Ku Klux Kl Racism In The United States

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Ku Klux Klan Imagine living in a society in which friends, family and neighbors are murdered simply because of the color of their skin. What did they do wrong? They existed. This is the life of an African-American living in the southern United States throughout much of America’s history. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan was one of the major contributing factors to the long bloody struggle that was racism in America. The Klan is classified as a hate group, and throughout three summits in history forced blacks and other minorities to live in a fear that they did not deserve. The American Civil War was fought between the northern half of the United States and the southern half from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War was “white on white” violence over…show more content…
The exact date is unknown due to varying reports of the time as well as conflicting accounts of the event by the principals involved. On June 5, 1867, Klansmen celebrated the group’s first anniversary with a gala parade. The name was adapted from the Greek work “kuklos” meaning circle. Clan was added at the end but spelled with a “K” for visual effect. The six founders of the Klan were John Lester, James Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, and Frank McCord. Each of these men was a Confederate veteran. They were all also well educated and from wealthy families. The original Klan as created by these men was intended as a social organization with “fun and frolic” in mind.[6] At the time of the Klan’s birth, in Pulaski, Tennessee, there were no jobs available, and the state was under tight military control. The six founders of the Klan, like many residents of Pulaski, had nothing to do and had grown restless. For this reason they decided to create their own…show more content…
Nightly activities consisted of posing as ghosts of Confederate dead to tease and scare black freedmen. The Klansmen also played practical jokes on blacks, though perhaps without any sinister motivation. Post Civil War reconstruction of the South, changed this playful attitude. Diehard Confederates gravitated toward the Klan as a way to defeat black suffrage, continue white supremacy, and restore Democratic party rule to the South. In the spring of 1867, at Nashville’s Maxwell House Hotel, a secret reorganizational meeting was held. Klansmen here endorsed a new constitution, planned a four-year guerrilla war against the federal government in Washington. Nathan Bedford Forrest, former Confederate cavalry leader and slave trader, was chosen as the grand wizard of the KKK. With the next three years, KKK members and allies like the Knights of the White Camellia committed over 2,000 murders and many floggings, rapes, castrations, brandings, and shootings. In 1869, Forrest issued a ban on masked violence, and urged Klansmen to keep a low profile and save ammunition for legitimate emergencies. In the early 1870’s the Klan gradually faded out as it successfully terrorized black voters, drove carpetbaggers out, and maintained Democratic party rule in the

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