The Benson Five

The story of five black youths who sought to burn down their town’s KKK meeting hall in Benson, North Carolina in 1968, and how the memory of the event has lived on since.

The Benson Five tells the story of the attempted arson of the KKK building committed by five black youths in Benson, North Carolina on April 8th, 1968. Benson is a small town in Johnston County, which regional black communities still refer to as “Klan country”. Shortly before the arson, black children had held a march downtown for Dr. King in the wake of his assassination. Later that night, the Klan marched through Sorrow Valley, one of Benson’s black neighborhoods. This was the final straw that pushed the Benson Five, ages 16 to 20, to sneak over to the building under nightfall and light it aflame. Though the damage was less than $100, the boys were sentenced to twelve years of hard labor. The film deals with the context of the arson and how its historical memory has lived on since. Themes addressed in the film include black resistance to oppression, the Black Power movement, North Carolina’s Klan presence, and imbalances in the criminal justice system.

The Benson Five

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