Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: They are the

original domestic terrorists--

violent insurgents responsible

for the deaths of countless men,

women, and even children.

And underneath the white hood

and flowing robes are secrets.

Secrets so dangerous...

>> ARTHUR GOLDWAG: The phrase

that they hate the most from

the founding of America is

"All men are created equal."

>> NARRATOR: ...so

controversial...

>> DAVID CUNNINGHAM: The FBI and

the Klan had a good amount of

ideological overlap.

The Klan saw themselves as

patriotic.

>> White power!

>> NARRATOR: ...and so

frightening...

>> JOHNNY LEE CLARY: They

believe that white revolution is

the only solution.

>> NARRATOR: ... they have been

kept hidden from the public

until now.

>> KKK is here to stay!

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book...

a book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America...

a book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret histories?

Secret plans?

Secret lies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

(whistling and cheering)

>> BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack

Hussein Obama, do solemnly

swear...

>> NARRATOR: Tuesday, January

20, 2009, newly elected

President Barack Obama is sworn

in as the nation's 44th

president.

>> OBAMA: ...preserve, protect,

and defend the Constitution of

the United States.

>> JOHN ROBERTS, JR.: So help

you God?

>> OBAMA: So help me God.

>> ROBERTS: Congratulations,

Mr. President.

(cheering and applause)

>> NARRATOR: He will be the

first African-American citizen

in history to hold the nation's

highest office.

A record crowd of nearly two

million people fill the National

Mall to witness the event.

Tens of millions more will watch

on television throughout the

world.

On the day of his inauguration,

the president enjoyed an

estimated approval rating of

nearly 70%.

(camera shutter clicking)

But there were those in the

country who did not share such

enthusiasm...

those for whom the election

of a person of color,

particularly a black man,

was cause for outrage.

And there, embedded within that

category, was a small, but

insidious and growing number

of men and women who were

determined to use the Obama

presidency to instill fear and

hatred:

the Ku... Klux... Klan.

>> MARK PITCAVAGE: The election

of Barack Obama in November of

2008 was a real blow for white

supremacists of all sorts,

including members of the Ku Klux

Klan.

What they had really feared for

years actually finally came to

pass-- that an African-American

had actually achieved the

highest position in the United

States.

>> BRIAN LEVIN: They're worried

that white America, white

culture, and our nation will not

exist, and the traditions that

made this country great are

being tossed aside as we become

a mongrel socialist society.

>> White power!

(cheering)

White power!

>> CLARY: They believe that

white revolution is the only

solution, and a full-scale white

revolution to where you just

take your guns, and you start

killing everybody till you get

what you want.

>> NARRATOR: But just how large,

powerful, and dangerous is the

Ku Klux Klan?

And could a country that has

become more socially diverse and

progressive still be vulnerable

to the organization's message of

racial hatred?

>> Make a stand!

Join the Klan!

White power!

(cheering)

>> CUNNINGHAM: Today, there are

more Klan organizations than

there ever have been.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

estimates that there are between

5,000 and 8,000 Klan members in

the country, but these members

are spread geographically.

>> LEVIN: What we've seen

throughout history is that the

more a group becomes more

splintered, and particularly

with the Klan, oftentimes we see

more violence, not less, because

there's no one trying to manage

the loose cannons.

(people screaming)

>> NARRATOR: Surprisingly, in an

age of rising global and

domestic terrorism, the Ku Klux

Klan, although officially

considered by the U.S.

government to be a racist

organization, is not an illegal

one.

And while objectionable to most

Americans, its philosophy of

intolerance is protected as free

speech under the First

Amendment.

>> JEFF JONES: We want them to

take their sorry selves back to

Mexico and stay out of our

country!

>> LEVIN: Under our

Constitution, the First

Amendment says, if somebody

wants to engage in expression, a

group can't be discriminated

against because their message is

offensive.

>> NARRATOR: But why have the

U.S. government failed to shut

down the clandestine activities

of the Ku Klux Klan?

