The Man Who Took On The Klan

In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing a state of war. Grant sent him Amos Akerman: a former Confederate soldier and slaveholder who became the U.S. government’s most zealous warrior against the KKK.<br /><br /><strong>Guests:</strong><strong><br /></strong><br /><strong>Bernard Powers</strong>, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston at the College of Charleston in South Carolina<br /><br /><strong>Guy Gugliotta</strong>, author of <em>Grant's Enforcer, Taking Down the Klan</em><br /><br /><strong>Kidada Williams</strong>, professor of history at Wayne State University and author<em> of I Saw Death Coming, A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction</em><br /><em><br /></em><em>To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at <a href="plus.npr.org/throughline" target="_blank">plus.npr.org/throughline</a>.</em><br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>