How Stetson Kennedy Infiltrated the KKK & Changed the Jim Crow South

In 1946, Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan to share insider information with journalists and the FBI in an effort to take down the KKK from the inside

A Florida native who began his career as a writer, Stetson Kennedy is perhaps best known for his successful infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan. Kennedy’s experiences inside the group allowed him to feed valuable information about the Klan’s membership and political movements to authorities and journalists, playing a crucial role in the dismantling of the group throughout the Deep South and earning him the nickname, “Klan Buster.”

Considered both a “pioneering Florida folklorist and social activist” and “a man the Klan would rather forget,” Kennedy left an indelible mark on both the United States and the world at large for his decades-long career championing racial equity and dismantling discriminatory systems in the Jim Crow South.

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