Terrorism is notoriously difficult to define and is often used to mean different things by pundits, politicians and the media. The problem of defining terrorism has “hindered analysis since the inception of studies in the early 1970s”. It is therefore difficult to decide whether a particular organisation is considered a terrorist group. A widely used definition by Bruce Hoffman, a political analyst in the field of terrorism and counter terrorism, states that terrorism is violence or the threat of violence, against non combatants or civilians, usually motivated by political, religious or ideological beliefs.
A group that fits this definition is the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan or KKK has been described as a terrorist group by a number of
…show more content…
Each movement followed by drastic decline. The original Klan was founded by a group of six Confederate army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. Fearing increasing political control by Reconstructionist politicians buoyed by the potential electoral power of newly freed male African American slaves, the KKK responded by terrorising these ethnic groups, predominately African Americans, through physical and psychological intimidation during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. It existed until 1871, when the federal government passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, allowing the prosecution of KKK members as part of a terrorist organisation. The KKK reemerged in 1915 in Atlanta, Georgia. At the height of the group’s power in the mid-1920s, it claimed around 4–6 million members. Numbers collapsed, however, and the organisation effectively disbanded before the advent of World War II. In response to the burgeoning civil rights movement, the KKK was formed again during the 1960s and continues to function in limited ways. Today, there are at least four main KKK branches among the 72 active groups operating under the Klan name: the Brotherhood of Klans, the National Knights, the Imperial Klans of America and the Knights …show more content…
Whether Southern whites wanted slavery or not it had become the backbone of Southern ideology and comfort. A quote from Willian Loughton Smith of South Carolina from book The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America, by Wyn Craig Wade, states that slavery had become “so engrafted” in the southern United States that the eradication would destroy the Southern “happiness, tranquility and prosperity”. Whites were in control and at the end of the Civil War in 1865, they lost power over the blacks due to the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877. The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was under control and this era was the readmission of Southern states into the Union and also included the legal end of most slavery in the United
- The most notorious organization was the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan was organized in Pulaski Tennessee, in 1866 to intimidate former slaves who voted and apprehended political offices during Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan history came all about with the situation in the South following the harsh Civil War. The Southern States were in distraught and the defeated white people were humiliated and felt like they had to get revenge and gain their power back. The goal of the original Ku Klux Klan was to fight against the Reconstruction policies of the radical Republican Congress and to maintain "white supremacy. The Klan was led by merchants, planters, and Democratic politicians. They considered themselves as the most respectable citizens
Similar procedures could have been applied to Duncan's strategies to keep schools, administration, and the education department accountable for attaining academic success.
Both articles The Golden Era of Indiana (1900-1941) and Rank-and-File Radicalism within the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s shared some similar information about the Ku Klux Klan. Both articles talked about the Ku Klux Klan membership, Ku Klux Klan activity in Indiana, and anti-Catholicism. The article The Golden Era of Indiana (1900-1941) gave brief information about how the Ku Klux Klan was growing and gaining power again in Indiana, due to a film that was released throughout the nation that was based on evidence of the Ku Klux Klan. “With Birth of a Nation providing free recruiting advertisement for the Klan, membership soared” (Lutholtz). The article also discussed all the violent activities the klan was committing in Indiana. “The Klan’s tools of intimidation included lynching, shooting, stabbing and whipping” (Lutholtz). The Ku Klux Klan members believed they were saving America which is why they would commit the crimes they did. “America now had to be ‘protected’ from the Germans and others: Catholics, Jews,
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the most prominent hate-based organization in American history. Founded in the aftermath of the Civil War as a whimsical social club, the Klan quickly transformed into a terrorist organization aimed at subjugating newly freed blacks and driving out moderate whites that attempted to improve the plight of
The most famous white supremacy group in American history is the Ku Klux Klan (a.k.a. The KKK) and aimed to “cleanse” the American population of black people and was used to launch attacks on black people and the people that advocated and supported their rights. The group was founded in 1865 in Tennessee by 6 members of the Confederate army and gained an immense amount of followers over the next 80 years. At its peak, the group reached around 6 million members on a global scale, extending the racism and hate worldwide. The activities of the hate-group became extremely violent as they started cross burnings, executions and mass parades to advocate their anti-civil rights movement. Eventually, they also started targeting other minorities in America, such as Jewish people, who have also faced a large struggle for rights and freedoms throughout history. Eventually, the people started to fight back against the KKK and although it still continues today as a group with an extremely small amount of members, numbers were drastically reduced, their hate crimes subsided and the black people of America once again started to regain their rights and
Ku Klux Klan was officially a racial organization. They did not have a name yet , but
Frustrated confederate soldiers made their way back home after losing the war that they had been fighting for four years. These men formed vigilante groups, attacking black people. While soldiers did this, wealthier men who had avoided fighting in the war formed agricultural and police clubs for the same purpose; both groups soon took shape and evolved into one large group, known as the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the first leader, known as the Grand Wizard. The name Ku Klux Klan is derived from the Greek word, Kyklos, meaning circle. The Ku Klux Klan, often shortened to the KKK, was founded in Tennessee in 1866 and grew to be one of the most feared terrorist groups in the United States, before dying off in 1869, but later being revived in 1915 (History.com Staff). The Ku Klux Klan negatively impacted the Reconstruction period through terror, intimidating Republican voters, and killing Republican officials.
