https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=playlist

Years in the past, again in 2016, we fea­tured a 1950 Super­man poster that urged stu­dents to defend the Amer­i­can way and fight dis­crim­i­na­tion every­where. As we speak, we current anoth­er chap­ter from Tremendous­man’s lit­tle-known his­to­ry as a Civ­il Rights defend­er.

The yr is 1946. World Conflict II has come to an finish. And now mem­ber­ship within the Ku Klux Klan begins to rise once more. Enter Stet­son Kennedy, a human rights activist, who man­ages to infil­trate the KKK after which fig­ures out an inge­nious solution to take them down. He con­tacts the professional­duc­ers of the pop­u­lar Adven­tures of Super­man radio show, and pitch­es them on a brand new sto­ry­line: Tremendous­man meets and defeats the KKK. Want­ing a brand new ene­my to van­quish, the professional­duc­ers inexperienced­mild the thought.

The 16-episode sequence, “The Clan of the Fiery Cross,” aired in June 1946 and effec­tive­ly chipped away on the Klan’s mys­tique, grad­u­al­ly reveal­ing their secret code­phrases and rit­u­als. Lis­ten to the episodes above. And take coronary heart in know­ing this: Accord­ing to Stephen J. Dub­n­er and Steven Levitt, the authors of Freako­nom­ics, The Clan of the Fiery Cross was “the good­est sin­gle con­trib­u­tor to the weak­en­ing of the Ku Klux Klan.” Mocked and triv­i­al­ized, the Klan’s num­bers went again into decline.

For extra infor­ma­tion on this chap­ter in tremendous­hero his­to­ry, learn the well-reviewed YA guide, Super­man Ver­sus the Ku Klux Klan: The True Sto­ry of How the Icon­ic Super­hero Bat­tled the Men of Hate. Additionally discover extra infor­ma­tion on these episodes at the Super­man Home­page.

To listen to extra orig­i­nal Tremendous­man radio reveals, head over to Archive.org.

Word: There’s a lit­tle little bit of a con­tro­ver­sy concerning the actual position Stet­son Kennedy performed in infil­trat­ing the Klan. You’ll be able to read up on that here.

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