![]() ![]() ![]() So, did Stallworth’s work destroy Duke’s Klan? In Stallworth’s own account, he is proud to have gathered some useful intel on the racists of the region and prevented a series of cross burnings (the bombing in Lee’s film and the comic exposure of racism in the CSPD are fictional). BlacKkKlansman features Stallworth’s run in with at least one deeply racist cop.īut it is true that Duke resigned his imperial position in 1980. As Stallworth shows in his memoir, they were powerful in law enforcement. They also seemed to have influential members at all levels of the establishment. Then, as now, extremist groups were adept at sheltering under America’s First Amendment protections of free speech. This essentially means membership of the Klan was not, and is not, illegal – as such. America has no “hate law” today, let alone in the 1970s. In addition, undercover work in general became difficult to sanction at a federal, state or municipal level following the scandal of the 1972 Watergate break-in which tainted all clandestine investigations in the 1970s.Įven given a successful investigation, it is worth asking what could then be done with the information gained. These included high profile racist crimes like the notorious 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and the 1965 murder of the Civil Rights activist Viola Liuzzo. This effort, which began in 1964, ceased in 1971 having suffered from persistent accusations of Bureau agents themselves being involved in a range illegal activities. This stemmed back to the deep cover Cointel Program in which J Edgar Hoover’s FBI used undercover agents to investigate what was termed “white hate”. In 1979, undercover operations in general had a bad name, and those investigating the Klan were seen as particularly dubious by both the public and the police. In many ways, the CSPD’s investigation of the Klan was a surprising move. Lee doesn’t shy away from difficult images. Stallworth investigates the two and Spike Lee shows both those investigations. Both are demagogues, both want revolution, and both are willing to use violence. ![]() Ranged against him is the charismatic and articulate Stokely Carmichael: a frontline civil rights activist, Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee founder and Black Panther leader. On the one side, is David Duke – the glad-handing, ambitious, preppy “Imperial Wizard” reviving a moribund KKK. “Black Power” was taking on white supremacy and Lee personalises the struggle. Alongside the questionable clothes, afros and chrome-covered gas guzzlers, this is a film about a race war. The film has the look of a true 1970s blaxploitation movie, in which black ethnic stereotypes take centre stage. Appointed as a nod to the prevailing trends of integration, the heroic Stallworth fights racism within the all white Colorado Springs Police Department. Sticking relatively closely to the real Stallworth’s 2006 memoir of these events, the film lays open the institutionalised bigotry of the era. Never one to shy away from a racially sensitive issue, director Spike Lee’s most recent film, set in 1979, follows Colorado Springs Police Department’s (CSPD) first black officer Ron Stallworth as he supervises an undercover operation infiltrating the Klan. The much-hyped new film release BlacKkKlansman has once again brought the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to public notice. ![]()
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