Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime

by Ron Stallworth

Recently freed slaves were known by their slave masters and the general white populace to hold strong superstitious beliefs in ghosts and otherworldly spirits. These beliefs were especially strong in reference to recently deceased Confederate soldiers. Taking advantage of these superstitions, the original Klansmen sought to capitalize on this “otherworldly” belief by terrorizing the slaves into believing the white-sheeted horses and riders were the ghostly spirits of those fallen Confederate soldiers and their steeds, returned to earthly form to ensure that the ways and traditions of the antebellum South were properly observed and maintained by the freed men and women. The success of the early Klansmen in accomplishing this objective would, in effect, negate the results of the recently fought war and the government’s attempt at Reconstruction of the physically and morally battered South.