And although its current

membership is relatively small,

who would be induced to join its

ranks?

>> ERIC W. HICKEY: There's

always safety, and there's

always empowerment in numbers.

And being alone, you want to

identify with people who feel

the same way you do.

As soon as you find that group,

you feel like you've come home

because they speak your

language.

>> NARRATOR: Like thousands of

young men before him, Johnny Lee

Clary of Baton Rouge, Louisiana

joined the Klan at a vulnerable

time in his life.

By the age of 14, he had

witnessed his father's suicide,

and had been abandoned by his

alcoholic mother.

>> DAVID DUKE: I do believe that

there's a massive racism in the

country, but I think it's an

anti-white racial discrimination

that's called affirmative

action.

>> NARRATOR: After watching a

television program featuring

David Duke, the Grand Wizard of

the Ku Klux Klan, Clary felt

a connection and a calling.

>> LEVIN: David Duke tried to

invoke imagery that was less

violent, yet still very

divisive.

He talked about dog-whistle

words like drugs, crime,

affirmative action, words

that resonated with many in the

middle class communities of the

South, but weren't as explicitly

racist as the verbiage that was

used in years prior.

>> GOLDWAG: For a time, Duke was

considered the terrifying new

face of white supremacy, or

potential president of the

United States.

>> NARRATOR: Johnny Lee Clary

wrote a fan letter to the

handsome and charismatic leader.

What he received in return was a

visit by a Klan member, eager to

recruit him.

>> CLARY: He said, "You've had a

horrible life.

No kid should go through what

you've gone through.

But I've got good news for you

today."

He said, "The word Ku Klux

Klan comes from the Greek word

kuklos, which means circle,

and 'klan' from Scotland, which

means family.

We stand for circle of family."

He said, "And what you need is a

family.

If you come join us, we'll be

your family."

It could have been any cult that

came along and started building

me up, but it just so happened

it was the cult of the Ku Klux

Klan.

>> NARRATOR: As far as the Klan

was concerned, Clary was easy

prey.

They began an intense and

relentless program of

indoctrination, using audiotapes

and other highly effective

propaganda tools.

>> CLARY: They started teaching

me to hate Jewish people.

I didn't even know what a Jewish

person was, and they started

telling me that Jews were evil,

and they were behind everything,

and they started ingraining all

this stuff into my mind.

>> NARRATOR: They also taught

Clary the Klan's secret codes

and elaborate methods of

communication.

>> CLARY: The secret Klan

handshake, for instance.

When you meet another Klansman,

you shake the guys hand, okay?

And you turn his hands this way,

he turns your hand that way,

and that's how Klansman

identified each other for years.

The other one is you take these

two fingers when you shake

hands, and you press the fingers

into the wrist, and you put the

thumb onto the hand, and you

turn their hand, they turn your

hand back.

That's the secret Klan

handshake.

>> PITCAVAGE: The Klan has

code words and phrases

ostensibly so that one Klan

member can recognize another

even if they're not at

a Klan event.

And so, for example, acronyms

like K-I-G-Y, which stands for

"Klansman, I Greet You," or

A-Y-A-K, AYAK, which stands for

"Are You a Klansman?"

To which someone might reply

"A-K-I-A," AKIA, "A Klansman

I Am."

>> NARRATOR: Clary also donned

the Klan's signature robes,

known as glory suits.

>> Sieg heil!

>> CLARY: I remember when I

first put on a Klan robe,

"Ooh, this is cool."

I wanted to wear it everywhere

and things like that because I

was young and I was fiery in it.

>> NARRATOR: For the next 16

years, Johnny Lee Clary rose

through the Klan's ranks,

eventually becoming Imperial

Wizard of the White Knights of

the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi,

the most violent and most

dreaded Klan faction in the

United States.

But does the story of one man's

conversion suggest that the Klan

still poses a credible threat

to American civil rights?

