Ku Klux Klan, an American Story

KKK: Three letters that instantly conjure images of hooded processions, public lynchings, and churches in flames. These shocking scenes continue to haunt our collective memory and summon up the darkest chapters of American history.

From the abolition of slavery in 19^th century to the populism of the inter-war period, from the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s to the recent riots in Charlottesville, the history of the Ku Klux Klan is inseparable from that of the United States. But what do we really know about this secret society? How has it managed to perpetuate itself right up to the present day? On what hatreds and fears has the Klan fueled? What resistance have civil society and democratic institutions offered to it? And what does its story tell us about America’s relationship to its minorities?

Through the secret history of the Ku Klux Klan, from its creation to the present day, this film will explore more than a century of racial segregation and racism, bringing together numerous archive images and interviews with historians and witnesses who have faced the violence of the Klan.