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The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Essay

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The Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

"In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture. In scientific language, culture is not a function of race" (Benedict). The sad fact is that many races are discriminated against. Discrimination is defined as the act of perceiving and making evident the distinctions between two different groups of people. There have been many groups that have been very discriminating, but the one that sticks out like a diamond in coal is the Ku Klux Klan.

The original Ku Klux Klan was formed, in April 1866, as a social organization for ex-confederates in Pulaski, Tennessee. This was during the time after the …show more content…

The KKK "…Dressed in flowing sheets, their faces covered with white masks, and with skulls at their saddle horns, posed as spirits of the confederate dead returned from the battlefields" (Columbia). To accelerate the fear in the eyes of the common people The Klan would hold lynchings and whippings (Columbia). The widespread fear allowed the KKK to gain political power even though they were veering away from their main idea of restricting the south from reconstruction.

By doing many of these activities the KKK very effectively managed to keep blacks away from the voting booths. Many Klansmen were elected into office because the black community could not vote. Even though the white supremacists were in office, they did not do as much as they would have hoped. Officials did not accomplish the idea of minimizing black power and increasing white supremacy.

The Ku Klux Klan power did diminish in 1870 and 1871, when congress passed the Force Bill (Columbia). This bill stated that one could not restrict another's right to vote, which the KKK was doing. Another attempt to try to stop the KKK was the KKK acts of 1870 and 1871. After the KKK was proven to be violent, these laws that were formally passed disbanding the KKK in 1871 (Benet's). Even though these bills and acts were passed, the KKK still survived.

The Clansman, written by

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