The Ku Klux Klan, better known as the KKK, was started in Tennessee in 1866. The people who believed in “White Pride” came together against the advancement of African Americans, Jews, and other minorities. The KKK members were very violent and used harsh actions to get their point across, but their actions were supported by their strong belief in their religion and the culture in which they were brought up in. The Klan did as it believed, they did what they thought was right and for their time period they were just acting in the way their culture brought them up to act.
The name Ku Klux Klan comes from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle. The oldest symbol of unity is a circle. The Klan represents itself as the “oldest American White civil rights group. ” The KKK’s history has been split into five eras. Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest founded the First Era in 1866. The Klan was formed during the Reconstruction Era of United States history. Klan members went on “night rides. ” On “night rides” the KKK members dressed in white robes and went to houses belonging to empowered blacks and instituted fright into their hearts.
They would threaten these blacks with what would happen if they voted or took positions of power. They often whipped, mutilated or even killed any black that didn’t comply with the KKK’s ideas. The Second Era of the KKK reigned from 1915-1925. This Second Era of Klansmen came together against the blacks that were trying to take a spot in the community with the NAACP. The Klan provided middle-class whites with stability. This era of the Klan came together against African Americans, Catholics, Jews, Asians, immigrants, anyone who had pre-and extra-marital escapades, and many other minorities.
This Klan era was the First Era to use automobiles as part of the lynching. The Third Era was started in May of 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled that segregating of public schools by race was unconstitutional. This generation of Klansmen at one point numbered 40,000. In 1857 as a result of the Montgomery Bus boycott, a group of Klan members torched four African American Churches. At one point a count was taken and there had been over one hundred and fifty acts of racial and anti-Semitic acts of violence in the south. The Third Era mainly used their own forms of bombs to destroy residents nd churches of their enemies.
The Fourth Era overlapped with the ends of the Third Era; David Duke was one of the main leaders. Duke used a sort of Nazi flavor to revamp the KKK, and his best addition to the Klan was his manipulation of the media. Dukes main attacks were at affirmative action, he attracted new youthful members, recruiting from high schools and colleges. The most well known act of terrorism occurred in Greensboro in 1979, where the Communist Workers Party rallied against the Klan, their motto was “Death to the Klan”. KKK members and Nazis came together and attacked the marchers and ounded five protestors and killed another nine.
Presently the Fifth Era of the KKK is in action, they haven’t been as violent as the past four eras, but there are several groups that are growing in numbers. The Ku Klux Klan’s actions were very radical. There is one idea that hasn’t changed in the past one hundred and fifty years, and that is that the killing of an innocent person is wrong. The KKK killed any black that had too much power or a lot of influence. Prior to the Klan’s existence a similar party killed one hundred and sixteen black people and their bodies were thrown in he Tallahatchie River.
In one Louisiana parish in 1868, over a two-day period Klansmen killed or wounded two hundred victims. A large pile of twenty-five dead bodies was found half buried in the woods. During 1870 in South Carolina the Klan killed six black people, and whipped another three hundred until they could barely walk. Mass killings like these happened regularly all over the South. The members of the Klan took their culture and religion and combined it to create justification for any evil actions they took. Finally, the passing of the harsh Force Act of 870 and 1871 allowed Federal troops to destroy the organization.
By this time though the damage had already been done. Members of the Ku Klux Klan are very dedicated to their religion and cause. To get into the KKK a person must take an oath that says, “By my own free will and instance I (NAME) swear, by the mighty God, that I never to anyone will tell by a hint, sign, action or word about the secrets, signs, handshakes, keywords or ceremonies that belongs to the Order ***, neither that I am a member of this Order, or that I know somebody that is a member. Also I will submit to the regulations for the Order *** and it’s commands.
This oath showed that by being a Klan member you must be totally loyal to the cause, as if it were your religion. The Klan had sacrificial rituals in which they would wrap crosses with white bandages and then torch it before they started each meeting. Out of respect for their “religion” the Klansmen raided and torched the houses of black men, and they killed and mutilated blacks. The Puritan’s religion was a well-known religion of the fifteen and sixteenth century. One ritual of the Puritans was they killed any suspected witches. What makes Puritans religion any different from the beliefs of the KKK?
There isn’t much, they both prosecute and kill people who don’t comply with their way of life. To them, what they were doing was right. They felt their cause was very important, and it was to their ways of life. To the members of the Ku Klux Klan the new laws about no slavery went against their way of life. The South believed that blacks were inferior because they were brought up to think that. To this very day, some people believe that minorities are unequal to whites. A more common problem today is that people elieve that blacks and other minorities are receiving more chances than whites are.
They disagree strongly with affirmative action and special treatment for minorities. Today’s KKK’s purpose is to stop minorities from rising. These minorities are getting more chances than whites do. Since so many people believe this so strongly, just as they did in 1866 when it all began, the KKK still exists. It’s members still strive to keep the white race on the top of the hierarchy. People say that racism would decrease if the American government didn’t put as much emphasize on skin color and ethnicity.
In today’s world if blacks weren’t given any advantages and made to work as hard as a white would to make themselves prosperous then the Fifth Era of the KKK would diminish because they would have nothing to fight against. Through five eras of the KKK American racism has come a long way, from slavery to anti-affirmative action, the KKK has stood its ground and did what they were brought up to do. Though sometimes their acting may have been a bit extreme these whites were brought up to fight for “white pride” and as any member of a faith they fought for what they thought was right.
