The KKK assassinates Eleanor Roosevelt

Oh boy! Eleanor gets whacked by the KKK. Big question is who ordered the hit & who benefited from the murder ?

Plus: how does she get whacked ?
A.) Automobile explosion

B.) Sniper shot

C.) Kidnapped by some KKK supporter & bashed in the head with baseball bat.
 
Basically from what comments I've seen, here's how it would go:
  1. Eleanor gets killed(roughly 1955)
  2. Everybody gets mad, because y'know..you just killed the wife of FDR goddammit
  3. The gov't cracks down hard on the Klan(second Brown Scare)
  4. Civil Rights movement succeeds years before OTL because no Klan exists basically
  5. Everyone moves on in life
 
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I think the South would rally to protect their own. The history of the Klan, on a local and natonal level, demonstrates that. Which is going to lead to a serious rift between North and South. We could see a similar sectional divide that lead up to the Civil War. Not to say a Second Civil War. But to say that Hubert Humphrey could make a comment on the Senate floor that a Southern Congressman makes a snide remark that he should watch his back too, the Southern delegations say "we don't defend that, but Humphrey is bringing it upon himself" and maybe similar Antebellum brawling in the halls of the legislature.
 
I think the South would rally to protect their own. The history of the Klan, on a local and natonal level, demonstrates that. Which is going to lead to a serious rift between North and South. We could see a similar sectional divide that lead up to the Civil War. Not to say a Second Civil War. But to say that Hubert Humphrey could make a comment on the Senate floor that a Southern Congressman makes a snide remark that he should watch his back too, the Southern delegations say "we don't defend that, but Humphrey is bringing it upon himself" and maybe similar Antebellum brawling in the halls of the legislature.

Really though, in the 1950s? There's only so much people will take and the assassination of a former first lady via bounty is likely a breaking point for most people. it's in 1958 and I reckon both political parties would want to distance themselves from that ASAP rather tha point fingers beisdes at the KKK. The GOP have their history as being agaisnt the KKK though FDR and Eleanor were Democrats and thus have major reasons to be against it.
 
Really though, in the 1950s? There's only so much people will take and the assassination of a former first lady via bounty is likely a breaking point for most people. it's in 1958 and I reckon both political parties would want to distance themselves from that ASAP rather tha point fingers beisdes at the KKK. The GOP have their history as being agaisnt the KKK though FDR and Eleanor were Democrats and thus have major reasons to be against it.

Southern Democrats are a party within a party. You would have Southern Democrats who are moderate on the issue; the same that would be against the Klan or unopinionated on the Klan regardless. But the Dixiecrats are going to protect their own. The Dixiecrats are a faction of doublespeak to package molten, poisonous ideas of hate and bigotry in, and they'll defend it as a group of radicals who do not represent the Klan - yet nonetheless say Roosevelt somehow had asked for it and brought it on herself. And the history of violence by the Klan would be obfuscated in political language.

A big factor in this scenario, related to the doublespeak, is that you create an incident where people are forced to take a stand and a side. No one will be able to demure or ignore or soften the context through careful wording or posturing, and the rest of the political hot wind. This will force stances and stands and actions, and we saw what that did to politics in the 1960s.
 
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At this point, the Klan has zero (bs as it is) argument that it is somehow a defender of American institutions. It's now a serious domestic terrorist organization that is a threat to national security and stability.


OTL he went strongly after it once they burned a cross on an FBI member's lawn. He saw that as the KKK challenging the FBI and he wasn't going to allow that. He wouldn't let Eleanor's death slide either as it would make the FBI look bad.
 
I think y'all are underestimating the entrenchment of the Klan in southern society at the time. This could lead to a mini-civil war ala the Irish Troubles.

The KKK was mostly made up of poor, cowardly, ignorant rednecks. The FBI found it very easy to infiltrate once they put their minds to it. They found they could usually bribe members for good information and most spilled what they knew when strongly threatened. Pushing around unarmed Blacks was more their speed, not going up against the Feds and potentially the army.
 
Southern Democrats are a party within a party. You would have Southern Democrats who are moderate on the issue; the same that would be against the Klan or unopinionated on the Klan regardless. But the Dixiecrats are going to protect their own. The Dixiecrats are a faction of doublespeak to package molten, poisonous ideas of hate and bigotry in, and they'll defend it as a group of radicals who do not represent the Klan - yet nonetheless say Roosevelt somehow had asked for it and brought it on herself. And the history of violence by the Klan would be obfuscated in political language.

