[LeGrande]

I remember my Dad telling me a story that he came home late one night the they were burning a cross on my grandfathers farm which was on a hill by the town and could be easily seen. I asked my Dad why they did that, there were no blacks in town but he say “Yah, but there were catholics”. Different times and things have changed but some people don't change with them.

Why do you think they burned Crosses?

[PeterPrinciple]

Why do you think they burned Crosses?

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Good Question. Again, it appears we got this from the movies.

The Reconstruction-era Klan did not burn crosses, but Thomas Dixon’s 1902–1907 trilogy of novels portrayed a romanticized version of the Ku Klux Klan in which its members did burn crosses. Dixon may have based the idea on descriptions of the fiery cross in the writing of Sir Walter Scott, or on other literary or historical sources. The 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation was based on two of Dixon’s novels. Birth of a Nation quotes Dixon’s novel The Clansman as saying:

In olden times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was sent by swift courier from village to village… The ancient symbol of an unconquered race of men.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_burning