Where the Klan got their idea of white sheets

In her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot tells us how the Ku Klux Klan got the idea of hooded white sheets. African oral history believed that ghosts caused disease. To discourage slaves from leaving plantations, some plantation owners, aware of these beliefs, conjured up tales of gruesome research done on black bodies by night doctors who kidnapped blacks found outside at night. These night doctors supposedly covered themselves in white sheets and crept around at night, posing as spirits come to infect black people with disease or steal them for research.

In fact, there was some truth to the oral history. Many doctors and researchers did conduct experiments on blacks without their consent. One victim of these practices was Henrietta Lacks, whose cells have been dividing since surgery was performed on her in 1951. Her cells have been bought and sold thousands of times, with her impoverished family receiving not one penny.