Southeastern historian discusses Klan on Discovery Channel show
Contact: Rene Abadie
Date: February 1, 2013
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University historian Samuel C. Hyde Jr. addresses the historical
role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Lower Mississippi Valley region in an upcoming "Fatal
Encounters" program on the Discovery Channel.
Southeastern's Leon C. Ford Endowed Chair of Regional Studies, Hyde is interviewed
in the program entitled "White Hot Rage," on Sunday, Feb. 10, (9 p.m.) which covers
the case of Cynthia Lynch, who came to Mississippi several years ago to join a KKK
group based in Washington and St. Tammany parishes. During her initiation into the
group at an isolated area in the Pearl River Swamp, Lynch changed her mind and was
subsequently murdered by the Klansmen.
Hyde said he provided details on the first, second and third Klans as they appeared
in the post-Civil War era and again in the 1930s and in the Civil Rights struggles
of the 1960s.
"During each phase, the Klan displayed unique attributes," said Hyde, who is
the director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. "I discuss the motives
that would cause people to join such paramilitary organizations in the rural South,
as well as what induces people to resort to violence to resolve their grievances."
