Bill Campbell Knihy

A gritty "voodoo" Western tale about what happens when fighting is all both sides know what to do.1879. After decades of violence of fleeing, having gone everywhere from Florida to Mexico, a war-weary band of Seminole Blacks led by their sheriff, Desi Leans, and his wise-cracking deputy, Gay Day, have finally settled in the Oklahoma Territory. They have built their dream, Refuge, and they will do whatever it takes to make it work.But they fear that it may all go up in smoke when a band of renegade buffalo soldiers, The Testimony Gang, and their firebrand leader, Prester John, come to town.Will Refuge hold true to its promise or will it all be burned to the ground?

In 1923, the Ku Klux Klan reaches its peak, expanding its reach beyond the South and targeting not just African Americans, but also Catholics, Jews, and southern and eastern Europeans, all under the guise of "white supremacy." With a façade of moral decency and family values, the Klan positions itself as a "civic organization," attracting new members, law enforcement, and politicians to its vision of white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant "Americanism." Pennsylvania becomes a focal point for this movement, particularly when the Grand Dragon decides to showcase their power in a small town near Pittsburgh, populated by Catholics and Jews. On "Karnegie Day," around thirty thousand Klan members gather to initiate new recruits and march into the town, brandishing torches and guns to assert their version of Americanism. The narrative centers on Primo Salerno, a Sicilian immigrant with a troubled past. Drafted from the sulfur mines of Sicily to fight in World War I, he later becomes entangled with local fascists, prompting his emigration to the U.S. Reluctant to engage in conflict, he finds himself compelled to stand up for his community against the Klan's intimidation, realizing that the town's survival may depend on his courage.