The Man of Steel’s New Enemy: A Post-War Re-Imagining

The year 1946 represented a crucial inflection point in American history, marking the transition from a world at war to an era of profound domestic challenges. Following the conclusion of World War II, the United States turned its attention inward to address a variety of social and political issues. This period also saw the attempted resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, which had officially disbanded in 1944 after facing legal pressure, including a successful prosecution for failure to pay federal taxes. The Klan’s post-war iteration, often referred to as the Third Klan, was fueled by a toxic mix of racism, anti-communism, and xenophobia, and directed its violent activities toward undermining the nascent civil rights movement, particularly in the South. While the Klan of the 1920s had boasted millions of members and significant political power, this new incarnation was more fragmented and struggled to regain its former influence.  

Against this backdrop, the fictional world of popular media, specifically the medium of radio, was also undergoing a significant transformation. The Adventures of Superman radio program had been a cultural juggernaut since its debut in 1940, with daily broadcasts that captivated millions of young listeners. Throughout the war years, the Man of Steel had been a potent symbol of American resolve, spending his time battling “Nazis and Axis powers” and bolstering the morale of a nation anxious about its loved ones overseas. With the war’s conclusion, however, the show’s producers faced a creative dilemma: their primary antagonists were no longer relevant. To maintain audience engagement, the writers needed to find a new, compelling enemy for the Man of Steel to confront.  

In a daring and unprecedented move, the producers decided on a “bold gambit” that would transcend traditional entertainment and engage directly with a pressing social issue. They made the decision for Superman to battle “real life hate groups”. This pivotal choice opened the door for a remarkable and historically significant collaboration that would merge the worlds of journalism, social activism, and popular culture in a manner that proved devastatingly effective.  

Stetson Kennedy: The Folklorist and The Strategist

For the perceived crime of “talking back to a White person,” she was tied to a tree, beaten, and raped. This horrific incident shattered any illusions Kennedy may have had about the Klan, revealing them to him not as Christian patriots but as “criminals capable of great savagery”. This deeply personal trauma provided the explicit and unshakeable motivation for his future actions.  

Kennedy’s career as a folklorist, which began with the Federal Writers’ Project, proved instrumental in his anti-Klan work. His experience with documenting traditional sayings and stories honed his skills for meticulous observation and accurate recording of details, a talent he would later apply to his undercover work. As an ardent champion for the civil rights of African-Americans, his work with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) also solidified his role as a vocal critic of the Jim Crow system and the KKK’s influence on Southern politics.  

In the 1940s, Kennedy undertook the perilous operation to infiltrate the resurgent Georgia Ku Klux Klan. Adopting the alias “John S. Perkins,” he leveraged a recommendation from a Klan-sympathetic Georgia gubernatorial candidate to secure a job and, eventually, membership in the dangerous Nathan Bedford Forrest Klavern Number One. He also used the name of a deceased uncle who had been a member to gain trust. Kennedy was initiated into the Klan’s inner workings, rising to the rank of “Klavalier,” a member of the Klan’s secretive “military wing” responsible for perpetrating its most violent and criminal activities. During his time undercover, he collected exhaustive notes on the organization’s secret rituals, handshakes, meeting places, and codes.  

A key aspect of Kennedy’s mission, and one often misunderstood, is the nature of his government affiliations. While the user’s initial premise was that he acted on his own, the historical record reveals a more nuanced picture. Kennedy did not work for a federal agency like the FBI; in fact, when he attempted to share his findings with FBI agents, they showed “less than no interest,” instead focusing on what they considered the “real threat to America”: “black militants”. This systemic disinterest in the Klan as a domestic threat forced Kennedy to seek alternative, more receptive channels. He found a crucial ally in Dan Duke, the assistant attorney general of Georgia, who recognized the value of his work. Duke put Kennedy on the payroll as a “secret agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” provided him with a pistol license for his own protection, and gave him a direct phone line. While he was a paid operative for a state agency, this arrangement was a pragmatic response to the broader failure of law enforcement to take the Klan seriously, not an indication of a formal, large-scale government operation. This reliance on an unconventional ally ultimately led him to seek out a similarly non-traditional partner in the media.

