"An examination of the history of the author's family and its ties to white supremacist movements."-- Sifting through family lore about "our Klansman" as well as public and private records, Ball reconstructs the story of his great-great grandfather, Constant Lecorgne. A white French Creole, father of five, and working class ship carpenter, Lecorgne had a career in white terror of notable and bloody completeness: massacres, night riding, masked marches,...

The author, a descendant of Charleston plantation owner Elias Ball, tells about his experiences attempting to trace the history of his family and the genealogies of the slave families once owned by the Balls.