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Ku klux klan history essay
The rise and fall of the ku klux klan
The rise and fall of the ku klux klan
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For nearly five years the Ku Klux Klan spread throughout the United States. It was not until the enforcement acts of 1870 and 1871 that took action against terrorist groups. At this time, the south was still physically and emotionally recovering from the Civil War. Economically, they struggled and crisis swept throughout, causing failure in railroad companies, education, transportation, and prisons. The Panic of 1873 doubled the depression and rage. With Ulysses S. Grant in the position of president, government began paying less and less attention to issues over prejudice, discrimination, and racial harassment and the all interest in trying to protect African Americans in the south was lost. Impatience from expenses and struggle arrived in
‘Fire in a canebrake’ is quite a scorcher by Laura Wexler and which focuses on the last mass lynching which occurred in the American Deep South, the one in the heartland of rural Georgia, precisely Walton County, Georgia on 25th July, 1946, less than a year after the Second World War. Wexler narrates the story of the four black sharecroppers who met their end ‘at the hand of person’s unknown’ when an undisclosed number of white men simply shot the blacks to death. The author concentrates on the way the evidence was collected in those eerie post war times and how the FBI was actually involved in the case, but how nothing came of their extensive investigations.
The Panic of 1819, preceded by land speculation, the expansion of state and private banks, easy credit, inflation, and an increase in agricultural exports, was triggered by the tightening of credit, the collapse of the export market, and increased imports.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
As the new century approached, a national crisis began to develop in the United States. The nation faced a severe depression, nationwide labor unrest and violence, and the government’s inability to fix any of the occurring problems. The Panic of 1893 ravaged the nation and became the worse economic crisis of its time. The depression’s ruthlessness contributed to social unrest and weakened the monetary system’s strength, leading to a debate over what would be the foundation of the national currency. As the era ended, the US sought to increase its power and strength. America began expanding its oversees empires, eventually drawing itself into numerous war efforts and creating an anti-imperialist movement that challenged the government. At the turn of the century, America became engrossed in numerous economic and social tribulations, as well as foreign problems rooted in imperialism and the pursuit of the new manifest destiny.
Around 1871 and 1872 Reconstruction started to decline. The main change of ideologies was presented thanks to the unpopularity of the Republican Party and the fear present mainly by the white population. After the reconstruction acts; which represented an effort to crush anti-black sentiment and to assure black votes and the Federal Army was moved away southern whites feared the power that African Americans were acquiring and decided to act upon it. The fear can be seen in a quote General Gordon “Our people have always flet that if the white troops of the Federal Army could have been stationed in those negro belts we would have been safe” (Wish, p.162) During the reconstruction era, white supremacists groups such as the KKK came into play. They were dedicated to raising terror in black communities and challenged their political and social views as well as white people that supported the black cause; although many members of this organization believed they were acting as a “peace police”(Wish, p. 153). Later on, political power swayed towards political and social white supremacist views. This can be seen during the compromise of 1877. There was a great dispute during the presidential election of 1876. Republican Hayes and Democrat Tilden fought for the White House. Eventually they came to the agreement that Hayes would be president if he removed federal
After the end of American Civil War in 1865, The Thirteenth Amendment was added to the constitution of the United States that stated “Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, nor any place subject to their jurisdiction.” By this no black people could be owned by the whites. In spite of this, blacks were severely segregated in the South. This resulted in the formation of anti-radical movement in the South called Ku Klux Klan organization which represented white supremacy by whipping ...
In the first few years of the Reconstruction, violent acts against the former slaves took place primarily in the south. In 1866, about one year after the civil war, the most well renowned terrorist group of the time, the Klu Klux Klan, took shape in Tennessee. In 1866, the Civil Rights Bill was proposed in Congress. At the time, it was referred to as, “one of the most important bills ever presented to the House for its action.”
