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Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

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The original Ku Klux Klan started in 1865, but within years, numbers dwindled, leaving only small-town clusters. Decades later, in 1915, a Georgian preacher named William J. Simmons reorganized the KKK. He was inspired by the silent film “Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the Klan as knights. Simmons brought together millions, promising to protect the “morals of the nation.” He appealed to the ideals of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, the only people allowed to join. By using their ideals as a gateway, the KKK was able to inject terroristic views in seemingly average people. White supremacy and religious discrimination spread under the guise of “making America great.” While the original Klan targeted Republicans -both Black and White,- the new Klan expanded their list. They targeted primarily African-Americans, but they also targeted Jews, Catholics, Asians, Hispanics, Progressives, and independent women. The Klan participated in what they viewed as “vigilante justice.” Targets would be lynched, shot, or whipped on charges of immorality or treachery. Some of their victims were punished for actions as simple as not going to church, remarrying, or attempting to save …show more content…

Following the Great War, much of America shared anti-immigrant and anti-radical ideas. This common hatred of anything un-American encouraged many to join. As more immigrants and African-Americans moved to the North or West in search of jobs, the KKK moved with them. In addition, each new member pledged to bring in 10 more members, allowing the KKK to grow exponentially until it reached more than 4 million all across the nation. Due to the sheer numbers of the Klan, members were able to hold some power. They took up jobs as police officers, politicians, and members of the school board, elected into power by fellow members. This monopoly of politics, public safety, and education allowed their ideas to spread and their targets to remain

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To begin, the Klu Klux Klan is an organization whose purpose is to terrorize people of color. Dressed in all white, their identities are hidden as they attack in the dead of night. The KKK is founded by a group of confederate veterans in 1865, and their goal was to end Reconstruction. The Klan only recruited members who were male, white, and not Jew. Former Confederate Nathaniel Bedford Forrest tried to stop the organization for, “...the Klan’s violent tactics grew too extreme” (Source 1).

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Due to the ratification of the amendments, many southern elites could not stand the fact that African Americans were freed. One solution that was developed was to destroy reconstruction by murdering Black Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was then formed, this group consisted of vindictive Confederate Army veterans. Sought out to be heros to many southern democrats, but a nightmare for African American families. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized many African American families, burned down churches, drove thousands of families out of their homes, and caused great mayhem.

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The KKK was a white nationalized group that included former veterans, which created the first branch of the group. The Klansmen founded in 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, is now known as the birthplace of the KKK. This group dedicated themselves to a campaign of violence to Republican leaders and voters. The KKK targeted many people based on their race or sexuality , including, Gays, Immigrants, African Americans, and Catholics(KKK history). Jim Crow laws,

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The new Klan was against anyone who was not an American Native. This group was based near Atlanta, however there was a large group of the Klan in New Jersey. The new Klan was a sign that the people of the United States were sensing a change in culture and they were not comfortable with it. Therefore they decided to take it upon themselves to make the change stop. In 1924 it was reported that there were four million members in the new Klan.

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They used modern advertising method to gain 5 million members by 1925. The KKK in this time period were not against only African Americans, but also Catholics, Jews, foreigners, and suspected Communists, due to the Red Scare. They used cruel punishments as tactics to intimidate anybody deemed as “un-American”. From whipping, tar and feathering, and even hanging, the KKK was ruthless.

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The KKK used terrorism, including physical harm and murder, against groups and people that would not agree with the Klan. All three movements have been called the "purification" of American society by the Klan. This felt to the Klan like they had conquered the world, had supreme power, and they had did it. They have erased blacks from our country politically and socially in their

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Compare And Contrast The Ku Klux Klan And The Anti-War Protests Of 1960s

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The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.

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After the Civil War, a group called the Ku Klux Klan, better known today as the KKK, was formed. This group made it almost impossible for new African American citizens to exercise their rights. This group used physical assault and murder to express their opinion about African Americans at that time. In Document B, an image is shown of a member of the KKK teaming up with a member of the White League. Below the two, a small family of slaves huddles together in fear.

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Blacks did everything in their power to avoid interaction with the Ku Klux Klan at all costs but sometimes this was inevitable. The Ku Klux Klan was responsible for almost all of the lynchings carried out on blacks during the Jim Crow era and afterwards. The Ku Klux Klan believed in the superiority of the white race and that blacks had no place in their world. They were so strong about their beliefs that they would torture, maim, hang, burn, and beat blacks inhumanely. The Ku Klux Klan created a fear within all African Americans across the

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The Ku Klux Klan or KKK has created centuries of fear. They originated in Pulaski, Tennessee. The famous hate group was out to re establish white supremacy. The KKK has influenced local governments and people in power. It has also had an impact on American people and specifically black minorities.

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Its main goal was to overthrow the Republican state governments during the Reconstruction era, it accomplished this goal by perpetuating violence against African American leaders in the South. The Second group was brought together in the mid 1910s, this version of the “Klan” flourished nationwide. This was especially true in the urban areas of the Midwest and West. It opposed not only African Americans but also those of the Catholic and Jewish faiths.

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In an attempt to protect the country from the perceived radicals of southern and eastern Europe, the numbers of immigrants allowed into the country was strictly limited as opposed to the numbers that were allowed into the country from northern and western European countries (Tindall & Shi, 2013). The dynamics of the country was changing as many groups of the diverse population embarked on an era of modernization and liberalism, while the previous political traditionalists wished to remain conservative and limit any attempts to expand societal cultures. The traditionalists and pro nativism groups, who were opposed to foreigners, revived the white vigilante group, the Ku Klux Klan (Tindall & Shi, 2013). Attempting to protect society from the African Americans, the Catholics, the Jewish and all modern and liberal ideas, the Ku Klux Klan espoused and promoted their moral ideals and religious fundamentalism as the only way for America to remain conservative.

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The Ku Klux Klan, made up of former Confederate officers who idealized an antebellum Southern heritage, became folk heroes by terrorizing outsiders who challenged race relations by assisting blacks. Catholics, foreigners, former slaves, and their sympathizers were targeted for wanting to push reforms that went against the Southern way of life. As one historian points out, the KKK gained sympathy because they were seen as defenders and policemen of the people who protected the prevailing values of society, including Protestantism, whiteness, and genteel southern culture (Kinshasa 15). The KKK and its sister organizations were even sponsored by state governments, such as Kentucky and Mississippi, as a police force to maintain the status quo (Parsons 160). The presence of the Klan and other forms of white resistance offered white residents a form of security during this uncertain time period.

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