the KKK was a militia outfit that served a useful purpose in the lawless days of the Reconstruction

Well, Osama bin Laden has friends, and a family who he supports, and he spends a lot of money "educating" Muslim children in poor communities.

Guess he serves some sort of "useful purpose."

Talk about your moral equivalencies. Yeesh.

I have no doubt that many Klansmen had friends and families and made positive contributions to the community. However, that should never be an excuse to forget the large pile of lynched human beings they left in their wake.

There is no genuine controversy here. We should never accept this revisionist gloss over their campaign of terrorism, intimidation, and murder.

This is just the front-page version of the same "Southern heritage" PR movement which is being used as a front for un-Reconstructed bigots to feel like they actually belong in polite society. This is a bald-faced attempt to confuse relevant facts with facts as they wish them to be, and make the two look equal. History! It's all so confusing!

It is, rather, straightforward. And the Knox News Sentinel is on the side of bullshit.

For shame.
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If we heard mortar shells, we'd cuss more in our songs and cut down on guitar solos