June 6, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, an undercover agent infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, gathering secrets that would later be exposed to millions through the Superman radio show. This unusual alliance between pop culture and espionage helped undermine one of America’s most notorious hate groups. Here's the astonishing and forgotten story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American stories, and up next our own
Joey Cortez brings you a story about a fictional character
we all know and love, Superman, and how he would
team up with the real life undercover agent to take
down a truly vicious villain.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Over the years, Superman has fought many villains, including the KKK.
Rick Bauers brings us the story of how the hero
not only fought this villain in the fictional series, but
also in real life. Here's Rick with the backstory.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
The actual Superman character was created by two Jewish kids
in Cleveland in the nineteen thirties. And these two kids
were high school students and they loved science fiction. They
would hold up in their attict studio reading science fiction magazines, books.
(01:07):
They would go to the movies. You know, cape heroes
like Zorro were doing great things on the big screen,
and they were taking all of that in and they
started to create their own characters. And they created a
character and a story called the Reign of Superman. But
(01:28):
in that first iteration, Superman was bad. He was an
evil scientist doing horrid experiments on homeless men during the depression,
and he had no real superpowers. He was just super evil.
So they were creating some interesting characters, but there was
(01:48):
always something about that character, that original Superman, that not
quite right. So they put that on a shelf and
let it incubate, and as Superman lore goes, one night,
Jerry Siegel, one of these two young men who were
struggling to get through the depression, find work and make
(02:12):
it in the field of comic art, had an epiphany,
we have it backwards. What the world really needs is
a good Superman. And that epiphany and the character that
evolved from it came just as publishers in New York
City were developing the first comic books. And the first
(02:36):
comic books were actually compilations of newspaper strips Little Orphan,
Annie Popeye, and those newspaper strips would be put in
books and sold for a dime of peace. But after
the supply of newspaper strips had been exhausted, these publishers
(02:57):
needed original content. One publisher recalled this set of drawings
that these kids from Cleveland had said with this character
called Superman, and they were in a pinch to launch
a comic book called Action Comics, so they hired Jerry
(03:17):
Siegal and Joe Schuster to put together thirteen pages of
Superman stories for the original edition of Action Comics, and
before anyone really knew what happened, hundreds of thousands of
those comic books had been sold, and the character we
(03:41):
all now know as Superman was born.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Boys and girls, your attention please, presenting a new exciting
radio program in.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The nineteen forties, The Adventures of Superman on the Air
was created.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Faster than an airplane, more powerful than a locomotive, impervious.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
To bullets up in the sky.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Look, it's a bert, it's a plight, It'sman.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
And a creative writer and producer named Bob Maxwell transform
Superman into a radio show from the Mutual Broadcasting System
in New York, where actors that sound effects people would
create a radio program three times a week where Superman
(04:35):
took on mad scientists and crime gangs and evil spectral beings.
And it became a hit. So Superman was now in
comic books, He was a strip in newspapers, he was
a serial in the movie theaters, and he was reaching
(05:00):
war million households three times a week through the radio.
As World War Two comes, the creators use him more
as a weapon against America's enemies. So he's taking on
Nazi spies, he's taking on German generals, and in one case,
(05:26):
he actually took on Hitler and grabbed him by the
scruff and carried him off to an international tribunal to
be tried for war crimes. So Superman has become a
meaningful character in certain ways. And as the war ended
(05:51):
and as times changed, the creators of the radio program
asked a very perplexing question, what do we do now?
It seemed like the crime bosses and the evil scientists
had run their course. The war was over, so Hitler
(06:13):
was no longer a target, But there was something happening
here at home that got their attention. The ku Klux
Klan was attempting a revival. Six million Jews had just
been killed in Nazi concentration camps. And here we have
people in our own backyard who are preaching a similar
(06:38):
philosophy and who believed that this post war era can
belong to them, that we can bring Americas along to
the clan's philosophy, and we can create an organization with
millions of members. So these two fourths are very different.