And why, if its history of

murder and violence is so well

documented, does the U.S.

government still allow this most

subversive of secret

organizations to exist?

Coming up:

>> EDNA GREENE MEDFORD: They saw

this intimidation of the black

voter as a local issue.

>> POTOK: One of the real

secrets of the Klan is that it

was very much involved in

attacking white women.

(flashbulbs popping)

>> NARRATOR: Today the

Ku Klux Klan can recruit new

members more swiftly and more

secretly than ever before,

thanks to an effective new

tool: the Internet.

>> LEVIN: White supremacists,

particularly the Ku Klux Klan,

have been at the forefront of

using new communication

technology to get

their message out.

In early 1995, a former Klansman

named Don Black set up the first

white pride, white nationalist

Web site, indeed, the first

hate site on the Internet,

called Stormfront, and it still

exists today and is among the

most popular hate sites.

>> SHANNON BROWN: They're doing

a lot of networking through

the Internet.

The Klan uses different

networking sites where you can

go on and actually talk.

(flashbulbs popping)

>> NARRATOR: But to actually

sign up active foot soldiers,

Klan recruiters know that there

is nothing like face-to-face

contact to draw the curious to

their clandestine club.

And their targets include both

men and women...

the young...

the poor...

the unemployed...

and the uneducated.

>> CLARY: I was the Grand

Kleagle of Oklahoma, which meant

I was public relations man.

I was recruiting people.

I would look in the papers and

see where farmers were losing

their farms, where there was an

economic job loss, a plant shut

down or whatever, and I would go

into that area, and I would say,

"See what's happened?

Your government has betrayed

you."

I'd blame the Jews or I'd blame

this or that, and they would

listen, and they said,

"Where's that application?

I'll join."

I signed up a lot of people

using tactics like that.

(flashbulbs popping)

I was organizing chapters,

and whenever new members would

come in, my job was to go get

them, organize different

klaverns, what they called

them-- they're like dens.

>> BROWN: A girlfriend of mine

and I, we went to a coffee shop

and we basically met up with

these two guys that were in the

Klan, and it was then that they

were telling us, "Oh, we're

gonna have a meeting at the

klavern," which, of course, we

didn't know what a klavern was.

A klavern would be the meeting

hall.

Where they have that at would be

a secret.

We were not allowed to see where

the klavern was.

We were blindfolded and

basically told to get down in

the back of a car and driven in

circles so we wouldn't know

where we were being taken to.

But now in hindsight, it shows

how young and stupid we were

because it's a miracle we didn't

end up in a grape orchard

somewhere.

I guess we were just kind of at

that rebellious, stupid, early

college age.

(flashbulbs popping)

>> NARRATOR: But just what are

the secret origins of this most

notorious of American hate

groups?

And why has it continued to be

so resistant to law enforcement

efforts to prosecute its illicit

activities?

Pulaski, Tennessee, 1865.

In the aftermath of the bloody

American Civil War, during the

period known as Reconstruction,

vanquished Southerners, many of

whom were former slaveholders,

often found themselves at the

mercy of vengeful Northern

carpetbaggers and greedy

opportunists.

But perhaps most galling to

them of all was the fact that

recently freed slaves were now

given political power.

>> LEVIN: In the post-Civil War

period, our first

African-American elected

officials-- congressmen, for

example-- came into office,

and this was a big threat to

Southerners who considered

themselves to be above the

inferior African-Americans.

So when the law was no longer on

their side, they used vigilante

justice.

(gunshot)

And at the forefront was the

terrorist group, the Ku Klux

Klan.

>> NARRATOR: The situation

became ripe for racially tinged

vigilantism to take root.

>> LEVIN: The Klan was started

by six Confederate officers,

mostly 20-somethings.

All or most were college

graduates.

What they found was they could

terrify the superstitious former

slaves into not exercising their

rights.

>> POTOK: They used to go out

and ride on horses, ride through

encampments where freed men

live, and what happened was that

a lot of the freed men believed

that these people were in fact

the ghosts of Confederate

officers.

