he fact that the Klan found its most vehement support in the poor, uneducated White population of the South, many of whom had lost small farms or plots of land in the Reconstruction.
By the late 1800s, the Klan had become enough of a force to exert some limited influence in the political spectrum of Southern politics. For example, in the 1868 election, the Klan supported New York Governor Horatio Seymore against war hero General Ulysses S. Grant. Klan methods included various kinds of intimidation. Their threats were printed in local newspapers, posted on trees, or on town bulletin boards. They warned Grant supporters (Republicans) to either leave town or stay home on election day. Since there was no secret ballot at the time, the Klan's methods were somewhat effective, in particular the type of violence they used against the new Black electorate. Although Grant won the election, the pattern was now set that the Klan could have political influence, especially in the South.3
By the 1920s, the Klan has spread to 48 states, and was able to "persuade millions of White citizens that massive terror threatened United States citizens from Communism in the USSR, the Pope in Rome, strikes and unions, Blacks and foreigners in cities, modern women, and mortal sin everywhere."4 With the rise of fascism in Europe, however, the Klan lost much of its support during the 1930s and war years. The decline was not to continue, though. "On May 17, 1954, U.S. race relations changed forever and with it the sagging fortunes of the Ku Klux Klan. U.S. Supreme Court justices unanimously affirmed the legal arguments of the NAACP attorneys and found school segregation after 88 years in violation of the US Constitution. They ordered its end 'with all deliberate speed.'"5
In North Carolina, the Klan had a long history. In the 1900s, Thomas Dixon, a North Carolina writer and dramatist, mythologized the Klan into "The Invisible Empire" a polit...