The Radio Gambit: From Field Notes to Fictional Narrative

Stetson Kennedy’s search for an effective means of public dissemination for his findings led him to the producers of The Adventures of Superman. The producers, led by Robert Maxwell, were in search of new villains and eagerly agreed to Kennedy’s proposal for a storyline where Superman would battle a thinly veiled version of the Klan. The resulting 16-part serial, “The Clan of the Fiery Cross,” aired daily from June 10 to July 1, 1946.  

The plot of the radio show was a carefully constructed reflection of real-world bigotry and violence. The story centered on a Chinese-American family, the Lees, who move to the Metropolis suburbs in the aftermath of the war and face a campaign of harassment and violence from the “Clan of the Fiery Cross”. This choice to feature a family of Asian-American descent was a powerful statement, demonstrating that the Klan’s hatred extended beyond anti-Black racism to encompass xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. The plot was rife with authentic Klan-like activities, from cross-burnings and threats to the kidnapping and attempted tarring-and-feathering of Daily Planet editor Perry White and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. By the end of the serial, Superman’s intervention saves the day, and the local Klan leader, Matt Riggs, is exposed as a villain and brought to justice.  

Passing Secrets to Superman’s Producers

Finding law enforcement either uninterested or compromised by Klan infiltration—one FBI agent privately asked Kennedy about “black militants” instead of taking his KKK intelligence—Kennedy sought alternative channels for exposure. He regularly fed information to columnist Drew Pearson, who broadcast Klan meeting minutes on his national radio show “Washington Merry-Go-Round.” But Kennedy’s most innovative move came when he approached Robert Maxwell, producer of “The Adventures of Superman” radio program.

The timing proved perfect. With World War II over, Superman needed new villains to replace the Nazis. Kennedy proposed that Superman could fight the Klan by exposing their secrets and making them objects of ridicule rather than fear. Maxwell, who produced the show from 1940-1951, immediately recognized the potential and brought in writers B.P. Freeman and Jack Johnstone to craft the storyline.

Kennedy provided the production team with comprehensive intelligence including the Klan’s hierarchical structure (Grand Dragons, Grand Scorpions, Klavaliers), their ritualistic practices (cross burnings, blood oaths), meeting procedures, recruitment tactics, and the organization’s cynical financial motivations—how leaders exploited racial anxieties to sell robes and collect dues from “suckers.” While Kennedy later acknowledged combining experiences from multiple infiltrators he worked with (particularly one he called “John Brown”) to protect their identities, the core intelligence he provided was authentic and documented through multiple archives including materials now housed at the University of Florida, Georgia State University, and the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center.

Demystification and Ridicule as a Weapon: A Deeper Analysis

The true brilliance of “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” lay not in its action-packed narrative but in its strategic use of Kennedy’s inside information to dismantle the Klan’s cultural and psychological power. The Klan’s influence was rooted in its “mystique” and secrecy, an “Invisible Empire” that used intimidation and ritual to maintain its hold. The radio show’s writers understood this fundamental weakness. By broadcasting the Klan’s secret handshakes, rituals, and bizarre terminology to a national audience, the show “effectively chipped away at the Klan’s mystique” and exposed it as an organization of “childish ritual and secretiveness”. The deliberate choice to portray the group as a subject of ridicule, rather than a formidable enemy, was a powerful psychological blow. It took something designed to be terrifying and made it seem pathetic, rendering the Klan’s “mumbo jumbo” and costumes ridiculous to a generation of young listeners.  

The most significant and devastating revelation, however, was reserved for the show’s climax. In a scene that was pure dramatic license, the fictional Grand Imperial Mogul of the “Clan of the Fiery Cross” confronts the local leader, Matt Riggs. The Grand Mogul expresses his disbelief that Riggs actually believes the “slop we put up for the suckers” about “one race, one religion, one color”. He explicitly states that the organization is nothing more than a business that deals in “one of the oldest and most profitable commodities on earth: hate”. This pivotal dialogue, which was presented to millions of listeners, stripped away any remaining ideological pretense from the organization.  

