Symbolic Boundaries Of The Ku Klux Klan

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.

Through research and evidence, it is clear that the historical interpretations of the origins of Klan and its establishment as an organization and its origins have changed over time. Starting in 1906, historians argued that the Klan was a benevolent, social organization, working as law-enforcers to help maintain a distinct social order between Southern whites and newly freed slaves. Completely ignoring the violence produced by the Klan, historians depicted the Klan as a positive, well-rounded organization. The second historical interpretation shone a new light on the Klan, exposing it for its violent and racially motivated actions. Historians argued that the Klan’s establishment was as a political organization that made a negative and lasting impression on all of U.S. history. The third and final interpretation argues that the Klan was established as a result of a struggling planter class. Historical interpretations during this time period describe the main goal of the Klan as wanting to answer to the desires and goals of the planters’ class. Because of this, historians during this era never saw the Klan as being an obstacle for newly freed slaves nor did they see the Klan having a negative effect on society. In conclusion, it is evident that historical interpretations develop and

The brutal violence acts performed by the Ku Klux Klan members were often sexual violence. The Klan said to be protecting the white women from black men. As the article Black Victims of Violence states, “... some had no moral qualms about their members sexually abusing or mutilating black men and women in order to show their authority” (para. 3). The violence became worse over time and the Klansmen started to get out of hand. Even the “Grand Wizard,” also known as Nathan Bedford Forrest, saw their crimes as unnecessary and unjust. As read in Hatred and Profits: Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan by Roland

Branches of the Klan were instituted in nearly every Southern state making it difficult for African Americans to maintain their positions of power. In an effort to maintain social order, the Klan made its efforts to stop the assimilation of African Americans into society known. In Chapter 15 of his book, The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln, Claude G. Bowers argues that the Ku Klux Klan was an organization that used fear and a sense of mystery as a means of controlling African Americans, its sense of mystery being its trademark. The Klan’s mystery was made up of eccentric costumes and code names for members that helped maintain the sense of secrecy. The Klan, adorned in white robes and often referring to themselves as “ghosts”, used the superstitious beliefs of African Americans in an effort to keep the newly freed slaves whom the Klan believed were the primary crime committers out of society. The author states that because the Klan was preventing African Americans from taking a more predominant role in society, their efforts further resulted in a crime free environment. Because it’s systematic tactics were said to be decreasing the rape culture in southern society and increasing the positive attitudes of servants on southern plantations, it appeared to white southerners that the Klan was making an effective and conscious effort to regulate the social caste system of the time. The author argues that it was not until the emergence of the Klan that both white men and women began to feel a sense of security. A crime free environment was essential to Southern society at the time. A society with a distinct social order was one that would produce the most effective economy. The following historians all agree that the maintaining of social order was one of the primary reasons that the Klan was established as an organization. Never

In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the economic term known as "information asymmetry." As the book explains, the term information asymmetry refers to when a person uses his information advantage to gain power to the detriment of others. The discussion of information asymmetry begins with a brief history of the Ku Klux Klan. According to the authors, much of the Klan's power in the 1940s lies in the fact that it maintains so much secrecy in everything it does. After World War II, a man named Stetson Kennedy leads to the Klan's ultimate downfall by exposing many of its secrets. Kennedy infiltrates the Klan by becoming a member of a Klan group in Atlanta, where he learns all of the group's secret rituals, names and handshakes, as well as its hierarchy.

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,

You mentioned in your work “The Klan was not a Christian order but rather a false rendition of a religious movement.” Do you think that individuals who were part of the Klan themselves believed that what they were taking part in was a type of religion?

Intimidation Tactics of the Ku Klux KlanTopic: Intimidation tactics of the Ku Klux KlanQuestion: What tactics would the Ku Klux Klan use to intimidate African Americans in the US?Thesis: The KKK would impose fear in African Americans by using violent and symbolic methods to intimidate them.Since the start of the Ku Klux Klan in 1865, members have used violent means to intimidate African Americans and other groups of ethically “unclean” people. The KKK would impose fear in African Americans by using violent and symbolic methods to intimidate them. Although these tactics worked for sometime, it ultimately led to their downfall.Immediately after the 13th Amendment was passed, which officially ended slavery in the U.S., many Civil War veterans, who had fought for the Confederate side, despised the idea of blacks living among them equally. This led to them to create the Klan, as a way to control the black population in the South. One way they did this was by carrying out attacks in order to intimidate them. These attacks were usually carried out in rural areas, during nighttime, which led to the members being nicknamed “nightriders.” The Klan would travel to the victim’s house, knock down their doors, whip them, and aim loaded guns at them.1 During these encounters, many women were even sexually abused or raped. Other methods used were hateful, racist rhetoric being shouted at blacks, along with ceremonial cross burnings and public lynchings to remind people of the KKK’s strong

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.

Specifically on the topic of the Ku Klux Klan, the SPLC has challenged many of the groups’ leaders, such as Louis Beam, and Robert Sheldon, a Grand Dragon and Imperial Wizard of the hate groups respectively. Louis Beam, a white nationalist, was causing chaos in Louisiana with his Klan, as well as creating the Texas Reserve Army, a local militia of men to fight against the government, as Beam was a

The Ku Klux Klan was known as the biggest hate group in American History, and they are responsible for thousands of innocent blacks’ deaths. The Ku Klux Klan made it very hard for the blacks, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and homosexuals to live a normal life. The Klan made them live in fear.

Thesis: Arising from the growing development for the equality of African-American peoples in the United States, those who continued to support the alt-right became increasingly aware of their decreasing racial superiority, effectively resulting in their insecurity becoming the basis for the formulation of the Ku Klux Klan, violently targeting the increasingly powerful minorities.

Throughout history and still today, the Ku Klux Klan has terrorized African Americans, Jews, Christians, and many more. The KKK has murdered many men and women over there 150 years of existence. This white supremacy group has shown that the 1st amendment will not be bent or broken for evil.  This secret society has done many illegal acts since it's forming, has very hateful symbols, but has proved that the 1st Amendment is strong and protected.

Supreme Justice Thurgood Marshall once stated that “the Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much” (Biography Staff, 2017). With the birth of America in 1776 and the Klan emerging in 1866, the not-so-invisible empire has claimed a place in America’s history. During the centuries, three summits have risen and declined, each wave becoming more open about their appearance than the last, proving to a point, that Thurgood Marshall’s quote is correct. The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the ‘KKK’ or the ‘Klan’, is a native-born hate group and according to the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism, stating “the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence…within the United

The Ku Klux Klan has massively reduced by 1927. While it peaked from having over 3 million members in 1925, it had no more than several hundred thousand in 1927. Night riding of the Klan led to at least 50 people getting flogged during a two year period. Outcries of the populace of Georgia and the Carolinas brought arrests and convictions of the Klan. Therefore, the Klan was forced to retreat. The Klan endured other handicap when local Klan in the North chapters began to develop ties with American Nazis, which Southern Klansmen greatly opposed. But, the southern Klansmen was powerless to stop this coalition.