He was at the University of Alabama, not Arkansas. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama is blocking the entrance in a famous scene in American history known as "The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door." [1]

My dad was a professor at the University of Georgia during this time and still talks about what it was like being in the south at that time. Really fascinating to hear him describe it. He actually drove through Arkansas on a university research field trip right when desegregation was beginning to be enforced and saw the National Guard in place to enforce it.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door

And it looks like that KKK reference is actually a reference to Nathan Bedford Forrest, famous Confederate general and early KKK member.