The show’s portrayal of the Klan as a financial scam was an astute and historically accurate portrayal of the real-world organization. Research confirms that the Second Klan was, in fact, “a giant, lucrative pyramid scheme” and a “multi-level marketing company”. Leaders profited immensely by selling $10 initiation fees, $6 robes, and other branded merchandise. For example, the head of the Indiana Klan was one of the “best paid men in America”. By revealing this cynical, profit-driven model to the public, the radio show delivered a direct blow to the average Klansman. Many members were described as “little nobodies who want to believe some other race is inferior so they can feel superior,” and the show exposed them as gullible “suckers” being exploited for their prejudices. This narrative maneuver was the most damaging component of the entire campaign, as it dismantled the very basis of the members’ ideological and financial commitment.

Table 3: THE KLAN AS A pyramid scheme

Fallout and Legacy: The Power of a Story

The public reception to “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” was overwhelmingly positive. In response, the real-life Klan was furious. They called for a boycott of the show’s sponsor, Kellogg’s Pep Cereal, and staged pickets outside shops. To its credit, Kellogg’s, a company with a history of making decisions based on its values, refused to back down. The boycott proved to be an embarrassing failure for the Klan, as the radio show received “spectacular ratings”.  

The immediate impact of the broadcast was significant. By exposing the Klan’s secrets and ridiculing its absurd rituals, the show damaged the group’s reputation and demystified its perceived power. Within two weeks of the broadcast, Klan recruitment reportedly dropped to “zero,” and by 1948, people were showing up at Klan rallies simply to mock the members.  

While the Superman serial is celebrated for its role in the Klan’s decline, it is important to situate its impact within a broader historical context. The show did not single-handedly “defeat” the Klan, as the organization was already in a state of internal turmoil due to leadership scandals and legal pressures that had led to its official disbanding in 1944. Instead, the broadcast served as a critical cultural and psychological blow, a final coup de grâce that capitalized on the organization’s existing weaknesses. It turned the tide of public opinion at a crucial moment, transforming a once-feared terrorist group into an object of widespread derision.  

The collaboration between Stetson Kennedy and the creators of The Adventures of Superman stands as a powerful testament to the effectiveness of using popular media to combat extremism. The story cemented Superman’s iconic status as a champion of “truth and justice” by having him fight a domestic, anti-American threat that was a clear and present danger to civil liberties. The event has continued to resonate, inspiring modern creative works, and serving as a case study in how a well-timed, culturally resonant intervention can have a real and positive effect on the world. It is a story that remains profoundly relevant today, serving as a reminder that the most effective weapons against bigotry are often exposure, ridicule, and a firm moral stand.

Modern Adaptations

Superman Smashes the Klan was published by DC Comics in 2019-2020, written by Gene Luen Yang (award-winning author of “American Born Chinese”) with art by Gurihiru. It was initially released as a three-part comic series, then collected as a graphic novel.

The story is a reimagining of the 1946 radio serial, set in 1946 Metropolis. It follows Roberta and Tommy Lee, Chinese-American teenagers whose family moves to Metropolis and faces attacks from the Klan of the Fiery Kross (with a K). The graphic novel adds depth to the original story by:

• Making the Lee family the central protagonists alongside Superman
• Exploring Superman’s own immigrant identity as he grapples with how “alien” to appear to the public
• Addressing the complexity of assimilation and belonging in America
• Including historical essays at the end about the real 1946 broadcasts and the Chinese-American experience

Yang specifically chose to set it in the 1940s rather than modernize it, keeping the period context while making the themes relevant to contemporary discussions about racism, xenophobia, and what it means to be American. The art style by Gurihiru is deliberately accessible and somewhat retro, aimed at middle-grade readers while dealing with serious themes.

It received critical acclaim for making this important piece of Superman history accessible to a new generation, and for thoughtfully expanding on the original radio story’s anti-racist message. The graphic novel has been used in educational settings as a way to discuss both historical and contemporary racism.

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