The ku Klux Klan

Sign of the Cross is a prosecutor's harrowing and ultimately triumphant tale of his struggle to punish the Ku Klux Klan for its acts of terror in southern California. Based on police records, courtroom proceedings and actual testimony, Phillips tells the story of his unprecedented and stormy legal battle against the Klan.

It is the story of real people - true life charactors who become the players in this powerful drama. There are city officials desperate to get rid of the case that could not be won. There is the African American man who fled the bitter memories of his childhood in the Klan-infested South, only to awaken one night to find a burning cross on the hillside above his peaceful California home. There is a grandfatherly pastor commited to white supremacy, and a secret brotherhood of Klansmen seething with hatred and primed for violence.

Above all, it is the story of Phillips, the crusading attorney whose landmark legal victory redefined the boundry between freedom of speech and freedom from oppression, and his prosecution of the case that broke the back of the Klan menace in California.