(07:02):
One is a fictional character on the radio in comic books,
and one is an actual real world organization that is
actually carrying out atrocious acts against its enemies. Who would
(07:23):
know that one day they would collide. While all this
was happening, a young man named Stetson Kennedy was growing
up in Jacksonville, Florida. Even at the age of twelve,
he was extremely uncomfortable with the perverse and pervasive racism
(07:48):
of the time. Through the streets of Jacksonville, plans been marched,
some on horseback, dressed in robes and hoods, and at
first he thought that this was kind of a club
for grown ups and they got to dress up in
costumes every day of the year anytime they wanted to.
But he later learned that this was actually a group
(08:12):
that quote took care of people in colored town, which
means they imposed their will on black citizens. And it
was when the African American made in their house was
attacked by the Klan for answering back a streetcar operator
(08:34):
who refused to give her the proper change. She was
brought home, bloodied and beaten that he realized what the
real clan was all about. And this young man, obviously
being out of step with much of the culture, of
his time, decided at that point that his life would
(08:58):
be dedicated this kind of hate.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And we've been listening to Rick Bowers, and he's the
author of Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan, the true
story of how the iconic superhero battled the men of hate.
When we come back, more of this remarkable story on
our American story, and we're back with our American stories
(09:41):
and the story of Superman versus the KKK. As this
organization grew, there was one real life superhero looking to
stop them, stets And Kennedy. Let's get back to Rick
Bowers with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
In nineteen thirty seven, Stetson Kennedy became an interviewer with
the Florida's Writers Project, which was a new deal program
for unemployed writers, editors, researchers, historians, and they would travel
to the state collecting life stories, tall tales, folk songs,
(10:21):
and fables from common people. But he would record folk
songs from blues singers. He would record stories from field
hands and sharecroppers, and he started to understand that these stories,
these songs, these rituals, these kind of values were what
(10:46):
held people together, It held culture together, and so in
his mind, this was a great insight, and he came
to see that by having this information himself, he could
be a much better writer, communicator, and he could tell
the stories of the common people and inform others of
(11:12):
their plights. So for Steps and Kennedy, it was the
injustice that was being inflicted on these poor people. It
was the racism that was directed at these African American
field hands, sharecroppers, fishermen, and it just hit him at
(11:36):
such a level that he dedicated himself to trying to
fix it. And he was working at the time for
an organization called the Anti Defamation League, and the Anti
Defamation League is an organization that opposes the prejudice against
Jewish people and fights for the rights of all people.
(11:59):
Theyared him as an infiltrator to get inside the clan.
The dangers were very real. Nineteen forty six, the clan
is reviving in Atlanta, Georgia, and Stetson, through his research,
knows this. He knows that this organization with a long
(12:24):
history of violence is trying to make a comeback, and
it's all happening in what they called the Imperial City
of Atlanta, Georgia. So he moved to Atlanta, Georgia with
the express purpose of infiltrating the clan. So Stetson, through
(12:44):
the ADL, takes on a false persona. He takes on
the persona of John Perkins, a encyclopedia salesman and the
publisher of a hate sheet. He begins hanging around with klansmen,
(13:07):
talking their language. He begins attending their meetings, and everything
he discovers is filed back to the Anti Defamation League
in the form of a spy report. And he's reporting
on some of the atrocities at the time that are
just so brutal that you know they shake you to
(13:28):
the core. Two black couples driving down a road outside
of Atlanta in that year nineteen forty six, are dragged
from their car, taken to a river bank, and shot dead.
A black taxi driver in Atlanta who was seen giving
(13:52):
a ride to a white woman is dragged from his
car and killed. Side the clan group, Stepson would write
reports about their plans to invade a government armory, seize weapons,
and orchestrate an all out attack on black communities, and
(14:17):
Stetson is in the middle of this the entire time.
