet you and of course [Music] he's only greeting them if his arm is in place the advantage of having a secret society is that nobody knows what your numbers are nobody knows where you are and as far as the way the clan viewed itself in terms of their secrecy they had no shame about being secret they knew that being so secret inflated their numbers in people's mind the so-called mystery and sexiness of the plan is such that we actually have a tiny little Clan groups popping up in places like Australia and Germany and so on there's a kind of weird romance associated with it [Music] although their numbers are rapidly diminishing the clan still has a passionate following in the south a recent gathering in Roxborough North Carolina allowed our cameras in as they prepared a large cross for the evening's burning some members claim that a new war is coming where the white majority will as they put it take America back the sliding of this cross represents Jesus Christ is the light of the light of the world he is our existence he is the reason that we we are on this Earth and so we light this cross in honor of what he has given to us we're not the first to do this you know this has been done for for hundreds and hundreds of years this is our Confederate Battle Flag what it represents is a our Confederate soldiers in the south in 1958 the Confederacy or the Confederate Veterans soldiers working were brought in as U.
S veterans and their their gravestones are being desecrated the flags are being torn off of them and nobody's doing anything about it they're destroying us they're trying to kill us they're wiping us off the face of this planet and we want to wake up America and put a stop to it and now then they're trying to take the clan uh out of the country out of our history out of our Southern Heritage and y'all got that looking good then once they get rid of our Southern Heritage they will not be satisfied until they destroy the heritage of this United States the cross sliding represents the light of do this and how he shines down over all of us it is important because the our biggest thing is our Christian Base our kids definitely need to know about their Heritage and where they came from they need to be proud in their race and know that it's okay to be white now despite the Clan's High Media profile today the initiation ceremony and sacred Oaths undertaken by those joining the clan remain a closely guarded Secret when you are inducted or initiated into the Ku Klux Klan you go through a secret ritual a secret initiation ceremony in which you give an oath and you give a pledge to preserve the white race to preserve white Womanhood you give your life you also make a promise never to reveal any Clan business to aliens an alien is anyone who is a non-clan member and to always uphold the values and policies of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan young white people they see the movement for black lives matter and they say gosh we're losing the country what about us you know and so they try to try to figure out a way to kind of Express what in their mind is ethnic pride and kind of a warped way we've seen plenty of cases of the young people in the north with Confederate flags well what can that mean that's not the historic Confederacy it's just an expression of whiteness in their minds because they feel embattled there are no real boundaries in this it's just part of a social movement that takes your money organizes your energies and engages your families you get everything in one package you get the costumes you get the ideology you get the family concerns it has elements of the church it builds community and most of all it keeps out the alien it promises you that your children will have a future that you control not fail the Ku Klux Klan are the most famous white supremacist organization in the United States its Origins start back at the end of the 19th century when it attracted a huge following in the southern states and is still active today though with just a fraction of the membership after what was known as the first wave of the Ku Klux Klan back in the end of the 19th century a second wave flourished in the early 20th century on the most part it attracted all sorts of regular law-abiding citizens who helped with good social causes but of course there was also the constant undercurrent of racially motivated hatred complete with traditional white hoods one of its leaders was a politician called DC Stevenson Who was appointed State leader or Grand Drgon of the clan in Indiana in 1925 he was tried and convicted in a notorious abduction rape and murder of a young white woman Madge oberholtzer a state education official his trial conviction and imprisonment ended America's belief of Clan leaders as law-abiding citizens it was a huge scandal at the time this is Irvington and this is where D. C Stevenson decided to build his Mansion over here as you can see it definitely has a southern flavor for a Northern State [Music] when DC Stevenson built this house after the 1922 and the 1925 elections when virtually all these politicians were in his pocket his favorite expression was I am the law in Indiana and oddly enough at parties in this house his second favorite expression about politics was that you're safe in politics only one thing can ruin you to be found in bed with a live man or a dead woman well in Stevenson's case it was a dead woman he imprisoned oberholtzer in a small room above his garage where it said he repeatedly tortured and raped her finally realized that she wasn't going to die he did something that is so expressive of the Nutty megalomania of the man it's unbelievable he had one of his bodyguards carry her back to her house walked her up the stairs dumped her on the bed walked out when the Border said who are you he kept his face down he said my name is Taylor she's been in an auto accident but it was a mild one she'll be fine I walked out the door then when the Border who was in the kitchen at the time the rest of the family was gone again looking for match she climbed the stairs and found Madge on the bed the entire front of the dress she had worn to dinner three days before was open her breast covered black and blue and oozing blood she could barely speak all she could say was to ask for her mother the woman asked what happened to you and she said DC Stevenson did this to me he raped me he beat me he bit me most historians truly believe that the murder committed in Indiana was the turning point for the clan klansmen at the Grassroots quickly began to learn that this was not what they thought they had joined and very quickly we'll call them more respectable members in each Community began to distance themselves I mean the case of D.
