SOURCE: Fossett, Judith Jackson. “(K)night Riders in (K)night Gowns: The Ku Klux Klan, Race, and Constructions of Masculinity.” In Race Consciousness: African-American Studies for the New Century, edited by Judith Jackson Fossett and Jeffrey A. Tucker, pp. 35-49. New York: New York University Press, 1997.

In the following essay, Fossett examines Dixon's construction of the idea of “white” as represented in the white robes of Klan members.

The Klan was the only way to save our civilisation.

—Thomas Dixon, The Traitor

Decked out in his white robe and mask, spewing white supremacist platitudes during a guest appearance on Geraldo Rivera's talk show, the figure of the hypothetical 1990s member of the Ku Klux Klan may still shock an otherwise rational, even liberal American sensibility. But the Klan member who helped orchestrate racial, ethnic, and religious terrorism against thousands of victims during much of the twentieth century (and...