Racism In The 1920s Essay

The Progressive reformers were a group a people who sought to improve the overall standing of the United States through reformation. The Progressive group was made up of mostly college educated, middle class people born in the United States. Due to the middle class being such a big group of people, not all the Progressive reformers believed in the same issues. The main belief of the Progressive reformers was that the foundation for this group was that they all believed that the government must be involved with trying to solve the issues within American Society.

The Ku Klux Klan in the 1860s was a racist group towards African Americans. They set out to kill and harass African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was only in the South at this time because slavery was legal there and very common. Since it was only in the South and only hated one race it did not last very long or spread through the country as much as the 1920s due to the restricted area were racism was legal. The Ku Klux Klan was reinvented in the United States in the 1920s.

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,

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.

Southern states broke up Republican Meetings, burned black churches all across the South and also terrorized and even killed some freed people. From 1868 through the early 1870s the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists. The Klan's goals included political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy in response to newly gained civil and political rights by southern blacks after the Civil War (1861-65). The KKK was a very loosely organized group, and hierarchical structures beyond the county level probably were more symbolic than operational. The Klan in Georgia had an apparent head, the Grand Dragon, who at one point was probably General John B. Gordon.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, a large and diverse number of Americans claimed the political label “Progressive.” Progressives all shared a common fundamental belief of developing methods to counteract against the political and social issues of the time. They thrived in tackling some of the most crucial issues of society, as they were able to improve the conditions of the urban environment, increase the democratic influence of citizens, and sap most corruption out of the government. However, as the Progressive Movement successfully managed to cover those areas, it was limited to solving the issues of only white Americans, failing to represent the minorities, especially African Americans.

The Culture of the Roaring 20s With the end of World War One, came a great time of prosperity in America. There were many changing times and people began to modernize themselves and their lives. The 1920s introduced the new age of Hollywood stars and the radio. It revolutionized how women were seen in American culture and brought sports to the forefront.

The early 1900s were a time of widespread social and political change in America. During this time, many Americans adopted new, more modern ideas about labor, cultural diversity and city life. Some of these Progressive ideas were brought about by the need for reform in the workplace due to the grown of large companies and rapid industrialization. Not everyone supported the ideas of the Progressive Movement, however. Anti-Progressives, especially in the South, preferred traditional, rural lifestyles, and a slower, simpler way of living.

In my opinion, the progressive reformers were motivated by their aspiration to do something regarding the discrimination that existed between businesses and the laborers. They sought social justice; they wanted civic engagement. There was an enormous push against corruption and big corporate monopolies that came out of the industrialization movement and then the other side of the progressive movement was the attempt to make government more scientifically sound. All of these activists saw European countries using new economic theories, political science and realized that America was falling behind. They wanted the U.S. to be up to date on the latest medicine, education and science.

The KKK was based off of racial discrimination, but over time they also adopted anti-semitic qualities along with strong political prejudices as well. According to historylearningsite, “A sinister group was established which was designed to spread fear throughout the Black population that still lived in the southern states. This was the KKK. Only WASP’s could belong to it — White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. It is a common myth that the KKK targeted only the Blacks – also hated were the Jews, Catholics, liberals etc but most hatred was directed against the poor black families in the south who were very vulnerable to attack.”

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by former Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee. Ku Klan is derivative of the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning circle. The creation of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, which was organized mostly by members of the Republican Party in Congress. Klan members wore white sheets or robes and masks to cover their identities. They used to march and ride horses at night threatening former slaves and make them believe that former Confederates are coming to reclaim their land.

What is the purpose of racism? In Theorizing Nationalism, Day and Thompson discuss how racism and nationalism are precisely the same. Racism has the ability to help build nationalism, especially in our young country. LeMay and Barkan in U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Laws & Issues talk about how this racism is used during a specific time period, 1880 to 1920, in the United States of America. Both of these articles argue that when the United States was in a time of peril, they used racism as a unifying factor to bring the country together and as a way to put a group of people lower than themselves to bring their status to a higher point in society.

Unfortunately, Blacks had dealt with different levels of discrimination and racism which created the struggles and challenges for civil rights. I also mentioned this in my post too, Laura, that desegregation was a huge problem and caused demonstrations for racial equality. An example would be Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat while riding the bus. You mentioned in your post that African Americans faced many different aspects of racism.

From young we are taught that authoritative figures are right and to absorb the information presented to us without question. It is only people that are hungry for knowledge who question and take it upon themselves to discover the truth. My experience with conflicting viewpoints introduced as facts lead me to challenge the acceptance of knowledge from authoritative figures. Initiating my realization, a teacher expressed a viewpoint that was not consistent with my own. We were learning about the Civil Rights Era and racism.

Racism: a curse for the society INTRODUCTION:- "Racism is an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups that devalues and renders inferior those groups that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society." Racism is one of the oldest truth around the world .Racism, is said to be as old as the human society. Racism is nothing but only the belief that all members of each race possess the characteristics, abilities, or qualities which are specific to that race, especially, so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. And this differentiation change the people’s mentality and bring death among themselves.