John Lewis Goes to Comic-Con and Superman Fights the KKK With the Help of Stetson Kennedy

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For the ghetto nerds and others similarly inclined.

I made three interrelated discoveries this week that I would like to share.

We have conquered our little part of the world when Representative John Lewis goes to Comic-Con in San Diego and does a panel on his graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement. Graphic novels and comic books are now literature. There are so many stories to tell for which "stories with pictures"--that are really so much more--are a perfect fit.

Comic books (and their characters) have taken on socially relevant and political topics in the past. Maus being among the most notable, and one of the first to be taken seriously as "real" literature.

Maus was a seminal depiction of how the "banality of evil" impacted one family during and after The Holocaust. The most iconic character in the history of comic books, Superman, who is not coincidentally a "Jewish" brother, confronted racial fascists at home when he took on the KKK in the 1940's radio serial "Clan of The Fiery Cross".

Given that I am not a huge fan of Superman, nor am I a comic book historian or old school hobbyist, but the idea that comic books would be part of the national push-back against the KKK after World War 2, what was at its peak an organization with millions of members (including congressmen, senators, and at least one United States President) and the largest terrorist organization in the country's history, was a revelation.

The use of Superman for political ends makes perfect sense. Comic books, because of their accessible format and the power of visual story-telling, are an especially useful propaganda and educational tool.

Using Superman in this way was not without risk.

Fighting the KKK, the creators and writers of Superman were inserting themselves and their character into matters of life and death against an organization which historically proved itself more than willing to kill anyone in its way.

Central to Superman's struggle against the KKK, was a real life activist, author, and superhero named Stetson Kennedy. He spent several years infiltrating the KKK and developed a list of its members, secret code words, and rituals with the goal of bringing the hate group down. I never knew about this white brother until reading about his efforts to get the creators of the Superman radio show to use his findings and research for the storyline.

On Stetson's book "The Klan Unmasked":

lt was back in 1947 that Drew Person (Jack Anderson's predecessor) dubbed Kennedy "the nation's No. 1 Klan-buster." 

Using inside data supplied by Kennedy, Person broadcast coast to-coast every Sunday "the Minutes oft Klan's Last Meeting," including the roll call naming the names of-sheriffs, police chieftains, public officials and businessmen who had been in attendance. "They never showed up again," Kennedy still chuckles, some 60 years after the event.

"Attendance and recruitment hit rock bottom, and, best of all, Klan violence ground to a halt, he recalls. "They were afraid to move a muscle.

Grand Dragon Sam Green put out an all-klavems bulletin, announcing that "Kennedy's ass is worth $1,000 per pound, FOB Atlanta.

At the time, a rank-and-file Kluxer complained bitterly, 'Kennedy's got more on the Klan than the Klan has on itself.”

In the battle against white supremacy and Jim and Jane Crow there were so many heroes who did things quietly, in day-to-day ways, and also from the shadows. Most of them will remain forgotten and unacknowledged except by a small group of people who knew of their exploits. Stetson Kennedy was one such person.

The ugly ghosts of the past are still with us in post civil rights America. But people like Stetson Kennedy fought (and died) so that those voices would be marginalized and mocked. Despite the yearnings of the Tea Party GOP and bigots such as Ted Nugent, formal American Apartheid is dead; thanks to the Black and Brown Freedom Struggle(s) it has been permanently put in the refuse pile of historical anachronisms.

Superman's help would have been nice. But, the civil rights movements showed us that regular folks are the real superheroes in American life.