Who Put the Klan into Ku Klux Klan?

Who Put the Klan into Ku Klux Klan? 59 min. Dreamscape. 2018. $24.99. ISBN 818506023160.
Gr 9 Up—With his thick Scottish brogue, historian and narrator Neil Oliver digs into the roots of the Ku Klux Klan. In the first decades of the United States, Scottish settlers were drawn to the southern territories because of the inexpensive land, good weather, rich resources, and the promise of personal freedoms. There, many Scots took on the role of slave owners. Interviews with university professors and historians help Oliver tell the story of how six founders envisioned a "social club" similar to a clan (family group) for Scottish and Irish soldiers after the Civil War. However, the social aspect of the Kuklux Klan, as it originally was called, had a darker intent: to reestablish the supremacy of Southern white men in post-Civil War society. The film effectively uses archival footage of burning crosses and white-robed marchers, and it contains several black-and-white photographs of lynched bodies hanging from trees. The final interview with a well-spoken man who proudly supports the League of the South and white supremacy principles today is a chilling conclusion.
VERDICT A well-researched documentary focusing on the roots of the Ku Klux Klan up to the current day. Suitable for American history and civil rights classes, particularly where there is instructional time to process inflammatory statements.

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