The first era Ku Klux Klan was formed in Tennessee on December 1865 at the end of the civil war. The Ku Klux Klan was formed as a movement for white supremacy. It was formed as a violent group that relied on fear tactics to stay in power. As Jonathan M. Bryant said in an article “The Klan 's organized terrorism began most notably on March 31, 1868, when Republican organizer George Ashburn was murdered in Columbus, Georgia.” George W. Ashburn (1814 - March 30, 1868) was a Georgia politician assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan in Columbus, Georgia for his pro-African-American sentiments. He was the first murder victim of the Klan in Georgia. This the first of the Klan’s organized terrorism it was soon followed by more.
The Union victory after the Civil War in 1865 may had given roughly 4 million slaves their freedom, however the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period introduced a new set of significant challenges. In order to reconstruct the country following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the federal government and Republican-controlled state governments in the southern regions made efforts to rebuild the Southern economy and advance conditions of freedom. Following the Civil War, majority of white Southerners opposed Reconstruction and the Republican Party's support of black civil and political rights. However, Reconstruction ultimately failed due to violence against African Americans, the Compromise of 1877 and the
The Ku Klux Klan was a racial hate group in the south that made sure blacks did not get any civil rights. Members in the Ku Klux Klan believed whites were superior to other races. The KKK hated the blacks because they believed slaves, who were the blacks, are to be less than human. Only white Anglo-Saxon Protestants or known as “WASPS” could become members. The members also had to pay monthly fees so they could “adopt a highway” to look good in the eyes of the communities.
In order to achieve their goal of re-establishing white supremacy. Founded in 1866 by former confederate veterans, the Ku Klux Klan would be established as the most powerful terrorist organization of its time. Aimed at dismantling the possible overthrow of white supremacists in the United States by the increasingly powerful African-American community. The KKK would target black southerners and any white persons who would help them. Nathan Bedford Forrest would become the primary leader during this era titled the “Grand Wizard” he would push the organization's agenda throughout the United
The Ku Klux Klan was formed as a social club by a group of Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in the winter of 1865-66. The group adopted the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word "kyklos," meaning circle, and the English word clan. By 1944 the Ku Klux Klan had lost most of its influence and membership. It was revived during the Civil Rights era and continues today as a small organization that continues to stage demonstrations in favor of white supremacy and fundamentalist Christian theology. William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher, organized a new Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1915 as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. Then and Now: KKK membership peaked at four to five million in the mid-1920s; today there are an estimated 5,500 to 6,000 Klan members among roughly 100 groups. Although the Klan still reverted to burning crosses, torturing and murdering those whom they opposed, the organization became a powerful political force in the 1920s. This new Klan directed its activity against not just blacks, but immigrants, Jews, and Roman
Perhaps the most famous terrorist organization in the history of America, the Ku Klux Klan, better known as the “KKK”, was originated in 1866 by a group of six confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee. Although the Klan “had no malicious intentions” according to (Eyewitness to History). As we all know, that fact quickly changed. Throughout the next few years, this group spread to all southern states. It is followers included mayors, judges, police officers, and even convicted felons. This group of people began killing black people, black politicians, and white people who sided with the blacks. They were famous for burning large crosses in the homes and neighborhoods of blacks, and setting fire to churches in which they knew a large amount of blacks attended their masses each
The Klan started in the year 1866, as a social club. The first Klan was founded in Tennessee and soon began to expand throughout the southern states. In 1868 the Klan quickly became one of the most feared terrorist groups. The first leader of the clan was Nathan Bedford Forrest who was a past general in the confederate army. Soon the clan evolved into almost every state in 1870. The second Klan began in 1915, and ended in 1944. The third clan started in 1946 and is still active today. (PBS)
Sometimes it strikes me to see the simplicity of freedom, but in reality it is not simple since one must gain his/her freedom from another being. Freedom should be natural not giving. If freedom can be given to one man by another it can also be taken away by a man. Therefore, Freedom has many definitions in many different parts of the world. Freedom is the right of individuals to act as they choose. Freedom is taking away though the terrorist strike. Terrorist implants fear in the life of all people and disrupts everyday life. The tragedies that occur on September 11 affect people directly or indirectly. Not does September 11 killed over six million people, but also injured the mind of all American. As the leader of Al-Qaida claimed the responsibility