White Citizens Councils Founded to Resist Desegregation Through Economic Terror

The first White Citizens Council is founded in Indianola, Mississippi in July 1954, six weeks after Brown v. Board. Called 'the Klan in suits,' the Councils spread rapidly across the South, using economic pressure rather than physical violence: Black activists are fired from jobs, denied credit, evicted from land, and refused goods and services. By 1956 there are 250,000 members. The Councils coordinate with state governments to maintain segregation and compile dossiers on civil rights activists shared with state police.