Summary Of ' The Day Of Reckoning Will Come '

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 Reconstruction Era, Congress passed many laws to provide equal rights to people of color. But at the local level, specifically in the South, many Democrats took the law into their own hands. They supported the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hoping to restore the pre-Civil War social hierarchy. The texts in Going to the Source illustrate two groups of individuals who opposed the KKK. In testimonies given by white witnesses, Republicans from the North felt the KKK posed a political and social danger in the South, but did not feel intimidated. The testimonies given by black witnesses were people who had experience of the Klan’s violence, and felt their lives were threatened. The Klan’s attacks on whites were more inclined towards social harassment, while their attacks on blacks, which consisted of voting intimidation and night rides, were violent and abusive because the KKK’s main goal was white supremacy.

Let’s examine the reality of violence during the Reconstruction Era. In the document, “Southern Horrors- Lynch Laws in All its Phases, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett we see countless examples of the continued violence in the south against African-Americans. The slogan “This is white man’s country and the

To understand the Klan, then, it is necessary to understand the character and present mind of the mass of old-stock Americans. The mass, it must be remembered, as distinguished from the intellectually mongrelized "Liberals.'

Supreme Justice Thurgood Marshall once stated that “the Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much” (Biography Staff, 2017). With the birth of America in 1776 and the Klan emerging in 1866, the not-so-invisible empire has claimed a place in America’s history. During the centuries, three summits have risen and declined, each wave becoming more open about their appearance than the last, proving to a point, that Thurgood Marshall’s quote is correct. The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the ‘KKK’ or the ‘Klan’, is a native-born hate group and according to the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism, stating “the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence…within the United

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

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

Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,--a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people. The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for freedom, the boon that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp,--like a tantalizing will-o'-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the headless host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom" (Chapter 1). They thought the Black people did not enjoy their deserved rights, like the 14th and 15th Amendments. 14th Amendments provided civil rights for African Americans, and15th Amendments provided voting rights for African Americans. Ku Klux Klan preventing African American from using the 15th Amendment to enable them to vote. Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Southern Democratic Party. The immediate goal of these groups was to keep white and black Republicans away from polling places. Their violent tactics, targeted at black leaders, escalated during Reconstruction. White mobs killed three state legislators during these turbulent times.

An organization called Ku Klux Klan had a goal to eliminate as many african american people as possible. African americans found themselves in a very dangerous situation because not only was the law giving them very little attention but they were in risk of being mobbed out or killed by the KKK. It says, “ We believe you are not familiar with.. Ku Klux Klan’s riding nightly over the country, going from country to country and in towns spreading terror wherever they go by robbing, whipping, ravishing[rapping], and killing our people without provocation”. White people got together and attacked the blacks with violence to get rid of them.

As Document A tells us that the KKK wanted to disrupt the implementation of Reconstruction policies by killing or threatening republican lawmakers. We know this from the letter written by Albion Tourgee who speaks about his friend John W. Stephens who was killed by the KKK. He says “ It is my mournful duty to inform you that our friend John W.Stephens, Senator from Caswell is dead... He was foully murdered by the KKK… I have every little doubt that I shall be one of the next victims”.

This group brutally killed anyone who opposed their view of what’s right, in public areas for example “John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux in the Grand Jury room of the Court House on Saturday… He was stabbed five or six times, and then hanged on a hook in the Grand Jury room”. This didn’t only effect this one unfortunate person, but because of their intentional publicity it scares everyone and gives them the message that if they oppose they could end up like their previous

Shawn Lay, from “ The Second Invisible Empire and Toward a New Historical Appraisal of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s”, rejects the view of the KKK as a radical fringe group comprised of marginal men and instead characterizes the KKK of the 1920s as a

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

It seems that all the harsh and brutal wrongdoings that the KKK committed during that time became somewhat like a norm to the citizens whom it affected. In one newspaper clipping it’s discussing how they there were extra peaches for the neighbors and then just lines underneath it, there are threats to their life. It reads, “Syles you have got to leave this naborhood vary soon or you may prepair for death hell and the grave” It’s surprising how it was even allowed to be published, but more so, it’s placed near something so insignificant in comparison, peaches, and it’s the standard of the time. In a letter that one man wrote to his friend, he explains how the KKK “shot one very bad negro, putting six balls through his head.” He is taking

Nevertheless, we also learn of the Klan’s downfall due to the exposition of the information known only to the Klan members: “Brown divulged what he was learning at the weekly Klan meetings: the identities of the Klan’s local and regional leaders; their upcoming plans; the Klan’s current rituals, passwords, and language.” Therefore, because the Klan’s secrecy was decimated, its lure dwindled and the fear it exerted over the oppressed virtually disappeared. The Ku Klux Klan is a perfect example of how one can manipulate information to his benefit or the benefit of others. Additionally,we learn through the real-estate agents example that they have their own agendas when selling