>> NARRATOR: Inspired by news of

the Tennessee vigilantes, new

factions of the Klan sprang up

in other towns, with members

secretly patrolling the

countryside.

They beat and whipped

African-Americans who dared

leave their homes at night.

(whip strikes)

But newly freed slaves weren't

their only targets.

>> POTOK: One of the real

secrets of the Klan is that it

was very much involved in

attacking white women, the very

people who Klansmen say they

are there to protect--

principally, women who came down

to the South in order to help

the freed men learn to read.

Many of these women were raped

by Klansmen, tarred and

feathered, flogged and so on.

>> NARRATOR: In April 1867,

a secret meeting was held in

Nashville where the various Klan

groups attempted to transform

into a single, organized,

underground paramilitary force.

This so-called "invisible

empire" would set its sights on

restoring white supremacy by

reversing voting laws imposed by

the federal government, laws

Southerners believed to be

unconstitutional.

>> MEDFORD: The Southern states

always had problems with the

federal government's control

over what they saw as local

issues.

They argued, if the states had a

problem with any kind of

interference they were having in

terms of voting rights for

African-Americans or anything

else, then the states had to

act.

And so it does become a state's

rights problem.

>> POTOK: It's true that, as a

result of the Civil War, the

federal government became much

more powerful and it really

changed its position in American

life, and that's been so ever

since.

>> NARRATOR: Although the plan

to unite the various Klan groups

into one centralized force never

materialized, the Klan's

influence continued to spread.

Its agenda was simple: suppress

the black vote and instill

terror by any means necessary.

And African-American meeting

places, particularly churches

and schools, became an

all-too-familiar target.

>> MEDFORD: You make certain

that they're not educated, so

you burn down their schools, and

you burn down their churches

because you understand that the

church is the center of the

society and it's where people

learn to be leaders, and so you

attack all of their social

institutions, and the Klan was

very good at doing that.

>> NARRATOR: Lynchings and

shootings were also favorite

methods of the Klan.

Lawlessness became rampant.

>> POTOK: The Klan and other

radical right-wing groupings

were responsible for the murders

of something like 3,000 people

in Louisiana alone, carried out

in an effort to suppress black

voting.

>> NARRATOR: Fortunately, the

widespread racial terrorism in

the South did not go unnoticed

in Washington, D.C.

On April 20, 1871, President

Ulysses S. Grant signed into law

the Ku Klux Klan Act.

It suspended habeas corpus and

granted federal troops the right

to enforce laws in the Deep

South.

The act was both highly

controversial and highly

effective.

>> MEDFORD: The Ku Klux Klan Act

diminished the effectiveness of

the Klan.

It made it illegal for any

groups of people to interfere

with the voting rights of

American citizens.

>> NARRATOR: For the next few

decades, it seemed as though the

Ku Klux Klan was dead.

Its sheet-wearing members and

mystic traditions had become

relics of the past.

But as a new century dawned, new

social issues summoned the Klan

back from its grave.

And its unlikely ally came in

the form of a startling new

technology, one that would help

make the organization bigger and

more powerful than ever before:

the motion picture.

Coming up:

>> MEDFORD: I think that most

Americans would be surprised at

the number of very prominent men

who were a part of the Klan.

(clamoring)

>> NARRATOR: Images of violence,

racial hatred in the American

media have always been among the

Ku Klux Klan's greatest

recruiting tools.

By exploiting fear, prejudice,

and paranoia, the KKK is able to

draw other like-minded people

into its organization and, in

turn, use them to fuel even more

hatred.

And perhaps this was never more

true than at the dawn of the

last century.

The Industrial Revolution had

triggered an immigration boom.

Millions of eager workers

swarmed into Ellis Island in

hopes of getting their piece of

the American dream.

>> MEDFORD: The first couple of

decades of the 20th century were

a period in which there was a

great deal of immigration into

the country.

