September 25, 1998. A hot and humid Friday in Mebane, North Carolina. With the sun bearing down, a landscaping crew worked to cut grass next to a billboard near the intersection of interstates 85 and 40. One of the workers noticed something that looked out of place under the billboard. As he approached, he discovered…
Mary Elizabeth Tyler was referred to as “the heartbeat of the Klan” during a Congressional investigation of the group’s rise in the 1920s. Tyler and her business partner, Edward Clarke, used their Atlanta publicity company, Southern Publicity Association, to fuel efforts to rebrand the KKK and launch the Women’s KKK. Tyler used media campaigns and…
