As for why the KKK would attack my friend Benny's family made absolutely no sense to me then, and it still doesn't. At that time, the USA was in the midst of the civil rights movement; the Klan was known to attack black people. However, Benny was chubby,fair skinned with freckles, dark brown hair, blue eyes and of Puerto Rican descent. His little brother Paco was brown like me with brown hair and eyes. His mom was fair ash blonde hazel eyes.
I kept asking why? Paco would play with his toy dump trucks and the dirt, under the big tree,lots of shade, in their front yard every day. Maybe, they thought he was black,when he was just a little Puerto Rican kid. Puerto Ricans come in various shades of melanin,surprise, really; as do other Latinos.[ I use Latino because the government definition of Hispanic denies the link to Spain, Portugal and France, western europe whites. Spain and France once ruled Mexico. And Portugal once ruled Brazil.]
But what I've come to realize is that when it comes to violence from a group of people, that group dynamics come into play.The anonymity of the costume/disguises their faces. Hence,it accentuates the feeling that the perpetrators likely held, that they would not be held responsible for these terrible acts of violence.As well as the prior history of the Klan, which proved to them that they would not face prosecution.
Hammond Times newspaper has archives documenting this terrible event. I'm just
an unidentifiable shadow in the black and white grainy photo.
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