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THE PEOPLE VS. THE KLAN IN MASS COMBAT

by WILLIAM LOREN KATZ

DURING THE LAST TWENTY YEARS, as Blacks marched and demonstrated against discrimination, segregation and racism, an important myth began to collapse-the canard that Blacks have met wretchedness and tyranny with passivity throughout history. Distorted history began to fall and the public heard, often for the first time, of battles against slavery and lynchings, resistance to segregation, and a tradition of not only endurance but hardcore combat against the terrible. A growing body of research now substantiates this continuing resistance to oppression.

Yet more remains to be uncovered in this story, more fantasies to be routed, for the humanity of people is expressed in their war against injustice. For example, the Ku Klux Klan is still thought of in terms of its power, violence and ability to destroy or paralyze its victims. Yet the Klan, for all its terror and murders, met a variety of resistance movements which sometimes united people across the very lines of race, religion and ethnicity that the Klan was drawing hard and fast. At the moment, Klan activity is again on the increase north and south and, again, it is meeting determined opposition from citizens united across the lines of race, religion and nationality.

In 1977, Klan activity renewed in northern and southern cities, parading under such banners as "white supremacy," "fight reverse discrimination" and "Americanism." But the outrageous nature of the Klan and its program provoked counterattacks that also made news. In Plains, Georgia, a white worker, Buddy Cochran, infuriated by the bigots, drove his car into a Klan rally and was sentenced to jail. On February 19 in Tallahassee, Florida, 110 Klansmen marched through town seeking recruits and were instead confronted by 1,500 black and white people shouting "Down with the Klan!" Only police intervention saved the Klansmen from harm. On July 4, 1977, a Klan rally was held on the steps of the state house at Columbus, Ohio. When the Grand Dragon sprayed mace on protesting
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William Loren Katz is the author of 16 books on American history, including Eyewitness: The Negro in American History and The Black West. He was general editor of the pioneering 141-volume reprint series The American Negro: His History and Literature published by Arno Press. His essays have been published many times in FREEDOMWAYS and in other magazines.

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