Blanche Bruce, Robert DeLarge, Jefferson Long, Joseph Rainey, Benjamin Turner, and Josiah Walls are names of 6 of the 17 African Americans elected into the United States Congress. This rise in freedom led many Africans to believe that they could start new lives, but that wasn’t the case. The plan to free the naturalized colored people and give them immunities failed due to states passing the black codes which limited colored peoples’ immunities. The Ku Klux Klan wreaked havoc as they would torture and kill many colored people. The colored people were once again being discriminated and not given their immunities. During the years of 1865 and 1866, laws called the Black Codes were passed one by one in each state. These laws stated what colored people could and could not do. The Black Codes from Opelousas, Louisiana, state in section 3 that, “No negro …show more content…
General George Thomas said that, “The State of Tennessee was disturbed by strange operations of a mysterious organization known as the “Ku Klux Klan”. This mysterious group of people escalated into a major problem of reconstruction. Many thought this was a way to re-start the revolution. The KKK would kidnap many colored folks and torture them and treat them slaves. They would always hide their identity. In the textbook it states that they wanted to return the country to a democratic rule. If an African American were to attempt to vote for a republican, they would kill the person or lynch him/her. The reports of beatings, whippings, and murders increased greatly. Many attempts were made to stop the KKK, but the KKK’s numbers overpowered the police force. With the death rate increasing government put Georgia back into military control by passing the Georgia Act. This was led by General Alfred Taylor. This finally led to 15th Amendment which gained immunities for African
The goal of this investigation is to delve into the question of: to what extent was the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s a reflection of societal change? In order to assess this question from multiple perspectives on the topic, research is needed to further look into the Klan’s motives both prior to their revival as well as after. Events in the 1870s, when the Klan ended, as well as events in the 1920s, when the klan was reborn, will be considered in this investigation in order to make connections between the KKK and why their revival in the 1920s reflected societal change. Among these events include the end of Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, increase of immigration to the United States, as well as the “red scare” of communism.
Black Codes were enacted in 1865 and 1866 by new southern state governments. Similar to the Slave Codes that existed before the Civil War, these Black Codes sought to regulate past slaves lives such as prohibiting freed slaves to serve on juries or to testify against a white person in court. Although the Black Codes granted African Americans to possess and sell property and legalized black marriages, interracial marriage between white and black Americans was outlawed. Unfortunately, some states even went further to control the lives of African Americans by limiting their economic freedoms such as, preventing any African Americans from purchasing or renting farmland in the state of Mississippi. As a result of decreeing the Black Codes, a division
The brutal violence acts performed by the Ku Klux Klan members were often sexual violence. The Klan said to be protecting the white women from black men. As the article Black Victims of Violence states, “... some had no moral qualms about their members sexually abusing or mutilating black men and women in order to show their authority” (para. 3). The violence became worse over time and the Klansmen started to get out of hand. Even the “Grand Wizard,” also known as Nathan Bedford Forrest, saw their crimes as unnecessary and unjust. As read in Hatred and Profits: Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan by Roland
Black Codes is the mainstream name given to the statutes went by Southern slave states, before and instantly after the American Civil War. From the pioneer time frame, provinces and states had passed laws that oppressed free Blacks. In the South, these were for the most part incorporated into slave codes; the objective was to lessen impact of free blacks as a result of their potential impact on slaves. Restrictions included denying them from voting, remaining battle ready, and assembling in gatherings for love and figuring out how to read and write. A noteworthy reason for these laws was to save slavery. In the initial two years after the Civil War, white ruled southern legislatures passed Black Codes displayed after the before slave codes.
These laws were passed between 1865 and 1866. Black Codes were “laws passed by Southern state legislatures that restricted African American’s rights to testify against whites, serve on juries or in state militias, or vote” (Class Notes, 9/18/17). This gave African Americans no freedom to accuse whether a white person did a crime and no right to vote. On some states, these laws also prevented blacks to own their land (Class Notes, 9/20/17). Having no freedom of owning a land prevented African Americans on having a stable and prosperous life.
The Ku Klux Act gave the president great power to intervene with southern states affected by the Klan’s violent acts. Federal officials eventually arrested hundreds of people suspected to have been involved in the Klan and the violence then subsided. However, by this time, the Ku Klux Klan had achieved its main goals in the majority of the southern states and the white supremacist governments were then in firm control. Consequently, a variety of legal measures could be taken to suppress the blacks’ voting and civil rights.
