AMERICA’S DARK PAST:

You may have thought that Superman’s greatest enemy was the wickedly villainous Lex Luthor. Well in the 1940s Superman did battle with a much more obnoxious group of goons, none other than the infamous KKK.

Proving that one good man in a silly costume can beat a thousand evil men in silly costumes. Superman took on those racist rednecks and helped bring down the Ku Klux Klan.

Bringing The Fight Back Home

With WWII over, the KKK witnessed a boom in membership. Seems some trigger happy GI’s returning from battle needed a new enemy and decided African Americans would do just fine. Stetson Kennedy, a young writer and activist, unearthed this disturbing development and wanted to do something about it. Unfortunately, with the Klan’s growing membership and their political power on the rise, law enforcement refused to get involved.

The Golden Days of Super Hero Radio

In the 40s there was no TV and no streaming services to get your fix of super hero action. Can you believe it? In fact, the way people got to enjoy Superman’s latest exploits was via listening to the hugely successful Superman radio series. Once a week the whole family would gather round the radio and tune in to Superman outsmarting this week's latest evil doer. Having milked every angle of Supermans battles with the evil Nazis, the shows writers were looking for fresh storylines and new villains to do battle with the caped wonder. Getting wind of this, Stetson Kennedy told the writers of the rising KKK pandemic and all agreed that this sounded like a job for The Last Son of Krypton.

Lifting The Sheet On The Kooky Klan

The Superman writers were very clever. Not only did they portray the KKK as the evil bunch of misfits they truly were, they also used the stories to demystify the Klan and expose a lot of their secret codes and rituals. And, like Kryptonite to Superman, exposing the stupidity of Klan rituals had a devastating effect on the real KKK’s credibility.

Numbskulls who previously were attracted to dispensing secret handshakes whilst wearing a sheet suddenly realised how pathetic Klan life truly was. Membership stalled and Klan member numbers fell off a cliff. Mission accomplished Man of Steel and we thank you for delivering us from the evils of the KKK. Now could you please come back and sort out some of the current issues we’re having?