Conversation with a Kleagle…interview with a KKK recruiter

In the late 1920’s, a time when the lynching of black men is an accepted and widespread form of racial oppression, a black Chicago journalist travels to the deep South to interview a Kleagle, a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. The reporter, passing for white, aims to change American public opinion, which has tolerated–often supported–Klan terror. But first he must succeed in his deception–and survive. However, his true racial identity is discovered by the Klan. This play is about this moment. It is based on the experiences of Walter White, who went on to lead the NAACP as Executive Secretary from 1931 until his death in 1955.