Klanwatch - Softcover

A succinct and sometimes understated look at one of America's ``longest-running Klan prosecutions,'' told by an experienced hate- crimes investigator. Stanton (a fourth-generation southerner) details his activity in the ``Klanwatch Project''--a ``clearinghouse'' out to bust Klan conspiracies. Much of the book focuses on the efforts of Morris Dees, a young attorney who defended one of the assaulted protestors in the now-infamous Decatur, Alabama, incident in which Klansmen attacked those demonstrating on behalf of a retarded black man accused of raping a white woman. While trying to get the Klan, Stanton and Dees confronted the harsh ``racial realities of Alabama politics,'' or ``what was euphemistically known as the Southern way of life.'' Among the obstacles were indifferent, sometimes hostile, law enforcement officials, leniency in the courts, and the prevalence of ``all-white'' juries. Stanton's narrative unfolds against the backdrop of the Klan's resurgence during the late 70's and 80's. He also introduces some of the far right's more frightening celebrities, including lynching enthusiasts, Aryan paramilitary instructors, and idealogues who mix quasi-Nazi teachings with Christian scripture. Yet Stanton's most poignant figures stem from the morally ambivalent mainstream as they betray ``an undercurrent of vigilantism'' beneath their genteel surface. Stanton resorts to too much tedious verbatim trial dialogue but rebounds with a chilling description of the moment when a murder victim's mother and the Klansman who killed him confront each other. However, he forfeits a fine opportunity to probe the minds of the villains whose inner workings obviously fascinate him. An adequately documented advocate's perspective that is more a detailed synopsis than an in-depth study. (For a more involving and thorough parallel account, see Morris Dees's A Season for Justice, p. 450.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This is a clearly written, straightforward chronicle of the recent legal struggles of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Klanwatch Project against the Ku Klux Klan, recounted by the project's former director. The book focuses primarily on two cases: a set of conspiracy charges against Klansmen who attacked a 1979 march in Decatur, Georgia, and the SPLC's groundbreaking victory in a civil suit against an Alabama klan organization. Stanton's matter-of-fact style and strict chronology undermine much of the possible dramatic tension, and the book is short on analysis. He might have pursued, for instance, his suggestions about the complicated relations of the FBI and the klan (thus supplementing the discussion in Michael R. Belknap's Federal Law and Southern Order: Racial Violence and Constitutional Conflict in the Post-Brown South , Univ. of Georgia Pr., 1987). Nevertheless, this is a valuable account of an important confrontation. For public and academic libraries.
- Timothy Christen feld, Columbia Univ.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.