Half a century ago, President Barack Obama would have been forced to sit behind the whites in the back of a bus, and would have been forbidden from eating at many restaurants. There can be no disputing this part of American history, for many who have lived through that menacing time live to tell their stories today. Yet racism does remain; like an ugly beast, lingering on the fringes of society, seemingly unnoticed. Approximately 145 years after the founding of one of America’s largest White Supremacist organizations, the KKK continues to pass its torch of hatred to the next generation.
Half a century ago, President Barack Obama would have been forced to sit behind the whites in the back of a bus, and would have been forbidden from eating at many restaurants. There can be no disputing this history, for many who have lived through that menacing time live to tell their stories today.
Yet racism does remain; like an ugly beast, lingering on the fringes of society. One hundred and forty-four years after the founding of one of America’s largest White Supremacist organizations, the Ku Klux Klan continues to pass its torch of hatred on to the next generation.
One summer night, in 2002, after hours of interviewing, I turned off my tape recorder and stopped asking questions of David, a young member of the Klan. He lay on the hood of his car outside a trailer, and, looking up at the night sky, he explained to me that two black men murdered his mother in 1992, when he was only twelve years old. His voice was hard when he told me this, but not angry. She was a taxicab company owner, and they robbed her, getting away with only $17. I had just spent hours with him, asking him questions about why he was involved, how he had become a Klansman, what he believed, and I had come no where near this. It seemed David had a reason to turn to something so dark, yet it was a reason he could not even vocalize.