The United States is the home of one of the oldest, if not most well known, terrorist organizations the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan receives a great deal of media attention through newspapers, periodicals, and television coverage. The Klan itself embodies several perceptions for the American people, yet the press never seems to tire of covering the menacing white hooded members who espouse racial purity, fundamentally conservative ideas to the extreme, and often take the law into their own hands.
On November 3, 1979, four people were shot to death at an anti Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina. Those killed were members of an organization that claimed responsibility for disrupting a Klan rally the previous July, and the Klan had promised vengeance.1 Several issues come to mind in reference to both the raid, the murders, and the Klan's place in the rubric of North Carolina politics. This paper will first present a brief background on the Ku Klux Klan, give the specifics surrounding the Greensboro incident, analyze the probable effects the incident had on the political sphere within North Carolina, and conclude with the legacy of the events. The Klan began shortly after the Civil War in Pulaski, Tennessee. It was formed by former Confederate soldiers to keep the ideological spirit of racial purity and violence against enemies of the South alive. The name was chosen from the Greek letters of the club members' college fraternities. The men's favorite was "Kuklos Afelphon. In Greek, kyklos means a circle of friends. That was it. Ku Klux, they called themselves, and added Klan for more zip. The figured 'Ku Klux Klan' would make people sit up and take notice, and they were right."2
Since its inception, the Klan has stood for white supremacy. This was a popular view by many in the Old South, and the Klan found plenty of support with disenfranchised soldiers, and former slave owners. However, many authors point to t...