A big factor in this scenario, related to the doublespeak, is that you create an incident where people are forced to take a stand and a side. No one will be able to demure or ignore or soften the context through careful wording or posturing, and the rest of the political hot wind. This will force stances and stands and actions, and we saw what that did to politics in the 1960s.

A timeline in which the Klan did not assassinate a former First Lady. The more likely scenario, is that most of the Klan distances themselves from it calling them radicals. They then officially break up. They throw away the white sheets, form different racist societies and the former Klan members call themselves something else with different names, mottoes, and rituals. There will probably be a number of replacements using various different names.
 
OTL he went strongly after it once they burned a cross on an FBI member's lawn. He saw that as the KKK challenging the FBI and he wasn't going to allow that. He wouldn't let Eleanor's death slide either as it would make the FBI look bad.

Yeah and now even more so and it'd probably thorough. Maybe involving working with Afro-Americans and whatnot could soften J Edgar Hoover's stance on them and other leftists by working with them.

A timeline in which the Klan did not assassinate a former First Lady. The more likely scenario, is that most of the Klan distances themselves from it calling them radicals. They then officially break up. They throw away the white sheets, form different racist societies and the former Klan members call themselves something else with different names, mottoes, and rituals. There will probably be a number of replacements using various different names.

Yeah, but those legacy organizations are still made up fo the same sort of people and thus, they would still be under intense scrutiny. Just because they changed their names and put on different suits does not change how they are on the inside. I do see some selling out one another as a way for leniency and whatnot.
 
Yeah, but those legacy organizations are still made up fo the same sort of people and thus, they would still be under intense scrutiny. Just because they changed their names and put on different suits does not change how they are on the inside. I do see some selling out one another as a way for leniency and whatnot.

True, but it would probably be able to distance many of the members from the original KKK. That is all that is needed. The Dixiecrats wouldn't back whatever is left of the KKK but their successor organizations. Their ideas would not have changed much but their appearance and possibly even some of their rhetoric would have.
 
True, but it would probably be able to distance many of the members from the original KKK. That is all that is needed. The Dixiecrats wouldn't back whatever is left of the KKK but their successor organizations. Their ideas would not have changed much but their appearance and possibly even some of their rhetoric would have.

Yeah, but it's still the same old assholes though. They'd still remain large Persons of Interest
 
Yeah, but it's still the same old assholes though. They'd still remain large Persons of Interest

Yeah, but that is all they would be. How much the FBI could do outside of what they did in the mid to late 60's is a real question. In the end you have sped things up maybe five years but outside that nothing much changed as life has to go on.
 
Also probably reforms for the Secret Service to ensure that former First Ladies receive protection too, if that wasn't already a thing.
As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt had refused Secret Service protection. She even evaded it. Finally, then chief of the Secret Service said to her, "If you don't want my men to protect you, then at least carry a gun so you can protect yourself."

Mrs. Roosevelt agreed. She was issued a .38 revolver, and practiced with it at the Secret Service range. She even kept the gun after leaving the White House.

On the occasion alluded to by the OP, Mrs. Roosevelt went to rural Tennessee to give a speech denouncing segregation and the Klan. She was picked up at the Nashville airport by an elderly woman from the group that had invited her. Both had heard about the Klan's threats. Mrs. Roosevelt got in the car, took the gun from her purse, and laid it on the car seat. Then the two fearless old ladies drove off into the countryside.
 
As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt had refused Secret Service protection. She even evaded it. Finally, then chief of the Secret Service said to her, "If you don't want my men to protect you, then at least carry a gun so you can protect yourself."

Mrs. Roosevelt agreed. She was issued a .38 revolver, and practiced with it at the Secret Service range. She even kept the gun after leaving the White House.

On the occasion alluded to by the OP, Mrs. Roosevelt went to rural Tennessee to give a speech denouncing segregation and the Klan. She was picked up at the Nashville airport by an elderly woman from the group that had invited her. Both had heard about the Klan's threats. Mrs. Roosevelt got in the car, took the gun from her purse, and laid it on the car seat. Then the two fearless old ladies drove off into the countryside.


I'm just imagining this went the same way as the opening of Pulp Fiction. It didn't in reality, but it does in my brain now.

 
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