Ku Klux Klan Essay

Through research and evidence, it is clear that the historical interpretations of the origins of Klan and its establishment as an organization and its origins have changed over time. Starting in 1906, historians argued that the Klan was a benevolent, social organization, working as law-enforcers to help maintain a distinct social order between Southern whites and newly freed slaves. Completely ignoring the violence produced by the Klan, historians depicted the Klan as a positive, well-rounded organization. The second historical interpretation shone a new light on the Klan, exposing it for its violent and racially motivated actions. Historians argued that the Klan’s establishment was as a political organization that made a negative and lasting impression on all of U.S. history. The third and final interpretation argues that the Klan was established as a result of a struggling planter class. Historical interpretations during this time period describe the main goal of the Klan as wanting to answer to the desires and goals of the planters’ class. Because of this, historians during this era never saw the Klan as being an obstacle for newly freed slaves nor did they see the Klan having a negative effect on society. In conclusion, it is evident that historical interpretations develop and

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The Ku Klux Klan used cruel methods in order to create social change in their favor. A very common method used was intimidation; members of the Klan would march through streets and burn crosses in order to get their message across. Klansmen would dress in white robes in order to terrorize innocent citizens who were mainly of African-American descent. Although violent acts such as lynchings and kidnappings were common actions by KKK members, they would also recruit members that have political power. The Klan would encourage blacks to not vote with the intention of keeping their people in power. On the whole, the methods that the KKK used to create social change were cruel and should not be taken lightly.

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

Branches of the Klan were instituted in nearly every Southern state making it difficult for African Americans to maintain their positions of power. In an effort to maintain social order, the Klan made its efforts to stop the assimilation of African Americans into society known. In Chapter 15 of his book, The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln, Claude G. Bowers argues that the Ku Klux Klan was an organization that used fear and a sense of mystery as a means of controlling African Americans, its sense of mystery being its trademark. The Klan’s mystery was made up of eccentric costumes and code names for members that helped maintain the sense of secrecy. The Klan, adorned in white robes and often referring to themselves as “ghosts”, used the superstitious beliefs of African Americans in an effort to keep the newly freed slaves whom the Klan believed were the primary crime committers out of society. The author states that because the Klan was preventing African Americans from taking a more predominant role in society, their efforts further resulted in a crime free environment. Because it’s systematic tactics were said to be decreasing the rape culture in southern society and increasing the positive attitudes of servants on southern plantations, it appeared to white southerners that the Klan was making an effective and conscious effort to regulate the social caste system of the time. The author argues that it was not until the emergence of the Klan that both white men and women began to feel a sense of security. A crime free environment was essential to Southern society at the time. A society with a distinct social order was one that would produce the most effective economy. The following historians all agree that the maintaining of social order was one of the primary reasons that the Klan was established as an organization. Never

The Klan on their march displayed their increasing numbers and was marching to show how powerful the KKK have become. The KKK was working on an effort “to get lawmakers to pass discriminatory laws against immigrants” (www.georgiaencyclopedia.org, “Ku Klux Klan in the Twentieth Century”). The Klan believed to protest against all races and work to influence the government to put restrictions on allowing other races in the United States. In their march they worked to intimidate blacks, Catholics, Jews, and all other races. In addition, in the voting system, millions of its members succeeded in electing hundreds of KKK-backed candidates to local, state, and even federal office, the group proved unable to preserve its influence at the ballot box beyond that decade (www.brandeis.edu, “Ku Klux Klan’s lasting legacy on the U.S. political system”). The KKK was solely trying anyway to get the public's attention and gain support while they worked to changed the way Americans viewed the opposing

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

Although not all went to the extremes of the KKK using terror, beating, and even murder to fulfill their quest in purifying America, they however they did support it’s ideology in many rural America. It has been estimated that, between the years 1920-27, the hands of the Klan members in the Southern states butchered 416 Blacks. Research indicates that most of the victims were innocent or were convicted of small offenses that certainly didn’t deserve such punishment. In the southern states, where the majority of the African American population resided, the notion of ‘white supremacy’ went unquestioned. Scarily enough, the KKK reached their hands into politics as well. In the state o f Indiana, the ‘Grand Wizard’, David Stephenson was politically powerful. It was also alleged that the Klan helped elect the governor of Maine, Colorado, and Louisiana in 1924. Moreover, on August 18th 1925 the Ku Klux Klan was able to parade down 40,000 men on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C without any intervention from state officials. Segregated facilities in government buildings remained unchanged since the first decade of the century, which showed the American government during the twenties was continually ignoring issues linked to ethnic minorities and the hostile attitudes of its people towards them. The act of

it was just the South. the Ku Klux Klan was not ever based on Scottish clans evan though

The Strange Career of Jim Crow by Van Woodward is based on the time period surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. This book is an accurate account of events that occurred during this time. It shows how the 1896 US Supreme Court Ruling affected blacks and the obstacles they faced to overcome. This book shows how the rights of African Americans have evolved over time. Van Woodward did an excellent job illustrating the events of history with The Strange Career of Jim Crow and created a factual account of history that is still used in classrooms today.

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

One of the most infamous groups that emerge to prevent the growth of African American rights was the Ku Klux Klan; the Klan was founded in “an effort to terrorize the newly enfranchised black voter.” The Ku Klux Klan is still active today, more so in southern states, nevertheless, they still hold on to their white supremacy beliefs. In 1873 a group of whites murdered over 100 African Americans in an effort to keep Republicans out of office; Federal prosecutors indicted three of these men. As southern offices became dominantly Democratic, the violence against African American voters slowly

<br>Right now, there are many active hate groups in the United States such as the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Skinheads, Christian identity, Black Separatists, etc. These hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which is one of America's oldest and more feared, use violence and move above the law to promote their different causes. Another example is a group called Christian Identity, who describes a religion that is fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic; and other are the Black Separatist groups, who are organizations whose ideologies include tenets of racially based hatred. Because of the information gathered by the Intelligence Project from hate groups' publications, citizen's reports, law enforcement agencies, field

A year into the Klan, leaders wanted to create a hierarchical organization. As a result, in 1867, Klan’s from all over the South gathered in Tennessee and gave former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest full control of the Klan (The History Channel, 2005). Later interviewed by a Charleston newspaper, Forrest boasted that the member count exceeded 40,000 men in Tennessee alone and over 550,000 in all the Southern states (The Charleston, 1868). Never achieving organization, local chapters continued to go about their business, settling things in a way they deemed fit, this, in turn, would be one of the reasons for the decline of the Klan.

The Invisible Empire of the 1920s mainly came from the south and southwest. They never were fully mainstream due to the fact that they brought about a lot of drama and negativity as well as opposition. Many states even went as far as to banish the Invisible Empire or pass laws that did not allow masks to be worn so that the public meetings that the KKK held would be broken apart. Although, the KKK were not mainstream they did however interact with the mainstream crowd daily. They did this to attract new members to their heinous group. Members were often short-term and unloyal. The continuous violence, egotism, and unsuccessful political power plays drove many members out of the Klan in the mid 1920s.