INSIDE THE KU KLUX KLAN
Channel 4, 10pm
WE sometimes think of them as a throwback, having their secret meetings with the Imperial Wizard and Grand Dragon.
Or maybe we imagine them as pathetically comical, capering around in flapping gowns in a midnight forest. Or perhaps we consider them historical oddities, always photographed in 1960s black and white or safely pressed between the pages of books on Southern Reconstruction.
With the 150th anniversary of the Klan’s formation approaching, and with recent horrors in Charleston making this programme even more pertinent, this documentary follows a Missouri section of the Ku Klux Klan, known as The Traditionalist American Knights. Again, here they are with their grandiose, noble titles, all set up to mask what is simply very grubby racism.
The film crew meet Klan members who speak openly about their beliefs and goals, and, with straight faces, deny that they have any interest in violence, saying they’re keen to abandon the Klan’s brutal, historic tactics.
To balance this PR-driven aspect, the crew then head to Texas to hear of the notorious work of a more traditional Klan chapter, and we see that Texas lives up to its reputation as a more gung-ho, violent state than the relatively genteel Missouri.