Inside The Ku Klux Klan

An explosive new documentary airing on Monday July 13 at 10PM on the UK's Channel 4 reveals how the modern day Ku Klux Klan is not only existing, but claims to be thriving. 

Disturbing new images from the film show men and women in traditional Klan robes chanting around a fiery cross blazing in the night.

Children as young as 12 - not yet sworn in to the group - watch from their tents as the flames rise 30 feet and envelope the wooden cross.

Over seven months BAFTA-winning director Dan Vernon filmed with the men and women inside the modern day organisation.

The documentary comes at a pivotal moment in American history. Just one month after the Charleston church massacre, the country is still in the grip of racial turmoil further fuelled by the Ferguson and Baltimore riots. 

Vernon spent time with the Traditionalist American Knights, who claim to be the fastest-growing Klan group in America. They are also the main Klan group operating near Ferguson. 

Three of their members - one a prison officer - were arrested on April 2 and charged with conspiring to murder a black former inmate.  

But unsettling scenes show how neither the Klan’s notorious past - nor the present conspiracy to murder charges - are enough to stop an eager 20-year-old woman from joining the group just a month after the arrests. 

After being ‘naturalised’ in a highly-secretive recruitment ceremony, she said: “I’m still in school and that I feel should be a priority, but I do plan on helping whenever and wherever I can.

“I’ve always agreed with the morals and the values that the Klan associates with ever since I was growing up. I didn’t see a reason not to join.”

During filming the crew witnessed a cross-lighting ceremony on farmland just outside St Louis, where the Ferguson riots took place. 

Vernon also filmed Klan leader Frank Ancona promote the use of ‘lethal force’ on Ferguson protesters to defend themselves.

British director Vernon, said: “What we uncovered was truly shocking. Anyone who thinks that the Klan is remnant of a bygone America will be disturbed to learn their numbers are growing.

“It is very unsettling to imagine that while America is taking steps to heal the injustices of its past, there are groups out there whose beliefs are likely to further inflame racial divisions, to their own gain.” 

See a trailer for the film here.

‘Inside the Ku Klux Klan’, Monday 13th July, 10pm, Channel 4.