How Did The Ku Klux Klan Prevent Racism?

Throughout history, minorities would be harassed for the color of their skin or their religion.

America has struggled with racism because of the terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan, or known as, the K.K.K.. In 1866, six ex-confederate soldiers started a fraternal society. Taking from their college Greek fraternity, they took the term for circle, "kuklos." (“Ku Klux Klan”) They added the word "klan" for alliteration, and soon, the Ku Klux Klan was born. The members would go on “night raids” and during them, members would disguise themselves in masks made from potato sacks and long robes. The Ku Klux Klan soon became a political successor to the pre-war slave patrols in controlling newly freed blacks. Mostly in the South, Klansmen’s goal was to drive black men out of politics, control black labor, and overturn the new Republican state governments. Throughout the Ku Klux Klan’s reign, they have murdered thousands of African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was an American born racist terrorist organization that prevented equality and assisted in the process of overthrowing Republican reconstruction in the South.

Nathan Bedford Forrest became grand wizard, and other generals served as state grand dragons. But in fact, the Klan was decentralized and local; each state and community had its own violent story. By 1869, the Klan had helped terrorize black voters and overturn elected Republican governments in the Deep South. In 1870 and 1871, the Radical Republicans struck back in Congress, passing the Enforcement and Ku Klux Klan Acts aimed at protecting the rights of blacks, and a Joint Select Committee issued a 12-volume report on its hearings on Klan violence. President Ulysses S. Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine South Carolina counties, and convictions in South Carolina and Mississippi helped bring a decline in