Archie vs the Klu Klux Klan
The ending of this two parter features The best Archie Bunker we have ever seen. Archie has just made the biggest mistake of his life but he rises to the occasion. Alone and outnumbered, up against too brutal violent lowlifes he shows courage and conviction. it is also one of the funniest and also touching moments of the series. the classic line when confronted by the Klan leaders on who they have to fear, Archie says:" us Blacks."
It was a perfect moment and showed that even though Archie was a bigot it was with a lower case b. There is a delineation in racism, the misinformed Bunker would never actually physically harm anybody because of their religion or skin color, and when push came to shove he made it very clear to the Klan that he didn't want Crosses burnt anywhere-or he would come back with an army of his black brothers and kick their Honkey Heinies
Whatever the original genesis of the Bunker character, it was always shown that Bunker was more ignorant and ill informed then virulent racist, and that was proven quite nicely in this episode. And truth be told Archie was much more forgiving and flexible than his intolerant son-in-law who over-reacted to Archie's mistake and never even gave the man the benefit of the doubt in one of Archie's darkest and most dangerous hours.