A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition]

by Eric Foner

Personal experience led blacks to blame the South’s “aristocratic classes” for violence, and with good reason, for the Klan’s leadership included planters, merchants, lawyers, and even ministers. When the Knights of the White Camelia initiated Samuel Chester in Arkansas, the pastor of his church administered the oath and the participants included Presbyterian deacons and elders “and every important member of the community.”