He was walking this fine line where one wrong step
probably meant death.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Stetson also risked writing columns on her pseudonyms, exposing the
kkks hierarchy, customs, traditions, and most notably, their brutality. Meanwhile,
as we learned earlier, the Superman radio show creator sought
a new type of villain based on real life people
awakening their audience to the evil in their own lives.
(14:55):
Their villain would be the KKK or in their sixteen
part series known as the Clan of the Fiery Cross.
They worked with the ADL and used much of Stetson's findings,
hoping to strip the clan of their mystique and attraction
by revealing what they're actually like behind all the secrecy.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
So through sixteen episodes, there's arc takes place and people
are kidnapped, people are threatened. Clark, Kent, Lewis Lane have
to put out a special edition of The Daily Planet
to let the public know that this clan group is
correcting people, and of course Superman has to take flight
(15:38):
and round up these clansmen in paul them off to jail.
Stets and Kennedy always said the way to take down
the Klan is by ridiculing them. That is if you
look closely at their rituals, there's language that they use
where everything starts with K. So the big clan gathering
is a clown vocation. This kind of ridiculous language can
(16:02):
be made fun of. These ridiculous outfits that these people wear,
these long robes, these hoods over their heads, these little
slits for eye holes. They look like clowns. They look
like kids at Halloween dressed up as ghosts. So he
felt that that was a great way to undercut the clan.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Suddenly they come into an opening, and as the car stops,
Chuck gasps at the strange scene before him. In a glade,
casting weird shadows over the nearby hills and lighting the
sky above, burns a huge wooden cross before it neo
half a hundred men clothed in long robes, pointed hoods
slid only at the eyes cover their heads and faces,
and a low guttural chant issues harshly from their hidden lips,
(16:52):
sending an uneasy, chill ful Chuck's blood. While the boy
looks about him at the fearsome sight, Matt Riggs duns
a robe and hood on which a pale blue scorpion
is his embroidered, then followed by Chucky approaches the Kneeling
Hooded Band, a strangely barbaric company in the dancing light
of the Flaming Cross.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Gosh, who are.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
All these guys, Uncle Matt, and why are you wearing the.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Sheets and hoods? We're the clan of the Fiery Cross, Chuck.
Where a great secret society pledged to purify America. America
for Americans only one race, one religion, one color.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
America's got all kinds of religions in colors.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
When we get through, there'll only be one, only one.
But the Constitution says all Americans have the same rights
and privileged constitution. We'll change that. I'll be quiet. Why
until I call on you a session? Brothers, all, all
the transcorfiend and the Klan of the Fiery Cross. Supreme
(17:52):
Authority invested by me.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
It was a very different kind of program for kids.
It was very revolutiontionary for its time. In the end,
it was extremely successful. The media praise that flowed in
was extraordinary. Industry groups hailed Superman as a hero for tolerance.
(18:17):
Education groups said, now we see that these characters can
play a positive role newspapers wrote lauditary articles, some of
them saying that this is great for kids, but maybe
their parents should listen to it as well. There are
stories that come from actual clansmen that tell the story
(18:41):
of how their kids would listen to that show and
then act it out. So one kid would put on
a Superman outfit, the other one would put a pillow
case over their head and wrap a sheet around themselves,
and then Superman would grab the white kid it drag
(19:02):
them off to jail. How these are klansmen watching this,
So they became very infuriated with what this show was doing,
and they felt that they were the ridicule of the world,
where millions of people are listening to this and they
think we're a bunch of fools.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
The Klan was humiliated. This villain's infamy would soon fitz allowed.