We study the beginning of America and the movement of settlers into a new land. Then we look at the formation of the United States through the Revolutionary War. But nothing has ever changed this country from the inside as much as the Ku Klux Klan invasion into the country. The Klan’s influence and ability to cause destruction within a society inspired leaders and dictators such as Adolf Hitler. During the height of the Klan’s power and influence, it was doing many things right. It had attracted mass amounts of people with a simple message and used them to complete a secret agenda. Had the KKK continued to find new ways of bringing people to their cause and working to achieve superiority first, they may have caused an unforeseen amount of damage to the United States. Mistakes that were made by the members grew attention to them and caused society to see them as they were. The Ku Klux Klan of the modern day is still alive. It is barely breathing but growing and changing everyday. The hate will live on through the young, but the good people in the world are the key to truly changing the world for the
The American civil war was fought between 1861 and 1865. A civil war is a war fought between different regions within a country. The American Civil War was fought between the North and the South. Shortly after President Abraham Lincon was elected, eleven states in the south seceded from the union. After only being president for six weeks, Abraham Lincon declared these southern acts of succession as illegal. Lincon then requested that congress would allow him to use 500,000 soldiers to help crush the very threatening rebellion in the south. Massive sections in the south were destroyed in the process of the north attempting to regulate the south. Lands were destroyed along with social structure and economics. In 1862, Lincon began to liberate the slaves in the south. On January 1st, 1863, Abraham Lincon issued the emancipation proclamation. When the proclamation was issued it was clear that the war was now about slavery. The emancipation proclamation freed many slaves, but not all of them. It wasn’t until December in 1865 that the thirteenth Amendment was ratified. The thirteenth amendment states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, nor any place subject to their jurisdiction."(US Constitution). When the slaves were freed, the southerners were frenzied because the slaves were their main way of achieving money. The hate towards the North caused a small group to transition into one of the largest hate groups in American history. The Ku Klux Klan was first formed in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee in the year 1865. The Ku Klux Klan first started as a fraternity group including six confederate veterans and lat...
...avorable cause, and many Radicals began to lose their seats in Congress. The Radical Republicans, those who remained in Congress, urged President Ulysses S. Grant to take action against the newly formed Ku Klux Klan, who killed blacks, whites, and immigrants. On April 20th, 1871, Congress passed the Ku Klux Act, which gave the president the power to intervene in troubled states with the authority to suspend a writ of habeas corpus in countries where such conflicts occurred. The Ku Klux Act became the Radical Republicans’ last considerable victory in Congress.
The Ku Klux Klan has existed since the mid nineteenth century. The Klan has had periods membership numbered in the millions, whereas nowadays they do not have as much influence as in the past.What has ceased to change is the media depicting the Ku Klux Klan as a hateful group of bigots wanting to solely wipe out any non-white race. However, the media has not only surfaced many misconception but they fail to realize that the Klan is actually within US Constitutional rights. Because the Bill of Rights guarantees American citizens the freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble, the Ku Klux Klan has the right to continue their practices. With that being said, excluding some violent outburst conducted by Klan subgroups, no one has the right to stop the KKK from protesting, speaking their beliefs, or celebrating their heritage.
The Ku Klux Klan is commonly known as the KKK, which was an organization ran by white people who advocated white supremacy, anti-immigration and racial discrimination. The Ku Klux Klan was and still is a very racist group towards all skin colors other than white, but predominately there focus was on African Americans. Klan members were nervous of the uprising of African Americans after slavery had ended in the U.S in 1865. The Klan’s goal was to hate and terrorize African Americans, making them feel as if they do not belong in the United States (U.S). The dominate force the Klan used was terrorism, both physical assault and murder, by burning, shooting, and hanging. Since the first Klan originated in 1865, there have been 2 more to follow since then.
In 1869 the Klan was disbanded by Forrest, this was the height of their membership with 500,00 members, because laws were created in the 1870’s to slow down their activities, such as the KKK Act and the Enforcement Acts, limiting their power in the south. Even though they were no longer active their threat was still lingering. They left a legacy in the United States of torture, havoc, white supremacy and black oppression that lasted for a century. The KKK were successful at achieving their goals of abolishing the Republicans ideas in the South and scaring many African Americans during the late
The KKK was once an African American hate group in the late 1800’s, created by Confederate generals who wanted to continue suppressing their former slaves with terror. It was shut down after their leaders were plagued with scandals, and their business dealings put out into the open, for all to see and read. People finally understood what the Klan was about and obviously did not want it. Although in 1915, William J. Simmons watched D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” which depicted the story of what happened after the Civil War, through the eyes of a glorified Klansman. He was stargazed at how Griffith depicted the Klan, and as him being a long time joiner of clubs, he decided to bring back the Ku Klux Klan. A surprising fact is how a man like this could lead a group of hate, as he used to be a minister. (“Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America”) This second generation of the Klan created almost an “Invisible Empire” by their high point. Their members were scattered across state and federal government, and one could say that they “co...