Jewish people, uh, people from,

uh, from Slavic countries.

Eastern Europeans were coming

in, as well a lot of folk who

would have been Catholic.

>> NARRATOR: In the midst of

this cultural and technological

boom came an invention that was

perhaps the most powerful of

all: the motion picture.

And it is perhaps one of the

biggest secrets about the Klan,

that it was a motion picture

that helped make the KKK bigger

and more frightening than ever

before.

The Birth of a Nation told the

story of the Civil War and the

era of Reconstruction from the

vantage point of two American

families.

Many hailed the film as a great

achievement.

But there were those for whom

the film was something of a

cinematic nightmare.

>> LEVIN: Birth of a Nation was

released across the United

States and to great fanfare.

It's considered a cinematic tour

de force.

What it does is it glorifies the

Ku Klux Klan's role in post-

Civil War America.

>> MEDFORD: D.W. Griffith

decided to make this film based

on two books-- The Clansman and

The Leopard's Spots-- that were

written by Thomas Dixon.

Griffith suggested that these

good white men in the South are

rising up and trying to protect

themselves from these terrible

black men, and what's

interesting is, it's not just

Southern whites who buy into

this, but it's Northern whites

who do as well.

>> NARRATOR: Riots broke out at

screenings.

Many cities banned the film.

But there were some circles--

surprising ones-- where the film

was not only welcomed but

celebrated.

>> LEVIN: The Birth of a Nation

was actually screened in the

White House, and it is alleged

that President Wilson said,

"It's like writing history with

lightning."

>> NARRATOR: But there was

another group of individuals for

whom the film was neither an

impressive work of art nor a

biased historical fiction.

Instead they viewed it as a

powerful inspiration and a

recruiting tool.

>> JENNIFER KEENE: The Birth of

a Nation presents the Klan as

the vehicle through which the

Union reunites, and it reunites

around the banner of white

supremacy.

>> LEVIN: For recruiting

purposes it wasn't nearly just

hatred of groups but hatred of

the direction America was

going-- to a less moral, more

industrialized, more urbanized,

and less Protestant white

country.

>> NARRATOR: Following the

movie's premiere in Atlanta,

Georgia, William J. Simmons,

a former Methodist minister,

gathered a group of like-minded

activists atop nearby Stone

Mountain.

A new Ku Klux Klan was born, but

this one wasn't only anti-black,

it was anti-urban and anti-

Communist.

It was also anti-immigrant,

anti-Catholic, and stridently

anti-Semitic.

Taking its robes and much of its

iconography from the film,

Simmons also scoured Dixon

novel for information about the

original Klan and its

traditions.

>> GOLDWAG: The burning cross

actually comes from the novel

The Clansman by Thomas Dixon.

He got it from Walter Scott.

Walter Scott got it from

Scottish society, the Highland

tradition.

It was called the Crann Tara,

and when there was a declaration

of war, a burnt cross would be

carried from clan to clan

to bring them together.

>> NARRATOR: For the first

time in its history, the Klan

would emerge from the shadows to

become one of the largest and

most powerful political groups

in the country.

By the mid-1920s, membership was

estimated at nearly six million.

>> LEVIN: It grew across the

country.

States like Pennsylvania, Ohio,

Indiana, Kansas, and as far west

as Oregon.

And in many parts of the United

States, if you wanted to get

elected to office, you had to

have a Klan endorsement.

>> NARRATOR: At its peak, the

Klan counted 75 U.S. congressmen

and at least 16 U.S. senators

as members.

>> MEDFORD: If there was an

America's Book of Secrets on the

Ku Klux Klan, I think the thing

that most Americans would be

surprised at would be the number

of very prominent men who were a

part of the Klan.

>> LEVIN: Future Supreme Court

Justice Hugo Black actually was

a United States senator before

going onto the court and was a

Klansmember earlier in his

career.