In the nineteen twenties, during the clan's peak years, they
had four million members nationwide. Today they have only three thousand,
thanks in part to the Superman character created by two
boys from Cleveland, Ohio, and a real life superhero with
(19:46):
the courage to go undercover and expose a villain in
his own backyard.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And great work as always to Joey Cortez and a
special thanks to Rick Bowers sharing the story, and well,
there's not much to add the story of Superman versus
the KKK. Here on our American Story
This is our American stories, and up next our own
Joey Cortez brings you a story about a fictional character
we all know and love, Superman, and how he would
team up with the real life undercover agent to take
down a truly vicious villain.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Over the years, Superman has fought many villains, including the KKK.
Rick Bauers brings us the story of how the hero
not only fought this villain in the fictional series, but
also in real life. Here's Rick with the backstory.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
The actual Superman character was created by two Jewish kids
in Cleveland in the nineteen thirties. And these two kids
were high school students and they loved science fiction. They
would hold up in their attict studio reading science fiction magazines, books.
(01:07):
They would go to the movies. You know, cape heroes
like Zorro were doing great things on the big screen,
and they were taking all of that in and they
started to create their own characters. And they created a
character and a story called the Reign of Superman. But
(01:28):
in that first iteration, Superman was bad. He was an
evil scientist doing horrid experiments on homeless men during the depression,
and he had no real superpowers. He was just super evil.
So they were creating some interesting characters, but there was
(01:48):
always something about that character, that original Superman, that not
quite right. So they put that on a shelf and
let it incubate, and as Superman lore goes, one night,
Jerry Siegel, one of these two young men who were
struggling to get through the depression, find work and make
(02:12):
it in the field of comic art, had an epiphany,
we have it backwards. What the world really needs is
a good Superman. And that epiphany and the character that
evolved from it came just as publishers in New York
City were developing the first comic books. And the first
(02:36):
comic books were actually compilations of newspaper strips Little Orphan,
Annie Popeye, and those newspaper strips would be put in
books and sold for a dime of peace. But after
the supply of newspaper strips had been exhausted, these publishers
(02:57):
needed original content. One publisher recalled this set of drawings
that these kids from Cleveland had said with this character
called Superman, and they were in a pinch to launch
a comic book called Action Comics, so they hired Jerry
(03:17):
Siegal and Joe Schuster to put together thirteen pages of
Superman stories for the original edition of Action Comics, and
before anyone really knew what happened, hundreds of thousands of
those comic books had been sold, and the character we
(03:41):
all now know as Superman was born.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Boys and girls, your attention please, presenting a new exciting
radio program in.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The nineteen forties, The Adventures of Superman on the Air
was created.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Faster than an airplane, more powerful than a locomotive, impervious.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
To bullets up in the sky.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Look, it's a bert, it's a plight, It'sman.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
And a creative writer and producer named Bob Maxwell transform
Superman into a radio show from the Mutual Broadcasting System
in New York, where actors that sound effects people would
create a radio program three times a week where Superman
(04:35):
took on mad scientists and crime gangs and evil spectral beings.
And it became a hit. So Superman was now in
comic books, He was a strip in newspapers, he was
a serial in the movie theaters, and he was reaching
(05:00):
war million households three times a week through the radio.
As World War Two comes, the creators use him more
as a weapon against America's enemies. So he's taking on
Nazi spies, he's taking on German generals, and in one case,
(05:26):
he actually took on Hitler and grabbed him by the
scruff and carried him off to an international tribunal to
be tried for war crimes. So Superman has become a
meaningful character in certain ways. And as the war ended
(05:51):
and as times changed, the creators of the radio program
asked a very perplexing question, what do we do now?
It seemed like the crime bosses and the evil scientists
had run their course. The war was over, so Hitler
(06:13):
was no longer a target, But there was something happening
here at home that got their attention. The ku Klux
Klan was attempting a revival. Six million Jews had just
been killed in Nazi concentration camps. And here we have
people in our own backyard who are preaching a similar
(06:38):
philosophy and who believed that this post war era can
belong to them, that we can bring Americas along to
the clan's philosophy, and we can create an organization with
millions of members. So these two fourths are very different.
