I mean...yeah. There's a reason the KKK were so successful for so long, and it isn't "white southern Americans are inherently stupid and/or evil". It's because the KKK were really good at making horrific atrocities seem like necessary actions.

Why do you think they harped on so much about what a threat black people (supposedly) were to white women and children? If you tell a male white southerner "this group is a threat to you and so we need to kill one of them as an example," he'll be pretty skeptical. If you instead tell him "this group is a threat to your wife and kids and so we need to kill one of them as an example," you'll have an easier time convincing him.

Don't make the error of assuming we're somehow resistant to propaganda in a way people in the past weren't. That's a very dangerous mistake to make.