In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson told FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to go after the Klan as he had the Communists.
In an article in the journal Social Science History, David Cunningham recounts how the FBI degraded, and came to effectively control, Klan groups.
At the outset, the FBI carried out what it called "Intensive interview programs" with Klan leaders.
The FBI acquired hundreds of Klan informants, accounting for at least 6 percent of the membership, probably more.
According to one FBI official, "There would be a Klan meeting with ten people there, and six of them would be reporting back the next day."
The FBI worked to preempt violent acts and gained an enormous influence over Klan groups.
There are also practical obstacles to the FBI duplicating its anti-Klan work, the most important of which is that the Klan was an organization, whereas today's white supremacists are isolated, free-floating haters whose only connection to anyone else often is anonymous Internet postings.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/the-fbi-crushed-the-klan-and-should-target-violent-white-supremacists-today/
In an article in the journal Social Science History, David Cunningham recounts how the FBI degraded, and came to effectively control, Klan groups.
At the outset, the FBI carried out what it called "Intensive interview programs" with Klan leaders.
The FBI acquired hundreds of Klan informants, accounting for at least 6 percent of the membership, probably more.
According to one FBI official, "There would be a Klan meeting with ten people there, and six of them would be reporting back the next day."
The FBI worked to preempt violent acts and gained an enormous influence over Klan groups.
There are also practical obstacles to the FBI duplicating its anti-Klan work, the most important of which is that the Klan was an organization, whereas today's white supremacists are isolated, free-floating haters whose only connection to anyone else often is anonymous Internet postings.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/the-fbi-crushed-the-klan-and-should-target-violent-white-supremacists-today/
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