The Brown ruling triggered a resurgence of Ku Klux Klan activity and White Citizens’ Council activism, whereby “respectable citizens” joined together to exert economic pressures against local individuals and organizations that either supported desegregation or did not openly oppose it. In Lake County, an editorial by Mabel Norris Reese praising Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court’s decision was not inconsequential. The opposition planted a burning cross on her front lawn, smeared “KKK” in red paint across her office windows, and poisoned the family dog with strychnine.
Ain’t they sweet. So evil they kill a dog.
