In the late 1700’s, in a meeting room in Philadelphia, a group of concerned citizens drafted an extraordinary document, one that would form the backbone of a new and prosperous nation. That document, of course, was the Constitution of the United States. The document was full of extraordinary principles, from a system of checks and balances, to the radical view that some rights are inalienable and self-evident. But the most extraordinary precept that the framers of the Constitution embodied in that document is that they knew that they did not know everything, and that they could not foresee everything. And so they included Article V, the process of Amendments, a method to change the very government in order to more closely reflect the will
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Though they have employed as many methods of terrorism as there are definitions of terrorism, in general the KKK have gravitated to utilizing the placement of burning crosses on the lawns of individuals, arson, riding in groups by horseback near communities they wanted to frighten, and beating, rape and lynching (Zalman 2016). Though the KKK was widely known to be secretive about its activities, modern estimates place the number of murders committed by, or in the name of, the KKK as over 3,000 (Lynching 2016). Since its inception, the Klan has been identified as a terrorist group, and has had a high association with criminal activity, with most of it centered around hate crimes and domestic terrorism (ADL 2016). In a Supreme Court dissent he authored in 2003, Justice Clarence Thomas characterized the Klan as a “terrorist organization, which, in its endeavor to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, uses the most brutal of methods (ADL 2016).” Terrorism, by its definition, is an act of inciting fear. And fear in a given population breeds indecision, doubt, and paralysis. This plays exactly into the goals of the KKK. They oppose the advancement of civil rights to predominantly African Americans, and to a lesser extent, Jews and Catholics. If they can achieve indecision, doubt, or even paralysis of the hard-fought advancement of civil rights for African Americans and immigrants, and the intimidation of those who work to support civil rights, then the goal of the Klan has been
Though they have employed as many methods of terrorism as there are definitions of terrorism, in general the KKK have gravitated to utilizing the placement of burning crosses on the lawns of individuals, arson, riding in groups by horseback near communities they wanted to frighten, and beating, rape and lynching (Zalman 2016). Though the KKK was widely known to be secretive about its activities, modern estimates place the number of murders committed by, or in the name of, the KKK as over 3,000 (Lynching 2016). Since its inception, the Klan has been identified as a terrorist group, and has had a high association with criminal activity, with most of it centered around hate crimes and domestic terrorism (ADL 2016). In a Supreme Court dissent he authored in 2003, Justice Clarence Thomas characterized the Klan as a “terrorist organization, which, in its endeavor to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, uses the most brutal of methods (ADL 2016).” Terrorism, by its definition, is an act of inciting fear. And fear in a given population breeds indecision, doubt, and paralysis. This plays exactly into the goals of the KKK. They oppose the advancement of civil rights to predominantly African Americans, and to a lesser extent, Jews and Catholics. If they can achieve indecision, doubt, or even paralysis of the hard-fought advancement of civil rights for African Americans and immigrants, and the intimidation of those who work to support civil rights, then the goal of the Klan has been