It is scary to me as a North Carolina Resident that people in North Carolina would ever be labeled Klansville USA. The documentary hit close to home because I had always seen North Carolina as more progressive than the rest of the South throughout history.
Bob Jones was the most prominent member and leader of the Klan in the US. He was raised in a poor white family. Bob Jones even from his early days held racist ideology. He refused to salute a black officer during his term in the Navy and was dishonorably discharged. He proceeded to bounce from job to job until he began to speak for poor white people in North Carolina. He became the Grand Dragon of the North Carolina chapter of Ku Klux Klan.
Bob Jones' power comes from his ability to vocalize how a group saw themselves being crushed under progression. Bob Jones’ had an uncanny ability that most prominent reactionary leaders do; exploit ignorance and fear. Bob Jones’ was exploiting a primitive fear of being the bottom of the totem pole. People in the South who weren’t educated and flat broke had no voice and no one speaking for them so Bob Jones became that man.
North Carolina was a hotbed of Civil unrest in 1960’s being both Klansville USA and the home of some of the brightest lawyers and activists. When you have a strong of progressive movement you will always have a strong reaction from the opposing side. North Carolina’s government wanted to continue along the direction they were going by slowly integrating but not cause alot of upheaval in society. Neither side of the movement was happy with North Carolina’s progress. It makes sense because the Klan wanted to segregate and the NAACP (and other movements) wanted to integrate as soon as possible.
The PBS documentary on Klansville USA is eye opening documentary especially when it comes to leaders of these dark movements like the Nazi and Klan. The documentary well expressed how and why people would fall in line with the Klan and white supremacy. They even showed how histeria caught up the country.
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