Klansmen To Disband Summary

The goal of this investigation is to delve into the question of: to what extent was the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s a reflection of societal change? In order to assess this question from multiple perspectives on the topic, research is needed to further look into the Klan’s motives both prior to their revival as well as after. Events in the 1870s, when the Klan ended, as well as events in the 1920s, when the klan was reborn, will be considered in this investigation in order to make connections between the KKK and why their revival in the 1920s reflected societal change. Among these events include the end of Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, increase of immigration to the United States, as well as the “red scare” of communism.

Following the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, Nathan B. Forrest was held in high regards in the south as a “War Hero”. It was reported that he had twenty-nine horse shot out from under him, killed or wounded thirty soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, and being wounded four separate times himself.1 The Ku Klux Klan was already in existence when they offered him a position of command in the fight against reconstruction and corruption that came with it. Forrest held the title of “Grand Wizard”, but would eventually disbanded the Klan due to excessive violence that countered efforts to secure southern rights within the Union.

Forever. 170). The Klan were white southerners who were organized and committed to the breaking down of Reconstruction. By methods of brutality, “the Klan during Reconstruction offers the most extensive example of homegrown terrorism in American history” (Foner. Forever. 171). The Ku Klux Klan as well as other groups killed or tormented black politicians or threatened the blacks who voted in elections. The Klan strongly disagreed with the northern idea that slaves should become part of the government. The Historian Kenneth M. Stampp states, “for their [the North] supreme offense was not corruption but attempting to organize the Negroes for political action” (Stampp. Era. 159). This corresponds with Foner’s idea that the South was not open to the idea of change but more so consumed with the idea of recreating a society similar to one of the past. However, the goal of white power groups was not just politics. The Klan wanted to restore the hierarchy once controlling the South. Foner observes that, “the organization took on the function of the antebellum slave patrols: making sure that blacks did not violate the rules and etiquette of white supremacy” (Foner. Forever. 172). Like the power the southern whites formerly held over the slave population, the Ku Klux Klan wanted to control the African American population still living in the South. They did not want the freedmen to become integrated into their society because they saw them as lesser people. By suppressing and

If a black man resisted to the Ku Klux Klan when being bribed he was whipped and killed on the spot. But the negroes were not the only ones being killed by them the KKK stabbed and hung Senator John W. Stephens in the courtroom in North Carolina he was a white man. Tourgee was white, he was a Northern soldier that settled in North Carolina after the war and became a judge and was most likely the next white person target for the KKK after writing a letter to the North Carolina senator, Joseph Carter Abbott about the killing of Stephens and how anyone that bows to the KKK “is a coward, a traitor, or a fool.” (Document A) The political violence in the south continued while the north was getting tired of fighting for their

Although not all went to the extremes of the KKK using terror, beating, and even murder to fulfill their quest in purifying America, they however they did support it’s ideology in many rural America. It has been estimated that, between the years 1920-27, the hands of the Klan members in the Southern states butchered 416 Blacks. Research indicates that most of the victims were innocent or were convicted of small offenses that certainly didn’t deserve such punishment. In the southern states, where the majority of the African American population resided, the notion of ‘white supremacy’ went unquestioned. Scarily enough, the KKK reached their hands into politics as well. In the state o f Indiana, the ‘Grand Wizard’, David Stephenson was politically powerful. It was also alleged that the Klan helped elect the governor of Maine, Colorado, and Louisiana in 1924. Moreover, on August 18th 1925 the Ku Klux Klan was able to parade down 40,000 men on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C without any intervention from state officials. Segregated facilities in government buildings remained unchanged since the first decade of the century, which showed the American government during the twenties was continually ignoring issues linked to ethnic minorities and the hostile attitudes of its people towards them. The act of

In order to threaten the equality of African Americans, white Southerners formed different terrorist groups that were used to force former slaves to resist from trying to pursue their equality, one of the groups being the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was formed based on the fear of economic competition that could be held between white and Black men. “The Ku Klux Klan targeted three main groups as part of their ‘Southern resistance’ to Radical Reconstruction. These people included carpetbaggers (Northerners who moved South following the war), scalawags (Southerners who voted for the despised Republican Party) and the millions of former slaves” (History Magazine, 13) The Klan knew who to aim for when it came to taking down the desire of having former slaves to become equals to their white counterparts, this would ensure that the Klan was not only heard by the government through their violence but also the people who took part of the three groups. In order to allow themselves to be heard, the Klan had more than one method of influence which included threats, whippings, beatings, and murder (History Magazine, 13). An example of the torture enforced by the Klan is through the incident of Elias Hill in South Carolina. Hill was a Black man who had no ability to use either his arms or his legs and was dragged

“Why I Quit the Klan” is a non-fiction story written by Studs Terkel, which talks about former Ku Klux Klan leader, C.P. Ellis. Ellis was invited, as a Klansman, to join a committee on how to solve racial problems in the school system. This committee included people of all different ethical backgrounds, including African Americans. He reluctantly accepted, however after a few short meetings, he was elected co-chair of the committee, along side of Ann Atwater, an African American woman who had been leading local efforts for civil rights for years. This article shows the internal struggles and hardships that C.P. Ellis went through on his journey to become accepted.

Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865 to the Present by David Chalmers records the history of the Ku Klux Klan quite bluntly, all the way from its creation following the civil war, to the early 1960’s. The author starts the book quite strongly by discussing in detail many acts of violence and displays of hatred throughout the United States. He makes a point to show that the Klan rode robustly throughout all of the country, not just in the southern states. The first several chapters of the book focus on the Klan’s creation in 1865. He goes on to discuss the attitude of many Americans following the United State’s Civil War and how the war shaped a new nation. The bulk of the book is used to go through many of

During the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed many laws to provide equal rights to people of color. But at the local level, specifically in the South, many Democrats took the law into their own hands. They supported the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hoping to restore the pre-Civil War social hierarchy. The texts in Going to the Source illustrate two groups of individuals who opposed the KKK. In testimonies given by white witnesses, Republicans from the North felt the KKK posed a political and social danger in the South, but did not feel intimidated. The testimonies given by black witnesses were people who had experience of the Klan’s violence, and felt their lives were threatened. The Klan’s attacks on whites were more inclined towards social harassment, while their attacks on blacks, which consisted of voting intimidation and night rides, were violent and abusive because the KKK’s main goal was white supremacy.

Topic: In 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was founded by many former confederate veterans in retaliation to their current Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. The Reconstruction era sparked by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation clearly defined that the days of white superiority were in dissolution. Through a willful ignorance and an insecurity of what might postlude the civil rights movement, the KKK rose, using terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Lieutenant general in the Civil war, became the KKK's first Grand Wizard. Now with a steady leader the klan became a persistent political party aimed at dismantling the increasingly

The United States has a long, troubled history of slavery and racism within its culture. It is an unfortunate part of our history that we continue to see to this day. The Argument of D. T. Corbin in the Trial of the Ku-Klux before the States Circuit Court is a closing argument to the jury from David T. Corbin. Corbin was a very respected and qualified individual at this time. He would go on to win the Senate election a few years after this document was created. The trial was for the Ku-Klux Klan and whether or not their beliefs and actions were legal. Corbin was strongly against the klan and made sure people knew it. The events that took place in the trial of the Ku-Klux Klan, held in Columbia, South Carolina, happened in a tumultuous time period in United States history. The hearing took place in November of 1871, which was six years after the end of the Civil War. As many people know, the Civil War was fought largely due to the role of slavery in the United States. The southern states, the Confederacy, were pro-slavery, and the north, the Union, was against it. Racism was a major issue at the time. African-Americans had little to no rights before the war, and after the war Congress amended the constitution to give more rights to the African-Americans in this country to much disgust of the southern states. In this document Corbin portrays the KKK in a negative manner by calling on witnesses who were a part of the klan, calls witnesses who were victims, and brings up

“By the summer of 1964,” David Cunningham writes in “Klansville, U.S.A.,” “the Carolina Klan established a demanding schedule of nightly rallies across the state, where they enlisted thousands of dues-paying members.” More than that, “at its mid-1960s peak the Klan’s presence in North Carolina eclipsed klan membership in all other southern states combined.” (Cunningham most likely put “klan” in lowercase because of the groups’ disorganization.)

These acts were said to be committed by a group of "skinheads" in the Ku Klux

From the beginning there has been three different itera-tions of the Ku Klux Klan, each of them with their own way of expressing their belief. The “first” Ku Klux Klan, or the “Or-der”, self-described themselves as the “Invisible Empire of the South”, they were an underground resistance movement. They were trying to preserve its old way of life. Then there was the second Ku Klux Klan, or the “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan“. This division had been the most famous of the three Klan’s. The

Dressed in all white from head to toe with a pointy white hat, they terrorize communities and the recipient of their terror are often African Americans. This is the history of the white supremacy group, Kul Klux Klan. Their doctrine is enthralled with bigotry, and hate for anyone not of a pure white Arian race. Their terror, often demonstrated through cross burnings, and lynching. Although their membership and terroristic activities has dwindled in the past few decades; the mere image of men in white sheets is terrorizing. This photograph taken in 1992, by Todd Roberson, depicts a Caucasian toddler dressed in a Kul Klux Klan robe touching the shield of an African American Georgia state trooper. The content of the photo captures a Kul Klux Klan rally in Gainesville, Georgia. The officer Allen Campbell and his colleagues are there to protect the Ku Klux Klan members from counter protesters. The photograph has many analytical viewpoints, but irony is prevalent in the various contradictions within the photograph.