It’s credited pretty heavily with weakening the Klan
That’s interesting, because the Klan was fairly weak by the 40’s. It peaked in the 1920s (something like 1 in 3 white Indianans were members in its heyday, to the point where Klan chapters would have baseball teams), but there were some huge political scandals and infighting over embezzlement that absolutely demolished the Second Klan.
The second Klan was formally disbanded for tax reasons in 1944, a couple of years before The Clan of the Fiery Cross. I think the argument might be more that the Superman episode kept the Klan from rising again. It was already profoundly unpopular in the war era due to some connections with the American Bund.
That’s interesting, because the Klan was fairly weak by the 40’s. It peaked in the 1920s (something like 1 in 3 white Indianans were members in its heyday, to the point where Klan chapters would have baseball teams), but there were some huge political scandals and infighting over embezzlement that absolutely demolished the Second Klan.
I suppose weakening Klan membership at the time of release would be more accurate, I’ll add it to the post
The second Klan was formally disbanded for tax reasons in 1944, a couple of years before The Clan of the Fiery Cross. I think the argument might be more that the Superman episode kept the Klan from rising again. It was already profoundly unpopular in the war era due to some connections with the American Bund.