How Superman defeated the KKK

I just heard a really cool story yesterday. The story is apparently true. I'm sure you could check the internet for more details but it sounds good.

The story was about a white American liberal activist in America in the 1940s. His name was Stetson Kennedy. He was an active anti-racism campaigner. In the '40s the Klu Klux Klan were becoming more active in the USA. Kennedy decided to infiltrate the organisation and try to sabotage them.

He managed to join up under a fake name. He paid his membership dues and started going to their meetings. He was quite surprised because their meetings were rather silly. It was all about secret handshakes, passwords, funny costumes, 'grand-dragons' and 'hydras'. The KKK made a fair bit of money from protection rackets and other borderline illegal activities.

Kennedy started to pass information to the police and other government organisations. They didn't care and no action was taken. Kennedy realised that much of the power of the KKK came from its secrets and he had a good idea. He phoned up the producers of the Adventures of Superman radio show and suggested that they write some episodes where Superman fought the KKK.

The radio show went ahead and the writers used all the secret details about the KKK in the show. Overnight the KKK became ridiculous. They were exposed as a group of sad weirdos. Membership plummeted.

I found this story in a book called Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The book used the science of economics to answer questions like 'why do crack dealers live with their mothers?' and 'what do sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common?'. It's an entertaining book, an easy read and it makes you think.

Check it out

phunky