(07:02):
One is a fictional character on the radio in comic books,
and one is an actual real world organization that is
actually carrying out atrocious acts against its enemies. Who would
(07:23):
know that one day they would collide. While all this
was happening, a young man named Stetson Kennedy was growing
up in Jacksonville, Florida. Even at the age of twelve,
he was extremely uncomfortable with the perverse and pervasive racism
(07:48):
of the time. Through the streets of Jacksonville, plans been marched,
some on horseback, dressed in robes and hoods, and at
first he thought that this was kind of a club
for grown ups and they got to dress up in
costumes every day of the year anytime they wanted to.
But he later learned that this was actually a group
(08:12):
that quote took care of people in colored town, which
means they imposed their will on black citizens. And it
was when the African American made in their house was
attacked by the Klan for answering back a streetcar operator
(08:34):
who refused to give her the proper change. She was
brought home, bloodied and beaten that he realized what the
real clan was all about. And this young man, obviously
being out of step with much of the culture, of
his time, decided at that point that his life would
(08:58):
be dedicated this kind of hate.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And we've been listening to Rick Bowers, and he's the
author of Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan, the true
story of how the iconic superhero battled the men of hate.
When we come back, more of this remarkable story on
our American story, and we're back with our American stories
(09:41):
and the story of Superman versus the KKK. As this
organization grew, there was one real life superhero looking to
stop them, stets And Kennedy. Let's get back to Rick
Bowers with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
In nineteen thirty seven, Stetson Kennedy became an interviewer with
the Florida's Writers Project, which was a new deal program
for unemployed writers, editors, researchers, historians, and they would travel
to the state collecting life stories, tall tales, folk songs,
(10:21):
and fables from common people. But he would record folk
songs from blues singers. He would record stories from field
hands and sharecroppers, and he started to understand that these stories,
these songs, these rituals, these kind of values were what
(10:46):
held people together, It held culture together, and so in
his mind, this was a great insight, and he came
to see that by having this information himself, he could
be a much better writer, communicator, and he could tell
the stories of the common people and inform others of
(11:12):
their plights. So for Steps and Kennedy, it was the
injustice that was being inflicted on these poor people. It
was the racism that was directed at these African American
field hands, sharecroppers, fishermen, and it just hit him at
(11:36):
such a level that he dedicated himself to trying to
fix it. And he was working at the time for
an organization called the Anti Defamation League, and the Anti
Defamation League is an organization that opposes the prejudice against
Jewish people and fights for the rights of all people.
(11:59):
Theyared him as an infiltrator to get inside the clan.
The dangers were very real. Nineteen forty six, the clan
is reviving in Atlanta, Georgia, and Stetson, through his research,
knows this. He knows that this organization with a long
(12:24):
history of violence is trying to make a comeback, and
it's all happening in what they called the Imperial City
of Atlanta, Georgia. So he moved to Atlanta, Georgia with
the express purpose of infiltrating the clan. So Stetson, through
(12:44):
the ADL, takes on a false persona. He takes on
the persona of John Perkins, a encyclopedia salesman and the
publisher of a hate sheet. He begins hanging around with klansmen,
(13:07):
talking their language. He begins attending their meetings, and everything
he discovers is filed back to the Anti Defamation League
in the form of a spy report. And he's reporting
on some of the atrocities at the time that are
just so brutal that you know they shake you to
(13:28):
the core. Two black couples driving down a road outside
of Atlanta in that year nineteen forty six, are dragged
from their car, taken to a river bank, and shot dead.
A black taxi driver in Atlanta who was seen giving
(13:52):
a ride to a white woman is dragged from his
car and killed. Side the clan group, Stepson would write
reports about their plans to invade a government armory, seize weapons,
and orchestrate an all out attack on black communities, and
(14:17):
Stetson is in the middle of this the entire time.
