Bernard Powers

doesn't mean that there was an absence of white terrorist organizations.

They exist from the very beginning of the years following the war.

The KKK is just the one that was probably the most well-organized and the one that received the greatest publicity.

And it's really triggered by the success of political reconstructions.

It's a complete metamorphosis politically.

In South Carolina, you'll get the creation of the Black body politic,

And the thing to keep in mind is this.

South Carolina is a state that has a black majority.

When the state elections are held in the spring of 1868, African Americans occupied the majority of seats.

This is the only place.

It's the only place during Reconstruction in the South

where there was a Black majority in either house of a state legislature.

Obviously, Black people had never seen this, had never participated in a process like this, nor had whites, and they were outraged.

Testimony of Henry Lipscomb, Spartanburg, South Carolina, July 11th, 1871.

There was relative safety in the cities, Charleston, Georgetown, Beaufort.

The Cotton Counties are just overwhelmingly black.

If the Klan tries to mess around down there, it's pretty dangerous for them.

But up in the upcountry in Spartanburg County, York County, Union County, these counties are all pretty much equally divided between blacks and whites.

When one went into the interior particularly,

You're moving away from the streetlights.