>> POTOK: The irony is that

Black was quite a liberal

Supreme Court justice for very

many years, and he also very

actively denounced the Klan

in later years.

>> PITCAVAGE: But that doesn't

mean his opinions changed.

He may well have continued to

have the same opinions that he

had had before.

>> MEDFORD: Those folk have lots

of authority.

They get to interpret our laws.

And what better position to be

in to promote your own agenda?

>> NARRATOR: There are even some

who claim that a Klansman once

occupied the highest office in

the land-- the Oval Office--

although the connection has

never been proven.

But one prominent member of the

U.S. Senate was in fact a

powerful and influential member

of the Ku Klux Klan--

Senator Robert Byrd

of West Virginia.

>> PITCAVAGE: Robert Byrd got

involved with the Ku Klux Klan

in West Virginia in his early

20s, and actually was involved

with the Klan for some time,

and even later supported some of

the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan.

>> KEENE: He was a recruiter.

He was part and parcel of it.

He spoke out openly in defense

of it when he first ran for the

senate.

>> NARRATOR: Although Byrd later

repudiated his membership and

went on to have a prominent and

distinguished career, there are

those who still question the

motives of politicians who join

the Klan in the first place.

>> MEDFORD: I'm always amused by

the reasons they give for having

been members.

"I could have never been a

successful politician if I had

not joined the local Klan

group."

Or "I thought I was doing the

right thing, but it was a

youthful indiscretion."

But we have always had those

issues in this country.

>> NARRATOR: The Klan formally

disbanded as a national

organization in 1944 when the

Internal Revenue Service levied

a $625,000 lien on the group.

But there are those who believe

the decline of this so-called

second wave of the Klan ended

due to other, more secret

reasons.

>> LEVIN: The second-era Klan

eventually crashed with a

precipitous decline following

sex and money scandals, as well

as an inopportune attempt to

unite with people from the

German American Bund prior to

World War II.

>> NARRATOR: During World War

II, the Klan's membership

dwindled, and there were many

who thought its days

were numbered.

But just like the South its

members swore to defend,

the Klan would rise again.

Coming up:

>> LEVIN: Klan calling cards

were laid at the homes of

activists, and people were shot

and murdered.

>> CLARY: They didn't like the

idea of the North coming down

south and telling them: This is

how you're going to live.

>> NARRATOR: On May 17, 1954,

the United States Supreme Court

ruled that state laws

establishing segregated schools

for black and white students

were unconstitutional.

(whistle blowing in distance)

While many whites and

African-Americans celebrated,

dormant Klan groups rose up and

instituted a new campaign of

violence and intimidation

against civil rights activists.

>> CLARY: When Dr. Martin Luther

King and the civil rights

movement was going on through

the South, a lot of people

joined because they didn't like

the idea of the North coming

down south and telling them:

This is how you're going to

live.

I'm sure people in New York

would probably take offense to a

bunch of Southerners coming up

and saying: You're gonna

adopt the Southern way of life.

>> LEVIN: Throughout the South,

the Klan fought attempts by

African-Americans to vote,

to desegregate lunch counters,

to enter institutions of higher

education, and desegregate

public accommodations through

violence.

Crosses were burned across every

county in Mississippi.

Klan calling cards were laid at

the homes of activists, and

people were shot...

(gunshot)

...and murdered.

>> NARRATOR: In Washington, the

Justice Department dispatched

officers from the FBI to monitor

Klan activities and crack down

on their violence.

Arrests, however, were few, and

convictions rare.

But why?

Did the FBI have another, more

secret agenda?

>> POTOK: J. Edgar Hoover,

the director of the FBI,

fundamentally saw the

civil rights movement as either

Communist-led, or at least

Communist-inspired, and he

despised Martin Luther King.

So Hoover's sympathies, while

not exactly with the Klan--

which I think he did see as

essentially a kind of terrorist

organization-- were even more

directed against the civil

rights movement.

>> CUNNINGHAM: There are issues

where the FBI would selectively

investigate particular crimes,

particular acts of violence.

