In order to maintain his power as Grand Dragon, Bob Jones cultivated a careful balance between promoting the militant message of the Klan, while still appearing to be nonviolent.
In August 1965, the small town of Plymouth, North Carolina nearly became the site of what might have been one of the bloodiest events of the civil rights era.
The Ku Klux Klan was organized after the Civil War by a small group of men aiming to form a brotherhood during the time of Reconstruction in the 1860s.
For ten weeks in 1964, student volunteers joined local organizers in Mississippi in a historic effort to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in what was one of the nation’s most segregated and racist states.
In 1964, over 700 volunteers joined organizers and local African Americans in Mississippi to participate in The Mississippi Summer Project. Explore the photos.
They called it "a campaign that may have no parallel since the days of Reconstruction." In 1964, more than 700 civil rights workers focused their efforts on Mississippi.
