Goldman saved additional money by hiring a first-time director and having nearly the entire film shot in Montgomery County, near Washington. One exception was an actual Ku Klux Klan recruitment highway billboard which was featured in the film, suggesting the level of the Klan's support and influence in the town depicted in the movie. Such billboards were a relatively common sight in the South during the mid-1960s time period that served as the film's setting. However, by the time of filming in 1976, the majority of them had been removed. The billboard that was ultimately used in the movie (shown right) was filmed at its location on U.S. Route 70 at the city limits of Smithfield, North Carolina. The sign was maintained there until the late 1970s, making Smithfield one of the last towns that the filmmakers could have found which continued to have such a sign displayed."Ethridge began working in Smithfield in the mid-1970s, one of two lawyers who were the first blacks to set up a practice in Johnston County. In those days, a billboard greeted people driving into town on U.S. 70 with the words 'The KKKK welcomes you to Smithfield'"</ref>"Only half the sign was left ... Before earlier high winds ripped it apart the billboard had proclaimed: THIS IS KLAN COUNTRY. The remnant was a faded reminder of a time in the mid-sixties when North Carolina was referred to as 'Klansville, U.S.A.' ... Similar billboards encouraging motorists to JOIN & SUPPORT UNITED KLANS OF AMERICA INC. became as commonplace as Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club greetings ... Now most of the billboards had disappeared from the highways, ... There was a sign farther up Route 70, next to the Smithfield city limits; another outside Goldsboro on 117 North; and this ravaged one, southeast of Raleigh, near Princeton."</ref>