Ku Klux Klan's Assassination

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

How was the Klan’s reincarnation different than the original group? The first Ku Klux Klan, created after the Civil War during the Reconstruction Era, began in Tennessee in the fall of 1866. The group was originally a social fraternity, but it was taken over

This started “the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) it grew more during the beginning of the 20th century. It was a “secret terrorist organization founded the Reconstruction” (Sonneborn 14).

The first era Ku Klux Klan was formed in Tennessee on December 1865 at the end of the civil war. The Ku Klux Klan was formed as a movement for white supremacy. It was formed as a violent group that relied on fear tactics to stay in power. As Jonathan M. Bryant said in an article “The Klan 's organized terrorism began most notably on March 31, 1868, when Republican organizer George Ashburn was murdered in Columbus, Georgia.” George W. Ashburn (1814 - March 30, 1868) was a Georgia politician assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan in Columbus, Georgia for his pro-African-American sentiments. He was the first murder victim of the Klan in Georgia. This the first of the Klan’s organized terrorism it was soon followed by more.

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 Ku Klux Klan was a secret terrorist organization that was created by six well educated Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in the December of 1865. Their main objective was to restore white supremacy through acts of violence such as murder, against both Black and White Republicans. The KKK had eventually spread to every southern state, and Klansmen would often terrorize republicans regardless of their race. Members of the KKK believed that African Americans were inferior to Whites and did not believe that Blacks deserved equal rights. Although the rebel groups were outlawed and made illegal, many of them remained in existence and appeared after the reconstruction had ended. This proved the Reconstruction to be ineffective as many Southerners were still fighting against the government and opposed them. In addition, African Americans were still deprived of their rights by these

reconstruction of the south. Ever since 1865 the KKK are well known for their hatred toward

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

The first meeting was organized in Nashville with the intention to “develop the principles that would guide all dens”. They did so in a secret constitution in which they called a Prescript. In this document, they recognized the supremacy of the “Divine Being” while also acknowledging the supreme laws of the United States government. The klan referred to themselves in the prescript by using two asterisks - ** -

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.

The Ku Klux Klan was formed as a social club by a group of Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in the winter of 1865-66. The group adopted the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word "kyklos," meaning circle, and the English word clan. By 1944 the Ku Klux Klan had lost most of its influence and membership. It was revived during the Civil Rights era and continues today as a small organization that continues to stage demonstrations in favor of white supremacy and fundamentalist Christian theology. William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher, organized a new Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1915 as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. Then and Now: KKK membership peaked at four to five million in the mid-1920s; today there are an estimated 5,500 to 6,000 Klan members among roughly 100 groups. Although the Klan still reverted to burning crosses, torturing and murdering those whom they opposed, the organization became a powerful political force in the 1920s. This new Klan directed its activity against not just blacks, but immigrants, Jews, and Roman

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.

Eight months after the Civil War, in the south the government was weak and there were no jobs available. On Christmas Eve of 1866, six confederate veterans started a social hate group in Pulaski, Tennessee. The six confederate veterans were John Lester, James Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, and Frank McCord. The group started off as just wanting to have fun and keep themselves entertained. The six founders were well educated and came from wealthy families. From their Greek knowledge, they use the word kyklos meaning circle and then added the word Klan. The Ku Klux Klan was then born. Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first leader of the Klan. He was known as the “Grand Wizard.”

     Ku Klux Klan started out as a secret club in 1866, just after the war,

Coincidentally, Democrats arrived to the same hotel to nominate candidates for the coming fall elections. This portrayed that southern Democrats were attempting to ally with the KKK in order to create a more powerful secret empire to battle Republicans and their reconstruction policies. All together the Klan sat down and created a new set of principles that would guide all current dens and others to come. In these principles The Ku Klux Klan recognized the supremacy of God, and the supremacy of the United States and it's laws. The Ku Klux Klan maintained its belief that America was founded for the white race only, which meant rights and citizenship were intended for whites only. As the Ku Klux Klan noticed that the organization had expanded across the South, the Klan divided the South into provinces each ruled by an elected leader in order to better regulate the Klan. Following the 1867 spring meeting, in the summer of 1867, the newly reorganized Klan began to hold rallies and parade to demonstrate their strength and inflict fear into the freed people and anyone else who disagreed with their politics. Southern newspapers began to produce copies containing threatening messages from the Klan, warning those who had angered the Klan. Over the next year numerous more newspapers, parades, and rallies were held that further increased the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan and