In this climate of escalating racial tension, is the Ku Klux Klan poised for a comeback? According to the subject of the investigative documentary “Inside the Ku Klux Klan,” the events in Ferguson and Charlottesville have only fueled interest in this fearsome hate group. The filmmakers spent seven months infiltrating various factions of the KKK to determine whether this surge in popularity was real or an apparent propaganda.
In Missouri, the leader of the Traditional Order of the Knights of America claims his group receives hundreds of calls and tens of thousands of website visits every day from potential new members. They aggressively target young people desperate to pursue a career focused on their disillusionment.
But the modern KKK has a PR problem. Its dark and bloodthirsty history saw its membership rise to more than 5 million in the 1950s and resulted in the brutal lynching and massacre of hundreds of thousands of African Americans.
Current members still retain the central mission that has distinguished the KKK since its inception — to promote and ensure the purity and dominance of white people, whom they believe to be superior to any other race. But today’s KKK likes to distance itself from its reputation as a hate group. They claim that the use of violence is just another unfortunate chapter in their past.
The film presents the Ku Klux Klan with a slice of life that neither praises nor judges. Viewers shouldn’t need judgmental commentary to form an opinion about what’s happening on screen; when subjects try to explain why they joined the group or their newfound (and unbelievable) aversion to violence, they hurt Own.
We witnessed a young teenager approach two members asking about joining the group, recruiting pamphlets were distributed in public places, and entire families gathered to celebrate white supremacist causes and offer financial support.
Inside the Ku Klux Klan, we’re also introduced to members of the Resistance, including those who suffered from the tyranny of racial violence and the fighters sworn to stop the rise of one of the most nefarious organizations in American history.
Directed by: Daniel Vernon
