The KKK versus the Anti-Klan Movement Essay

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 and was made to resist the Reconstruction of the Civil War. They believed whites were racially superior to blacks and held this belief fiercely. Raiding African American homes, lynching innocents, and burning down African American farms. With rises and falls of members, the Ku Klux Klan always was apart of US history after the Civil War. They

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.

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

The second Ku Klux Klan lasted between 1915 to 1944 but predominantly rose and fell during the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan was a white supremacist group with millions of members who brutally tortured and killed anyone who was not a white American. The Ku Klux Klan were known for their white robes, cone hats, and covered faces that disguised their identities. The second Ku Klux Klan’s most important part of it’s history was it’s dramatic rise and fall. The Ku Klux Klan rapidly gained popularity during the 1920s due to political encouragement and immigration, then fell due to political corruption.

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 KKK made their beliefs clear, and imprinted the memories of them by committing acts of hatred on those whom they opposed. Even though the KKK had reemerged in the South in 1915, it wasn’t until after World War I came to a close that the organization gained a national resurgence (Getchell). This version of the Klan was known as “The Second Ku Klux Klan.” The resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. The second KKK was a mass movement that invoked the memory of and built upon the first KKK, which was a terrorist organization founded by white supremacists in the U.S. South (“The Ku Klux Klan In Washington State, 1920s”) The majority of klan members confined their opposition tactics to parading and burning crosses,

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the most prominent hate-based organization in American history. Founded in the aftermath of the Civil War as a whimsical social club, the Klan quickly transformed into a terrorist organization aimed at subjugating newly freed blacks and driving out moderate whites that attempted to improve the plight of

     As the membership of the Ku Klux Klan began to soar the ideas and the goals of the Klan changed. The KKK originally was only against blacks and black defenders. But they later become defenders of conservative protestant denominations. The Klan believed that the whites were the superior race; they both feared and hated Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and African Americans. The KKK claimed to fight lawlessness and immortality such as; gambling, prostitution, homosexuality, and miscegenation. It portrayed itself as the champion of religion and morality. The Klan’s vowed goals were to protect God, country, house, womanhood, the south, but most importantly white supremacy.

The Ku Klux Klan initially started as a, “loosely organized group of political and social terrorists” (NGE) they started out by going after Republican leaders who opposed their belief of an all-white nation. The group started in Tennessee in 1866, and was formed by former Confederate soldiers. In 1868 it became evident that the group was terrorizing the freed slaves, “It is clear that attacks on blacks became common during 1868. Freedmen's Bureau agents reported 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill on freedmen across the state from January 1 through November 15 of 1868.” (NGE) The Ku Klux Klan was not happy the state passed the Fifteenth Amendment which let the freedmen vote, so it was not long until the clan made a stand against that. During the 1868 elections the (KKK) surrounded the poll buildings forcing the state to send federal soldiers to guard the polls. The (KKK) also tried to control the freedmen’s social lives, “Klanlike violence was also used to control freedpeople's social behavior, but with less success. Black churches and schools were burned, teachers were attacked, and freedpeople who refused to show proper deference were beaten and

In summary, the book talks vividly about the rise and reasoning of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 and a brief background about the founder, William Joseph Simmons. It also focused on members of the Ku Klux Klan in Clarke County, Georgia. This revival of the original KKK, that formed after the Civil War, now hated everyone that wasn’t one of them, a WASP or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. A majority of their hatred was directed to

The Ku Klux Klan's actions were very radical. There is one idea that hasn't changed in the past one hundred and fifty years, and that is that the killing of an innocent person is wrong. The KKK killed any black that had too much power or a lot of influence. Prior to the Klan's existence a similar party killed one hundred and sixteen black people and their bodies were thrown in the Tallahatchie River.

The original Ku Klux Klan had deceased during the 1870s as post Civil War Reconstruction was drawing to a close. The organization had been largely responsible saving the South from corrupt outside influences. From 1869-1871 its objective was to destroy reconstruction by murdering the blacks and some whites who were either in Republican politics or educating black children. The Klan started to slowly fade away in 1871 after President Ulysses signed legislation making the Klan illegal. Moreover, Klan membership remained throughout South but the organization as a whole faded out.

We have all heard about the Klu Klux Klan by now. The famous white supremacist group has achieved and maintained national attention for its aggressive racism, violent activities, rallies, etc. But it was not always the way it currently is. Today, the Ku Klux Klan would be unrecognizable to its founders, due to the many changes it’s experienced since it was originally founded. Contrary to popular belief, the KKK was not created with the intent to spread terror, nor were their original activities. The growing size of the Klan, and the alignment of its values compared to the overall values of America today.

The Ku Klux Klan was a politically and racially motivated group that discouraged and frustrated attempts at racial equality (Bowles 2011). They were against all equality for anyone who supported a Union or was black. They were in control of the Southern states and they ran amuck abusing and murdering anyone they felt would threaten their way of life and the local and state governments sat back and supported their efforts to keep the blacks enslaved at all costs. In and article written by the Harper’s Weekly paper about the atrocities in the South it stated that,