There are many instances of FBI

agents deciding how to bound

violence in a very liberal way,

effectively saying that burning

a cross on somebody's lawn as an

act of terror actually didn't

really hurt anybody.

>> NARRATOR: By 1964, with Klan

violence seemingly out of

control, and under pressure from

civil liberties groups and

local law enforcement, the FBI

employed a secret

counterintelligence program

known as Cointelpro.

Created in 1956 at the height of

the Cold War, this undercover

operation was designed to target

foreign threats to national

security, such as the Communist

Party.

>> CUNNINGHAM: There were

various things that agents would

be able to do under Cointelpro,

including police informants

within groups.

So it was a very underhanded

program in that way.

>> LEVIN: The reach of the FBI

was so significant that Klan

factions would insult each other

by alleging that one was really

a home for informants and not

real white supremacists.

>> NARRATOR: Klan informants

proved useful in cracking

several high-profile crimes,

including the 1965 murder of

Viola Liuzzo, a mother from

Detroit who had traveled to

Alabama to support civil rights

workers.

>> LEVIN: Viola Liuzzo, who went

down South to help register

voters, was shot to death on a

road between Selma and

Montgomery.

>> CUNNINGHAM: Yet by the next

morning they had solved the

crime because Gary Thomas Rowe,

one of their informants, was in

the car, and he told his FBI

agent handler exactly what

had happened.

>> NARRATOR: Over the years, the

use of undercover informants

continued to have a corrosive

effect on the Klan's morale and

sense of security.

>> CLARY: I met a girl in the

1980s, and I fell head over

heels in love with this girl.

I swore her into the Klan.

I took her with me to all the

different Klan rallies.

I told her who the backers were

in the Klan and where the Klan

was getting their money, what

the Klan's plan was and stuff

like that.

There wasn't anything she didn't

know when I got done, because

she kept telling me she loved

me.

When it came out that she was an

informant, other rival Klans

were riding the White Knights

for membership, and they used

this to come against me.

They said, "How can you trust

Johnny Clary?

He didn't even know his own

girlfriend was a federal

informant."

And all I could think about is

when they recruited me when I

was 14 years old.

"We'll be your family.

You'll always have a family."

And I started thinking, "If this

is what a family is, I don't

want anything to do with it."

>> NARRATOR: On February 27,

2007, FBI Director Robert

Mueller announced the formation

of a cold case initiative

designed to investigate nearly

100 unsolved murders dating back

to the civil rights struggles of

the 1950s and '60s.

>> MUELLER: ...do everything we

can to close these cases and to

close this dark chapter in our

nation's history.

Protecting the civil rights of

all Americans is one of the

FBI's highest missions, whether

the violations occurred four

days ago or 40 years ago.

>> NARRATOR: But why is the FBI

only now taking such an active

role in prosecuting the Klan and

its crimes?

Is it possible there is a secret

reason they waited so long?

Coming up:

>> BROWN: They're always

preparing for that so-called

"race war."

>> CLARY: And then they started

talking about overthrowing

America and how much they hated

America.

>> KKK is here to stay!

>> NARRATOR: November 6, 2012:

President Barack Obama is

reelected for a second term.

Unlike the election held four

years earlier, the race was

tight.

>> U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

>> NARRATOR: America was still

in the grip of high

unemployment, soaring deficits,

and an immigration problem

involving an estimated 11

million undocumented persons,

mostly of color.

Neighbor was attacking neighbor

over everything from health care

to gay rights, contraception,

gun control, and paying their

fair share.

>> Fired up, ready to go!

>> NARRATOR: But for the Ku Klux

Klan, the nation's woes didn't

present problems to solve, but

opportunities that could be

exploited.

>> No public option!

>> GOLDWAG: At least one KKK

group endorsed Obama because

they hoped that it would make

things worse.

And in some ways, it has.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

has tracked an enormous spike in

the number of organized hate

groups since Obama's election.

