Kkk 2 Essay, Research Paper

KKK

Violence against blacks: The former slaves also suffered from attacks by whites. In 1865 and1866, whites murdered about 5,000 Southern blacks. During race riots in 1866, white mobs killed 46 blacks in Memphis and 34 in New Orleans. In 1865 or 1866, a secret white organization called the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee. Klan members wore white robes and hoods and draped white sheets over the horses. The Ku Klux Klan grew rapidly and spread terror across the South. Klan members beat and even murdered blacks and their white sympathizers to keep them from exercising their rights.

Early 1900’s: In 1915, William J. Simmons, a former Methodist clergyman, organized a new Klan in Atlanta, Ga., as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. The Klan directed its activities against groups it considered un-American, including blacks, immigrants, Jews, and particularly Roman Catholics.

Ku Klux Klan: Pronounced KOO kluhks KLAN, is a group of white secret societies who oppose the advancement of blacks, Jews, and other minority groups. The Ku Klux Klan, also called the KKK or the Klan, is active in the United States and in Canada. It often uses violence to achieve its aims. Klan members wear robes and hoods, and burn crosses at their out door meetings. they also burn crosses to frighten nonmembers.

KKK Rule: Klan members, who believed in the superiority of whites, soon began to terrorize blacks to keepthem from voting or exercising other rights they had gained during Reconstruction, the period following the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The Klan threatened, beat, and murdered many blacks and their white symphathizers in the South. To hide their identity, Klan terrorists wore robes and hoods,draped sheets over their horses and rode at night. The KKK spread rapidly throughout the Southern United States and became known as the invisible Empire. Its attacks helped drive blacks out of Southern political life.

The crazy members:Increased civil rights activities during the 1960’s brought a new wave of Klan violence. Klan members were involved in many terrorist attacks, including the killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, and the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in which four black girls were killed. President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe the Klan. Some Klan members were sent to prison, and membership fell to about 5,000 by the early 1970’s.