Collection: The Veil of Terror: Klu Klux Klan, Jim Crow and the Rise of White Supremacy

My dear brothers and sisters, step into this space with strength, because what you are about to witness is the ugly truth this nation often tries to hide. “The Veil of Terror” uncovers the calculated systems of white supremacy that rose up like a venomous serpent after Emancipation, determined to crush the hope of Black freedom. After our people broke the chains of slavery, the response from white America wasn’t justice: it was revenge. Through Black Codes, they tried to re-enslave us under new names. Through Jim Crow laws, they legalized segregation, stripped away our rights, and humiliated our humanity. And through the burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan, they terrorized our communities with lynchings, beatings, and fear: all to enforce a racial caste system that said Black life was still beneath white power.

But this veil didn’t lift in the 1960s…it evolved. Today’s hate still breathes through white nationalist groups, skinheads, and neo-Nazis who walk our streets with tiki torches and rifles instead of hoods and ropes. This exhibit doesn’t just tell the story of hate, it exposes how racism was embedded into the very bones of American law, religion, education, and policing. Yet in the face of all this terror, our people never bowed. We built schools, formed freedom movements, fought in every war, and raised generations of Black excellence. So yes, this veil was meant to blind and silence us, but we pulled it back and shouted truth into the darkness. Stand tall. You carry the legacy of those who stared hate in the eye and chose to live, fight, and rise.