Ku Klux Klan And Reconstruction

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.

The Ku Klux Klan organization is very important in history but unfortunately it was a bad group of people who where racist. Also the end of the Civil war is a very significant part of history. As the struggle of blacks for freedom came to an end, a new form of struggle began to form. Political, social, and economic gains of blacks after the Civil war became really frightening!! The idea of whites loosing superiority over blacks felt unacceptable. The poor social white class feared of losing their jobs, and the wealthy of loosing cheap labor. As a result, racist groups began to form. The name Ku Klux Klan is now known all over the world. At first formed as a small social

The group known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was first founded in 1866. The KKK was organized by white supremacist to go against the Republicans Reconstruction-era policies. The members of the group formed in the southern states. They met secretly and formed a campaign to intimidate and use violent acts of discrimination towards both white and black Republican leaders. The Ku Klux Klan had laws passed against them, to stop there acts of injustice, which was considered terrorism. The Ku Klux Klan was a group that formed three times, and had different phases. The reformatted in the early 20th century, and came back stronger than the were before. They held rallies, burned homes and people, burnt crosses, and held marches against immigrants and other religions. Another phase was after the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s the activity was very violent

Topic: In 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was founded by many former confederate veterans in retaliation to their current Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. The Reconstruction era sparked by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation clearly defined that the days of white superiority were in dissolution. Through a willful ignorance and an insecurity of what might postlude the civil rights movement, the KKK rose, using terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Lieutenant general in the Civil war, became the KKK's first Grand Wizard. Now with a steady leader the klan became a persistent political party aimed at dismantling the increasingly

The Ku Klux Klan's long history of violence grew out of the anger and hatred many white Southerners felt after the Civil War. Blacks, having won the struggle for freedom from slavery, were now faced with a new struggle against widespread racism and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan. Despite what many might like to think, the KKK is still active today.

The Ku Klux Klan, known as the KKK, has been one of the most feared groups in America since the end of the civil war during post-war reconstruction.. The civil war was not just about the rights of the black man, but it was a very important part. People in the north mostly believed the black person was due the same liberties insured by the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment of the constitution gave equal protection to former slaves. However people in the south saw the black man as inferior and a slave needed to work on the plantation. This led to continued unrest after the war. Some felt the black man and those that supported his cause needed to be stopped. They wanted to control the black population. The Klan also would torture white people who were sympathetic to the blacks and their situation.

The Ku Klux Klan originated in Pulaski, Tennessee. The goal of the KKK was to reestablish white supremacy throughout the country. Anyone against blacks could easily be part of the Klan. The government tried to stop the KKK in the early 1800´s, but failed. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, blacks and organized labor.

This turn to violence was how the first Ku Klux Klan rose. The Klan was formed by six ex-Confederate Veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, this organization started off small but began absorbing most of the other anti-Reconstruction groups in the south, like the Men of Justice, the Pale Faces, the Constitutional Union Guards, the White Brotherhood, and the Order of the White Rose (Infoplease.com). The Ku Klux Klan was created in fear of an insurrection by the ex-slaves, now the freedmen. The most recognized founder of the Klan was Nathan Bedford Forrest. Their white robes and masks are supposed to be a representation of ex-Confederate soldiers who died during the civil war. One of the Klan’s biggest goal was keeping the freedmen away from the voting polls to assure the success of ex-Confederates in gaining back their political control in many states. In 1871, President Grant took an aim at the Klan for their interference in black suffrage but by this time the support for Reconstruction was beginning to diminish because racism was still very much alive in both the north and the south. As time progressed the Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives. The democrats waged a campaign of violence to take control of Mississippi to which President Grant responded with a refusal of federal troop intervention which ended support of the Reconstruction era. In the election of 1876, Republican, Rutherford B. Haynes, reached a compromise with

One of the Ku Klux Klan’s mains purposes was to protect the way they live from African Americans, Jews, and Catholics. They had the biggest impact on African Americans. The discrimination and the violence of the group was well known through different communities. The Klan was also known for crucial beatings and murders against the black population. They tried to emphasize that the blacks were a subpar race.

The third historical interpretation argues that the Klan was originally established as an organization as a result of a struggling plantation system. This particular perspective offers a differing view which allows for the reader to establish an understanding of the evolving interpretations of the Ku Klux Klan as an organization. Michael W. Fitzgerald, a historian in Reconstruction and agricultural history, makes an argument in his article, “The Ku Klux Klan: Property Crime and the Plantation System in Reconstruction Alabama” (1997), that the Klan originally emerged as a result of labor turmoil following the Emancipation Proclamation. Fitzgerald describes labor turmoil during Reconstruction as a conflict involving wealthy plantation owners

The Ku Klux Klan flourished in the South at the beginning of the Reconstruction succeeding the Civil War. There remained numerous ex-Confederates that were still strongly opposed to the Reconstruction and sought to preserve white supremacy in the South. Directly after the Civil War the government in the South was weak and vulnerable. The Ku Klux Klan leveraged this and used violence and threats to try to reestablish white supremacy. They were most successful in playing upon fears and superstitions. They not only brought terror to the black communities but they also targeted carpetbaggers and scalawags. They used these threats and fears in effectively keeping the blacks away from the polls so that the ex-Confederates could gain back political control in the

During Reconstruction there were many failures recorded in this time period, such as the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK established in 1866 after blacks were given free equality in the United States. The members of the KKK would stretch all throughout the southern states and threaten Jews, Catholics, blacks, and republicans. The klan has caused over a thousand deaths. When going around and hitting every town the klan would meet up and hold underground meetings. They unfortunately could not weaken the political powers of the southerners and anyone in that matter. This group of people would do terrible things to innocent people.

From this document, it is clear that although after the Civil War the slavery had been abolished, people in the south still wanted to resurrect the “Old South”, and thus during the Reconstruction Era, the Ku Klux Klan was founded by a Confederate general and became known as the “invisible empire of the South” in which members represented the ghost of the Confederate dead returning to terrorize African Americans. We can see that to really achieve the union throughout the nation and eradicate racism, the U.S. still had a long way to go.

The Ku Klux Klan is a gang with a notorious past. The clan started off as a group of people defying the southern state’s laws, but it turned out to be one of the most terrifying gangs of the nineteenth century. It all started during the election of Ulysses S. Grant, when most of the democrats in the south created groups to terrify the African Americans. It was a violent gesture to any of the minorities who wanted to gain political attention. They banded together in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865, consisting of former confederate soldiers. They soon began to weaken the blacks and republican political power. It fueled hatred and riots throughout Tennessee, as members of law enforcement often joined in with the gang. All whites from the southern states joined the Klan as an attempt to intimidate the blacks (Herb Peek 2013). As an effort to intimidate the newly freed blacks they burned school houses and whipped teachers. The KKK wanted to get rid of the republican leverage in the southern states. They murdered and terrorized party leaders and all those who voted (Herb Peek 2013). It created an atmosphere that helped gain new recruitment for the Ku Klux Klan. What made this particular group such a threat? What is the history behind this group? Do they still intimidate the south?

The KKK was originally founded as a social club for past Confederate soldiers. In 1865, the KKK grew into a terrorist association. The KKK had racist activity in the form of riots in the South aiming directly at the blacks but also targeted the Republicans. The KKK killed 46 people, wounded 70 and a large quantity of churches and schools were burned.