During Reconstruction, the KKK tried to throw out the reconstruction government and both intimidated and abused African Americans.
This proved to be a very important act passed. The passing of the voting to African Americans was strongly not wanted. The Ku Klux Klan along with other hate groups tried to prevent the 15th Amendment from being in place by violence and intimidation. In view of that fact the practical question immediately is, whether that situation of things could be changed by legislation. And if it could, if the protection of those whom the Ku-Klux keeps from the polls by terror would prevent the national government falling into the hands of the Ku-Klux party, ought they not to be protected and the government saved”, The Ku Klux 1871. “Two decisions in 1876 by the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of enforcement under the Enforcement Act and the Force Act, and together with the end of Reconstruction marked by the removal of federal troops after the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877, resulted in a climate in which violence could be used to depress black voter turnout and fraud could be used to undo the effect of lawfully cast votes”, Before the Voting Rights Act.
During this time, everyday living was extremely difficult and harsh for African Americans. They were socially limited because a lot of southerners wanted to keep them from actively participating in society. The Ku Klux Klan, a white terrorist organization, wanted to reinstate white supremacy within the Southern states. African Americans lived their lives in fear of the Ku Klux Klan and many other white southerners. African Americans had political limitations since most white southerners did not believe that African Americans had the same basic rights as them. Black Codes were laws that prevented the practice of civil and political rights for African Americans. Black Codes were later renamed “Jim Crow” laws. Literacy tests were used to prevent
Frustrated confederate soldiers made their way back home after losing the war that they had been fighting for four years. These men formed vigilante groups, attacking black people. While soldiers did this, wealthier men who had avoided fighting in the war formed agricultural and police clubs for the same purpose; both groups soon took shape and evolved into one large group, known as the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the first leader, known as the Grand Wizard. The name Ku Klux Klan is derived from the Greek word, Kyklos, meaning circle. The Ku Klux Klan, often shortened to the KKK, was founded in Tennessee in 1866 and grew to be one of the most feared terrorist groups in the United States, before dying off in 1869, but later being revived in 1915 (History.com Staff). The Ku Klux Klan negatively impacted the Reconstruction period through terror, intimidating Republican voters, and killing Republican officials.
When the Civil War ended and slaves were free, Black Codes were established by states. Black Codes were specifically made to limit the freedom of African Americans and forced them to work in poor conditions with low wages. As explained by
The devaluation of African American suffering at the hands of the Klan is a great example of how white supremacy inundated American society. Minstrelsy and murder: the crisis of Southern humor, 1835-1925 was written by Andrew Silver and published in 2006. This piece both illustrates the paranoia felt across the South, as well as the South’s blatant disregard for any pain or injustice to befall African Americans. Silver claimed that the significance of black terror was reduced to a means through which to achieve white entertainment. “The climax of Klan terror produced a Reconstruction commodity culture which fetishized and made desirable both black terror and the instruments of such terror,” (Silver 56). The Klan nearly led Tennessee into a
KKK - 3K Ku Klux Klan was the party of the terrorist organization in the US birth. It was founded originated in the United States after the Civil War to advocate sabotage and revenge black people coming out of slavery in the American South. The organization was banned in 1880, and a second group also took this name and also embraces racism was established in 1915. The development of 3K fall in the Great Depression in the 1930s, but then again rise into the 50s and 60s of the last century to respond to the movement for equal rights (Civil Right) in the US. 3K affected certain political during its existence in America. In addition to discrimination blacks, 3K also improved anti-Semitism, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist, anti-homosexual and parochialism.
The draftees of the Black Codes in each state were not subtle in their dislike for freedmen. They believed blacks were predestined to be agricultural laborers and under their control. In 1866, federal officials deemed black codes too harsh, and outlawed them. They decided that blacks should receive the same treatment that whites did.
The Ku Klux Klan is known for its evil acts of terror and its firm control over the south. People, though, may not know who they were and what they stood for-and why the government wasn’t stopping them. I feel like they were able to commit such terrible acts of terror without fearing retribution for a number of reasons. Firstly, it originally started as a social club for veteran confederate soldiers. No one knew how horrible they’d become until they became the terrible KKK. Additionally, even when they were trying to be shut down, it was close to impossible to do so from the vast amount of congregants. Lastly, the crimes committed became so second nature of the people, that it didn’t startle them anymore.