https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/kkk-series
I only knew about it because someone in my area worked on the KKK investigations.
Hence my not talking out of my ass, and wishing we had more of it.
i like the parts where the fed only got involved after they were unable to use the post, telegraph, or telephone, or where they drafted a man so he wouldn't get lynched for draft dodging, or did the heroic thing of 'learning that the leader of a multi-racial group called the Knights of Labor was worried about another labor leader's abduction and promised to protect the guy and tapped in civilian resources like 'the citizen volunteers against draft evasion' to convince the KKK to disband,
or heroically responded to singular KKK members after they murdered people in 1923 or talked back to businessmen who said they'd whip fbi agents or was 'the one reliable law enforcement agency in mississippi in the 1960s' or stopped two bombers in 1997.
No wars, no bombs, the pinnacle of achievement was some semblance of law in Mississippi. No fundamental addressing of how the law was enforced across the rest of the country, no ideological contest, no reformation of the law, just enforcement and response.
And they did it all in just under 80 years! Truly breakneck social change. In a fraction of that time, we bombed black neighborhoods and killed unsuspecting black civilians with syphilis for science and called in the military to shoot dead striking laborers.
On September 10 the National Guard began "a series of almost daily arrests" of union officers and men known to be strongly in sympathy with the unions.[10]p.80 When District Judge W. P. Seeds of Teller County held a hearing on writs of habeas corpus for four union men held in the stockade, Sherman Bell responded: "Habeas corpus be damned, we'll give 'em post mortems."[4]p.62 Approximately ninety cavalrymen entered Cripple Creek and surrounded the courthouse. The prisoners were escorted into the courtroom by a company of infantry equipped with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets,[10]p.101 and the soldiers remained standing in a line during the court sessions. Other soldiers took up sniper positions and set up a gatling gun in front of the courthouse. Angered by the intimidating display, an attorney for the prisoners refused to proceed and left the court.[5]p.97 Undaunted by the military presence, the judge ruled for the prisoners. Judge Seeds commente:
LAW AND ORDER! Fucking
Gatling guns!You know what the National Guard didn't do?
Threaten the legal representation for KKK members with fucking Gatling guns!