Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

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At the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction, America’s first terrorist organization was formed in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee. This group became known as the Ku Klux Klan. The Greek word for circle is “kyklos”, and the term “clan” was added for alliteration purposes. Six former Confederate veterans came together to create this group as a way to politically remove the Republican party and have white Democratic supremacy in power. The second agenda of the Ku Klux Klan was to strike fear into African Americans to prevent advancement of their social status, therefore pushing them back into subordination. This group of former Confederate veterans have committed atrocious crimes that are not imaginable in today’s world. There are three periods in American history in which the Klan had significant power; the late 19th century, the 1920s, and …show more content…
Michael was walking home one night when two Klan members found him. The two Klan’s members’ names were Henry Hays and James Knowles. They pretended to ask for directions, but then pointed a gun at him and ordered him to get in the car. Michael begged for the Klansmen not to kill him, and he tried to escape once. The Klansmen captured Michael, hit him with a tree limb more than a hundred times, and wrapped a rope around his neck. That was not enough for the members, they also cut his throat and praised his body in front of other KKK members. Two years later, when Michael’s case went to trial Hays said, “If a black man can get away with killing a white man, we ought to be able to get away with killing a black man”. Hays received the death sentence, he was one of the very few white men who died for the murder of an African American. Michael’s mother only ever wanted to prove that “Michael did no wrong”. These kinds of acts from the KKK just prove that they are one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in American

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