For over 85 years, and throughout DC Comics, Superman has battled larger-than-life sinister villains like Brainiac and Lex Luthor. But many will be surprised to know that in 1946, the hero leaped off the pages of Detective Comics and out of the radio waves to take down the real-life Ku Klux Klan.
But how exactly did a comic superhero smash the most hateful villain in real history?
A new report by Grunge details the story behind this extraordinary historical moment, how it all came together, and how exactly America’s superhero made the general public rethink their affiliations with the KKK.
How Superman disrobed one of America’s most vitriolic hate groups in history
In the 1920s, the KKK’s popularity surged in the U.S. — amassing approximately four million members. By the 1930s, membership numbers dwindled due to some scandals about the group hitting the public. Still, the group was seen as a “morality group,” ushering in “good” morals as opposed to the white supremacist hare group they were. The KKK largely operated in secret — making their crimes difficult to abolish.
Enter Stetson Kennedy, an investigative journalist who wanted to take part in the action against hate groups. In Atlanta, Georgia, Stetson goes undercover to join the KKK and leak the group’s secrets to the public on 1946’s “The Adventures of Superman Radio Show.” The broadcast revealed the group’s practices and showcased them as the villains they were. Children who listened in played games around capturing KKK members. Making the KKK a foe of Superman — and children — made the general public rethink their affiliations to the KKK.
After joining the Georgia Klan, Stetson teamed up with Robert Maxwell, who produced “The Adventures of Superman” radio show, to release “Clan of the Fiery Cross,” a 16-part radio story that showcased Superman defeating a Klan group targeting a Chinese-American family.
The popular collaboration effectively damaged the Klan’s image, leading to diminished group numbers and squashing a third-wave resurgence of the KKK.
How exactly? The show equated the group with Nazis, greed, racism, and xenophobia — all things Superman, an alien, fights to defeat on Earth.
Dating back to his earliest stories, Kal-El took on groups resembling the Nazis, fought for housing rights, and spoke for truth and justice in America. Nearly 70 years after its debut, the “Clan of the Fiery Cross” storyline from “The Adventures of Superman” radio show received a loose comic book adaptation to remind readers of Superman and Stetson’s efforts.
In “Superman Smashes The Klan” by Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru, and Janice Chiang, the story follows a Chinese-American family new to Metropolis City and confronted with racism. Their attempts to navigate an already divisive world are made worse by the Ku Klux Klan’s presence. The book explores how prejudice and racism impact the lives of marginalized Americans, even affecting Superman as they see him as a foreign threat.
Although Yang’s story was released in 2019, its message about the dangers of white supremacy reverberates today. In an interview about the comic in 2020, Yang discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic sparked anti-Asian hate crimes in America and inspired him to modernize the classic Superman story, stating, “The only way to move forward is to respect diversity. Respect people who are unlike us and learn to live in a community.”
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