>> NARRATOR: Would the Ku Klux

Klan rise again, much as it did

in the past?

>> LEVIN: Over the last decade,

the Klan rode a wave of success

on a couple of issues.

One was the post-9/11 period,

but also, something related, and

that was immigration.

(indistinct chanting)

>> BROWN: The border issue is a

big one right now,

gays marrying.

They'll pick a subject that's in

the media and is really big and

has people really going at it.

>> What do we want?

>> Equality!

>> When do we want it?

>> Now!

>> PITCAVAGE: What Klan groups

have discovered is, there are a

lot of ways to get publicity.

If they can adopt a highway sign

somewhere, there'll immediately

be an outrage.

And there'll be groups demanding

that the state agency refuse

permission.

But the reality is, they have a

right to conduct those sorts of

activities, no matter how nasty

or unpleasant they may be.

>> We are the Ku Klux Klan.

We hate niggers. We hate Jews.

We hate faggots, and we hate

spics!

>> NARRATOR: Perhaps even more

insidious and dangerous than the

Klan's recruitment tactics is

its ability to inspire and help

mobilize other likeminded hate

groups.

>> LEVIN: The Klan really does

not have direct connections to

mainstream politics in the way

that we draw a diagram, but what

they do is have the ability to

inject conspiracy theories,

racial hatred into the

mainstream discourse that is

taken by more respectable

mainstream groups.

>> NARRATOR: The Klan has also

secretly begun to join forces

with other violent white

supremacist organizations, such

as Christian Identity, the

National Socialist Movement,

and the National Alliance.

>> Everywhere the non-whites go,

they destroy this land.

>> NARRATOR: But just what is

their ultimate, secret plan for

America?

>> White power! White power!

>> GOLDWAG: You will find, if

you look into the literature

from Klan groups and

Klan-related groups now, that

they're less talking about

saving the country than creating

a separate white country, an

ethno-state.

The phrase that they hate the

most from the founding of

America is "All men are created

equal."

>> CLARY: When the Nazis and the

skinheads came along, it was,

"Kill them all.

We want nothing but an all-white

world, and we're gonna

exterminate the Jews; we're

gonna exterminate the Mexicans;

we're gonna exterminate the

blacks."

>> They want to commit genocide

on the Anglo-American race, and

abolish you.

>> BROWN: They're always

preparing for that so-called

"race war."

It's always something that

they're thinking about.

When the time comes, you got to

be ready to defend your race.

>> CLARY: They started talking

about overthrowing America, and

how much they hated America,

the final revolution across the

country, not by the ballot box,

but by the cartridge.

>> NARRATOR: Is America really

at war with this small, but

persistently virulent, hate

group?

Does the Ku Klux Klan, with its

messages of intolerance, racism,

and violence, really pose a

threat?

>> LEVIN: If there's any

terrorist group throughout

American history that has been

influential, it's really been

the Ku Klux Klan.

>> MEDFORD: It's not about

free speech.

It's not about constitutional

rights.

It's about selfishness, and

people believing that their

rights are the only rights that

matter.

And so, as long as the Klan has

that attitude, we definitely

need to be concerned about them,

even if they are a small group.

>> PITCAVAGE: Because the Klan

has such white supremacist brand

recognition, it's unlikely that

we're gonna see the demise of

the Ku Klux Klan anytime soon.

>> KKK is here to stay!

>> NARRATOR: Since its creation

nearly 150 years ago, there have

been many attempts to discredit,

prosecute, and even outlaw the

Ku Klux Klan...

yet it persists.

Like a disease, it takes cover

in the very body of American law

that protects First Amendment

rights and freedoms, the very

freedoms it is actively seeking

to destroy.

But will the Ku Klux Klan

succeed?

Could America be thrust into

another Civil War...

this time a racial one?

>> White power!

>> NARRATOR: It would be

dangerous for us to assume that

such a thing could never happen

here.

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