Research Project on Ku Klux Klan
Facts about the Ku-Klx-Klan:
- formed in May or early June 1966 in Pulaski, Tennessee by a small group of Confederate veterans (only 6 men)
- the name Ku-Klux-Klan was derived from the greek word kyklos, circle
- principal organization for underground resistance to Radical Reconstruction after the Civil War (they wanted to fight against the civil rights movement that freed the slaves after the American Civil War)
- Klan was supposed to be a social club ( former Klan members were riding through the country to scare black people)
- The Klan was quickly populated by Southeners after military defeat -> spread throughout the former Confederate states
- During Reconstruction: 12,000 members in Alabama (mainly young men joined the KKK because they thought they had missed out on the war and easily because of the physical nature of Ku kluxing)
- The KKK define themselves as a political party
Aims and general belief:
- they believe that the USA was founded as a white, Christian nation and should be brought back to it
- other religions, homosexuals or other races have to be segregated and transported out of a purified country
- they also wanted to abolish Martin Luther King day
- they wanted to be stricter with law punishment and with international funding and finance
- their main aim was to take back America
The first Ku-Klux Klan:
- alot of eleborate secret rituals
- officers consisted of a “grand cyclops“ (president), a “grand magi“ (vice president), a “grand Turk“ (marshal) and a “grand exchequer“ (treasurer)
- Klan members wore a white mask with holes for the eyes, a high cardboard hat and long flowing robes (picture)
- At the beginning organization existed for amusement -> spread through the Southern states and became opposition to Republican rule
- By the late 1860s principal forms or opposition to Reconstruction -> dens had to support the supremacy of the white race, to oppose the amalgamation of the races, to prevent carpetbaggers (someone who trys to become active in the political life expecially someone from the North active in the South) of becoming active in the political life and to gain white control of the government
- The Klan was no single organization -> several different Klan-like organizations existed in various parts of the South, e.g. the Knights of the Red Hand, the Pale Faces, the White Brotherhood, the Constitutional Union Guards and the most importand group the White Camellia in Texas
- In March 1868 the Klan spread to Texas
- group`s activities: parades
- publications of cryptic newspaper notices
- midnight meetings at graveyards (Republican newspapers made jokes about this happenings but then they took this all very seriously)
- in May the Klan began to murder and frightened freedmen and white Republican
- poorly organized in many ways, they tried to coordinate the activities but the local groups acted autonomously with no central direction
- local groups used terrorist acts such as steeling horses or burning crops but most of their victims were Republicans
- Klan violence closely followed politics
- In 1969 the Klan was disbanded by its leader because of the excessive and violent methods of the spread groups
- Local groups continued their terrorist activities -> Congress passed the Force Act in 1870 and the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 -> now the president was authorized to suppress terrorist organizations and to impose harsh penalties on them
The second Ku-Klux-Klan:
- founded in 1915 by William J. Simpson, an ex-minister
- wider program than its forerunner: white supremacy
- anti-Catholism
- anti-Semitic
- it spread rapidly throughout the North as well as the South
- mid-1920s about 5 million members
- it provided an outlet for the militant patriotism (which was interesting and important because of WWI) and stressed fundamentalism in religion
- The Klan controlled politics in many communities (e.g. in Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana)
- In the 1920s its power in the Midwest was broken when a major Klan leader was convicted of second-degree murder and evidence of corruption led to the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis (both supporters of the Klan)
The KKK after World War II:
- southern civil-rights activities during the 1960s led to revivals of the Klan organizations
- those new Klans were resonsible for violent attacks against blacks and civil-rights workers throughout the South -> Klan was not really strong
- only about 1000 members
Rituals:
- KKKs victims were castrated and tortured very sadisticly
- They cut pregnant womens` stomaches open, hung alot of people and set horses on fire
- From 1866-1875 KKK killed about 3500 black people in the USA
- They also persecuted Jews, Native Americans, immoral women and Catholics
- Members of the KKK set crosses on fire to scare blacks or other minorities and walked around on the streets with banners in their hands threatening their victims
There are still about 70 organizations in the USA -> about 70,000 members -> alot of people ignore this problem because they think the KKK has no chance to gain more power. But there are many anonymous dens, who are willing to spend money to improve KKKs financial situation.
But still it will be hard for such a conservative radical group to get encouragement because of the general acceptance and the idea of the “melting pot”.
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