The scars and legacy of racism in America and poverty has ways of bubbling up to the surface in surprising ways. Today that legacy shows up in the story of the life and death of a famous American folklorist, journalist and author, Stetson Kennedy, who died at the age of 94 over the weekend. Kennedy became famous for allegedly infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan as an undercover journalist, then exposing their secrets in a book, “I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan,” which was published in 1954. He spoke with This American Life’s Ira Glass about his experience, in 2005. It was only in recent years, when journalist Ben Green started digging into some of Kennedy’s documents, that questions arose about the validity of Kennedy’s claims of going undercover in the KKK. Green joins us to explain the complicated legacy of Stetson Kennedy.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.