Historical Image of the Day

Ku Klux Klan rider, Tennessee, 1868.

Note that he is not wearing a white costume. This was a phenomenon of the 2nd KKK of the 1920s. Early Klansmen often wore garish costumes intended to scare their targets.

From Estelle Frantz Parsons' very interesting Journal of American History article, "Midnight Rangers: Costume and Performance in the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan."