Ku Klux Klan And The Civil War

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

During the 1920’s rebirth of the KKK, the Klan would turn to politics to help push their beliefs. Hundreds of Klansmen would go onto win elections to local offices and state legislatures, which at the height of their power would account for more than three million members (Henretta, pg. 670). Having members of the Klan elected to local offices and state legislatures, allowed for the Klan to become very influential. Eventually becoming so influential, the clan had people feeling as if they were compelled to support or join them. Along with becoming influential, having Klansmen in local offices and state legislatures allowed for the Klan become dispersed across the country. Unlike the original Klan, the reborn Klan well geographically

In the article, “Political Violence During Reconstruction,” Samuel C. Hyde, Jr. meticulously examines racially based threats and violence that take place after the Civil War. The Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia are the focal points of Hyde’s article. These groups’ main objective was to maintain the power in the South with the planter elite. The planter elite was entirely comprised of wealthy white men. This is no surprise because during this time period, one only had power if he was white, wealthy and a man. The poor people were taken advantage of by the planter elite. The peculiar part here is that the poor people helped the wealthy white people stay rich, rather than help themselves. This happened mainly because of the planter elite; they manipulated the poor people into helping them. The poor people were coerced into helping the planter elite with two incentives: to become wealthy and to have a stronger

Forever. 170). The Klan were white southerners who were organized and committed to the breaking down of Reconstruction. By methods of brutality, “the Klan during Reconstruction offers the most extensive example of homegrown terrorism in American history” (Foner. Forever. 171). The Ku Klux Klan as well as other groups killed or tormented black politicians or threatened the blacks who voted in elections. The Klan strongly disagreed with the northern idea that slaves should become part of the government. The Historian Kenneth M. Stampp states, “for their [the North] supreme offense was not corruption but attempting to organize the Negroes for political action” (Stampp. Era. 159). This corresponds with Foner’s idea that the South was not open to the idea of change but more so consumed with the idea of recreating a society similar to one of the past. However, the goal of white power groups was not just politics. The Klan wanted to restore the hierarchy once controlling the South. Foner observes that, “the organization took on the function of the antebellum slave patrols: making sure that blacks did not violate the rules and etiquette of white supremacy” (Foner. Forever. 172). Like the power the southern whites formerly held over the slave population, the Ku Klux Klan wanted to control the African American population still living in the South. They did not want the freedmen to become integrated into their society because they saw them as lesser people. By suppressing and

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.

If a black man resisted to the Ku Klux Klan when being bribed he was whipped and killed on the spot. But the negroes were not the only ones being killed by them the KKK stabbed and hung Senator John W. Stephens in the courtroom in North Carolina he was a white man. Tourgee was white, he was a Northern soldier that settled in North Carolina after the war and became a judge and was most likely the next white person target for the KKK after writing a letter to the North Carolina senator, Joseph Carter Abbott about the killing of Stephens and how anyone that bows to the KKK “is a coward, a traitor, or a fool.” (Document A) The political violence in the south continued while the north was getting tired of fighting for their

With the Freedmen, Reconstruction may have helped them gain freedom and protection under the constitution, but these protections were flawed and loopholes were found. To spite the radical republicans, the south created Black Codes that had rules like, “Every Negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said Negro” (Louisiana). These laws were in effect before the 14th amendment came and was in laymen’s terms slavery. Freedmen were known to vote Republican in the south because they gained freedom because of the Republicans. However, the South wanted no one to vote for Republicans because in their eyes it was the Republicans that ruined them. So, to ensure that Freedmen did not vote for Republicans, they invented the KKK. The KKK was a political group that wanted to stop votes for Republicans in the south. By any and all means necessary. One example is Adam Colby, who was a Freedmen and a republican. The KKK tried to bribe him to get him to stop his Radical Republican activities. When Adam didn’t rise to the bribe, they broke into his home on the 29th of October and took him to the woods where they whipped him and left him for dead (“Testimony”). Not only this, but Freedmen had a very hard time finding places to live. Many places had a “whites only” mindset and would not sell to Freedmen. An example of this type of situation is when a young Freedwoman was looking for a home with her husband. An agent told her and her husband he had just the place they were looking for but could not give it to them because “all the white people in the neighbourhood would be down on me” (“The”). Reconstruction brought an even uglier side of the

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.

Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865 to the Present by David Chalmers records the history of the Ku Klux Klan quite bluntly, all the way from its creation following the civil war, to the early 1960’s. The author starts the book quite strongly by discussing in detail many acts of violence and displays of hatred throughout the United States. He makes a point to show that the Klan rode robustly throughout all of the country, not just in the southern states. The first several chapters of the book focus on the Klan’s creation in 1865. He goes on to discuss the attitude of many Americans following the United State’s Civil War and how the war shaped a new nation. The bulk of the book is used to go through many of

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.

In order to do this the Republican congress began by imposing exclusive southern taxes on southern men, by seizing southern planters’ territory and redistributing it to poor whites and freedmen, by arresting the southern state governments of any self-control and planting Republican politicians in charge instead, by paralyzing southern industry, and by endeavoring to preserve the freedmen’s few rights by military presence and political force, threatening southern white dominance. Each of these factors combatted southern tradition, a tradition of an aristocratic ruling class of southern planters who controlled all men and the entirety of any profit gained in the south, by promoting the destitute freedmen and whites to a higher socio-economic status while demoting the status of the previously powerful planters. In almost direct response to the Republicans’ cutting efficacy in deconstruction of southern tradition, many whites turned to resistance to Radical Reconstruction in the form of domestic terrorism. Most prominent among the domestic terrorist groups by 1870 was the Klu Klux Klan, a fraternity of affluent and non-affluent white men who frequently intimidated, tortured, and killed freedmen, as well as white Republicans. It was common in the Reconstruction-era south to have blacks taken from their houses in the night and whipped or lynched. Even voter intimidation was as rampant as small scale daily violence all throughout the south. The battles of the civil war and persecution of blacks continued to rage throughout the years of Reconstruction, wholly due to the complete success, and yet, utter failure in stripping the south of its identity so wholly and so quickly. Even though the south no longer had such distinct

The KKK extended their defense of true Americanism from only blacks to Catholics, Jews, foreigners, feminists, and radicals (Cohen 694). Along with their new promise, they rallied for more members to help with their defense to protect American purity. The Klan’s size grew exponentially during their second upbringing to their most ever of over three million members. While the second upbringing of the Klan was short-lived, their influence of their defense against anything that was not purely American reflects on the beliefs of white

Members of both parties, in the Ku Klux Klan and the anti-war protests of the 1960s rebelled because they felt that they were the victims of social change and political oppression. The KKK first emerged after the South’s defeat in the Civil War and emerged rejuvenated for the third time following the civil rights

White supremacy groups posed a major threat on the blacks free way of life. The Klu Klux Klan, which began in 1865 in Tennessee, murdered many blacks whose only crime was the desire to vote. The Klan would inflict vengeance on colored citizens by breaking into their homes in the dead of night, dragging them out of their beds, torture them in inhuman ways and most instances murder them mainly for their political affiliations. Each member of the Klan must furnish himself with a pistol, gown, and a signal instrument which was part of the Klan’s constitution and bylaws each member abided by.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee and expanded to almost every southern state by 1870. The Ku Klux Klan started off as a social group full of Confederate Veteran’s. The first two words of their group came from the Greek word “kyklos” which means circle. They selected their first leader in the summer of 1867 who was Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest! This group started after the Civil War during Reconstruction. Violence from the Ku Klux Klan started in 1867 after the 14th amendment was approved in 1866. The Ku Klux Klan did not agree with decision the Republicans had made and they targeted blacks, and whites, and any republican voters. Their goal was to restore white supremacy in the South again and to