He was walking this fine line where one wrong step
probably meant death.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Stetson also risked writing columns on her pseudonyms, exposing the
kkks hierarchy, customs, traditions, and most notably, their brutality. Meanwhile,
as we learned earlier, the Superman radio show creator sought
a new type of villain based on real life people
awakening their audience to the evil in their own lives.
(14:55):
Their villain would be the KKK or in their sixteen
part series known as the Clan of the Fiery Cross.
They worked with the ADL and used much of Stetson's findings,
hoping to strip the clan of their mystique and attraction
by revealing what they're actually like behind all the secrecy.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
So through sixteen episodes, there's arc takes place and people
are kidnapped, people are threatened. Clark, Kent, Lewis Lane have
to put out a special edition of The Daily Planet
to let the public know that this clan group is
correcting people, and of course Superman has to take flight
(15:38):
and round up these clansmen in paul them off to jail.
Stets and Kennedy always said the way to take down
the Klan is by ridiculing them. That is if you
look closely at their rituals, there's language that they use
where everything starts with K. So the big clan gathering
is a clown vocation. This kind of ridiculous language can
(16:02):
be made fun of. These ridiculous outfits that these people wear,
these long robes, these hoods over their heads, these little
slits for eye holes. They look like clowns. They look
like kids at Halloween dressed up as ghosts. So he
felt that that was a great way to undercut the clan.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Suddenly they come into an opening, and as the car stops,
Chuck gasps at the strange scene before him. In a glade,
casting weird shadows over the nearby hills and lighting the
sky above, burns a huge wooden cross before it neo
half a hundred men clothed in long robes, pointed hoods
slid only at the eyes cover their heads and faces,
and a low guttural chant issues harshly from their hidden lips,
(16:52):
sending an uneasy, chill ful Chuck's blood. While the boy
looks about him at the fearsome sight, Matt Riggs duns
a robe and hood on which a pale blue scorpion
is his embroidered, then followed by Chucky approaches the Kneeling
Hooded Band, a strangely barbaric company in the dancing light
of the Flaming Cross.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Gosh, who are.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
All these guys, Uncle Matt, and why are you wearing the.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Sheets and hoods? We're the clan of the Fiery Cross, Chuck.
Where a great secret society pledged to purify America. America
for Americans only one race, one religion, one color.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
America's got all kinds of religions in colors.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
When we get through, there'll only be one, only one.
But the Constitution says all Americans have the same rights
and privileged constitution. We'll change that. I'll be quiet. Why
until I call on you a session? Brothers, all, all
the transcorfiend and the Klan of the Fiery Cross. Supreme
(17:52):
Authority invested by me.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
It was a very different kind of program for kids.
It was very revolutiontionary for its time. In the end,
it was extremely successful. The media praise that flowed in
was extraordinary. Industry groups hailed Superman as a hero for tolerance.
(18:17):
Education groups said, now we see that these characters can
play a positive role newspapers wrote lauditary articles, some of
them saying that this is great for kids, but maybe
their parents should listen to it as well. There are
stories that come from actual clansmen that tell the story
(18:41):
of how their kids would listen to that show and
then act it out. So one kid would put on
a Superman outfit, the other one would put a pillow
case over their head and wrap a sheet around themselves,
and then Superman would grab the white kid it drag
(19:02):
them off to jail. How these are klansmen watching this,
So they became very infuriated with what this show was doing,
and they felt that they were the ridicule of the world,
where millions of people are listening to this and they
think we're a bunch of fools.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
The Klan was humiliated. This villain's infamy would soon fitz allowed.
In the nineteen twenties, during the clan's peak years, they
had four million members nationwide. Today they have only three thousand,
thanks in part to the Superman character created by two
boys from Cleveland, Ohio, and a real life superhero with
(19:46):
the courage to go undercover and expose a villain in
his own backyard.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And great work as always to Joey Cortez and a
special thanks to Rick Bowers sharing the story, and well,
there's not much to add the story of Superman versus
the KKK. Here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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