KKK: THE WIZARD AT ODDS (TV)
Summary
This documentary special -- recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award for journalism -- examines the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Reporter Alan Griggs provides an overview of the white supremacist organization's history and its current activities and explores the implications behind its recent expansion. Interviews with Klan members as well as government and civil rights officials are intercut with film footage and photo stills of hooded Klansmen participating in cross-burning ceremonies and lynchings. Program highlights and topics covered include the following: KKK activities at Camp Pendleton, a Marine training camp in California; the origins of the Klan in post-Civil War Georgia; footage of Eleanor Roosevelt, filmed during a1930s ABC radio broadcast in which she expresses concern about the Klan's threat to the civil liberties of all Americans; the Klan's present-day activities in Texas and Mississippi, including a rally held at a Klan bookstore in Pasadena; and an in-depth interview with KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, the driving force behind the organization's renewed expansion. Others interviewed include Louis Beam, KKK Grand Dragon; Lt. Col. Charles M. Johnson of the U.S. Marine Corps; Dr. Zan Holmes, Jr., Dallas minister; Mark Briskman, Dallas director of the Anti-Defamation League; and James Abbott of the FBI.
Details
- NETWORK: WSMU-TV
- DATE: December 14, 1979 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:29:49
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T80:0548
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Ku Klux Klan
- SERIES RUN: WSMU (Nashville, TN) - TV, 1979
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Alan Griggs … Producer, Reporter
- Mike Kettenring … News Director
- Rob Rainey … Photographer/Editor
- Tracy Rowlett … Narrator
- James Abbott
- Louis Beam
- Mark Briskman
- David Duke
- Zan Holmes
- Charles M. Johnson
- Eleanor Roosevelt