The KKK was a terrorist organization that tried to return the south to pre-civil war conditions through a campaign of terror and violence. Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged a campaign of intimidation and violence directed at former slaves who dared to act against the status quo, and Republican leaders. They burned houses down (Doc 4), lynched young black men, and stood outside polling places in order to ensure that they did not vote. They upheld a strict curfew for former slaves.…
Individuals like radical republicans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags were all targeted by the KKK. Document A states, “ John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux-Klan in the Grand Jury room of the Courthouse on Saturday... Another brave, honest Republican citizen met his fate in the hands of these fiends.” (Document A)…
By 1868 the KKK power started to decline, and “In 1871 Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act that authorized the use of federal troops in the Klan’s suppression and for the trial of its members in federal court.” The KKK disappeared for a while and did not comeback until…
With the new rights for freedmen and Reconstruction, many became angry. Although it did not seem a matter for which to be angry, some had different views. The anger met a point to which six former Confederate soldiers decided to from a secret society. It would soon be known as the the Ku Klux Klan. In the klan, members would pretend to be the ghost of dead confederates to deal with revenge on enemies.…
Some would say that the Klan was not racist at all and was apt to help people, including colored people, rather than killing them. Degler assumed that the brutality was not against colored people but it was against the white people, mostly. The Klan rose even more with the economic depression that happened in the year of 1920. Farmers were organized trying to make the price of cotton to go out due to the economy.…
The Horrors of the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction Era During the Reconstruction era, politics was a catalyst for widespread racism and hatred that former slaves experienced throughout the South. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), founded by a Confederate general in 1866, became known as the “invisible empire of the South” in which members represented the ghosts of the Confederate dead returning to terrorize, suppress, and victimize African Americans and Radical Republicans (white reformers) (Gale Encyclopedia of American Law, 2011). From 1868 through the early 1870s the Ku Klux Klan functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists. The Klan 's goals included the political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance…
During the 1900’s the United States went through economic, social, and political problems like child labor, immigration, sanitation, corruption, poverty, labor rights, segregation, women rights, voting rights, monopoly, and more. At this point America was in need of an active government that would take the action of improving America. Journalist, newspapers, and magazines kept on exposing the suffering and wrongdoings of the nation. Organized groups became very important during this time. For example, The Anti Saloon league, which ended up being the most successful and it, enforced morality.…
By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan acted as a roof to the southern states. They covered the states throughout America with their ideas of what America should be and what it should look like. The Klan of the 1920’s were referred to as an Advocate Movement. During this time, the KKK had a very large impact on the political view. Today, if a political leader made a comment of how the KKK was gratifying to them, people would look at them in a very negative way.…
NAACP During the Civil Rights Movement Various individuals involved in the NAACP influenced desegregation while working on gaining civil rights. NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. They worked on implementing civil rights in multiple areas of life(National). The association started a movement fighting against segregation(Newman).…
The Ku Klux Klan was a group created during the reconstruction period. Generally, it was founded on racist and discriminatory principles which were directed at the African American and those white who supported equality for the blacks. It is for that reason that the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 was created by the congress in order to protect the targeted individuals from injustices, unfair treatments, discrimination, and attacks. The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 also referred to as the Civil Rights Act of 1871 formed one of the most critical Civil Rights Acts developed by Congress during Reconstruction (1865–77).…
According to Tourgee the Ku Klux Klan were terrorizing and killing people. Their target where African Americans and anyone who supported them. They were also targeting those in power who supported African Americans. According to Tourgee, “Men and women come scarred, mangled, and bruised, and say: "The Ku-Klux came to my house last night and beat me almost to death, and my old woman right smart, and shot into the house, 'bust' the door down, and told me they would kill me if I made complaint” His solution is that Congress do something about it and that they arm people and bring in armed forces to stop the KKK and protect the citizens. Tourgee is ashamed because they have the power to fix the problem but are to coward to help and protect the…
Reconstruction was a time where there aren't any equal rights, protection that ensures safety, a time of violence, the Ku-Klux-Klan, corrupt government and one of the toughest times of history. A few years after the Civil War, blacks were free and the States were divided. The North were radical Republicans who wanted to continue with Reconstruction and South who were the Democrats, but wanted to end Reconstruction. The South was ready to rebuild itself after the war and the Northern Federal troops withdrew. Reconstruction was a period of time where Americans were trying to gain citizenship, and the destruction of the war was being rebuilt.…
By 1870 almost all of the 11 former confederate states had Ku Klux Klan members. The Ku Klux Klan members came from many jobs. Some were doctors, lawyers,school teachers and farmers. Even some higher people in power joined the Ku Klux Klan.…
More specifically, the author's purpose is to write about the Ku Klux Klan’s history and their objective . It writes, “Ku Klux Klan, secret terrorist organization that originated in the southern states during the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War and was reactivated on a wider geographic basis in the 20th century. The original Klan was organized in Pulaski, Tenn., on Dec. 24, 1865, by six former Confederate army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word kuklos (“circle”). Although the Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, its activities soon were directed against the Republican Reconstruction governments and their leaders, both black and white, which came into power in the southern states in 1867.” In this passage it explains the general idea of the Ku Klux Klan and its origins.…
In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan was reborn in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The group had accumulated over three million members and they were determined to help solve America’s immigration crisis. In the 1920’s the Klan felt as though the “Nordic race” was facing major obstacles. The population of immigrants in America had increased and their presence had instilled a fear of foreigners across the nation. Hiram W. Evans addressed the situation in “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism.”…