As you might expect, Atticus is no fan of the Klan.
However, he also seems to be either surprisingly uninformed about the KKK (a very
un-Atticus-like characteristic, since he is historically, politically and socially savvy
on most subjects) or else he is deliberately trying to mislead Jem (also unlike Atticus)
on the subject in order to put him at ease. The subject of the Ku Klux Klan comes up in
Chapter 15, when a "gang" of people meet in Atticus' front yard. When Atticus explains
that it wasn't a "gang," Jem speculates about the Klan. Atticus tells him about one
appearance the KKK made many years before when they
... paraded by Mr. Sam Levy's house one night,
but Sam (said) ... he'd sold 'em the very sheets on their backs. Sam made 'em so ashamed
of themselves they went
away."
Atticus probably
sensed that Jem and Scout were worried about him, so Atticus told
them
"Way back
about nineteen-twenty there was a Klan... The Ku Klux's gone... It'll never come
back."
How wrong Atticus
proved to be. It is obvious that there must have been little or no Klan activity in the
Maycomb area at the time, or Atticus would not have been so easily fooled. Again,
however, he may have only been trying to calm his children by hoodwinking them with a
white lie (no pun intended).
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