Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

Morgan Malcolm
Dana Berro
Language Arts
28 January 2015
The KKK in the Reconstruction of America
“Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.” these words were spoken on January 1, 1863, as the United States neared it’s third year of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This document states that all people that had previously been know as slaves were free. This startled many people and many White Supremacist groups were conducting a reign of terror throughout the South. One of the most prevalent of these groups would be the Klu Klux Klan. The KKK set back America in becoming accepting of other races and made it socially acceptable to express racism in public.
Originally the Klu Klux Klan started as a social club and not as a racial hate group. They got their name from the greek word kuklos, meaning “circle”, and the scottish-Gaelic word “clan” which was probably chosen for the sake of alliteration. The first big riot that The Klan was involved in was in 1866 in Memphis, Tennessee between whites and black ex-soldiers the casualties include: 46 killed, 70 wounded, and numerous churches and

schools burned. In the violent atmosphere the KKK grew in size and strength by 1868, the Klan had evolved into a hooded terrorist organization. They even wrote their own constitution that went along with their beliefs.
The KKK was against many things immigration, Catholics, Judaism, but above all African Americans.

In 1868 an anonymous KKK member sent a threat letter to a black elected official in Lincoln County, GA. This letter suggested that he was a ghost sent by the KKK to control any African American who wanted to become an a public figure. The Klan had many intimidation methods that were considered unnecessary such as hanging in public and burning crosses. In the Virginia Vs Black case the supreme court decided that burning crosses in the attempt to intimidate is against Virginia law. There were many different ways that the KKK killed including, rapes and killings, lynching, house burnings, shootings and many more. They had many gruesome ways of killing and intimidating others making them feel

superior.
The elections of 1863 were some of the most controversial elections in American history, it marks the first election that blacks could vote. The summer of 1868 before the elections the Freedmen's Bureau tallied 336 or assault so severe as to constitute assassination attempts. The Klan was very upset about this and decided they wanted to do something about it. They wanted to intimidate voters who were either republican or African American.Trying to win political power. Many people were so scared for their lives they did not vote because of threat letters and lynchings in public. Before the elections, there were countless riots and many murders. During the election in Kansas, over 2,000 murders were committed in connection with the election. In Georgia, the number of threats and beating were higher. In Louisiana, 1,000 blacks were killed as the election neared. In those three states, democrats won decisively.