KKK

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Dear President Sullivan, You had previously asked me, John B. Kennedy, just who the Ku Klux Klan was, and what we were trying to do. I had originally thought against this letter, thinking you would try to shut our group down. After some consideration though, I realized our Klan is too smart for your government, so I might as well let you know just who we are, and what we stand for. The original organizers of the Ku Klux Klan, Calvin Jones, Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, James Crowe and myself, John Kennedy, got together in Pulaski, Tennessee (population of 6,500) on "founder's day" to think of a name for our newly formed social group. I suggested the name kuklos, because it held the meaning of a band or circle. Crowe suggested we split kuklos into two words, and change the final letter to x. Lester, who reminded us that we were all of Scottish descent, suggested that clan be added.

(The letter c was changed to k, for consistancy reasons only.) The final name was Ku Klux Klan.

The birth of the Ku Klux Klan organization, which we started in 1865, was founded on far different motives then what we later became known for. Our original purpose was very similar to that of other college groups. We were a group of young men, fond of one another's company, who were looking to seal our friendship exclusively. Our club was also formed out of pure boredom. Most of the six of us had recently been fighting for the Confederates in the American Civil War, and had returned to this small country town where jobs and money were hard to find. The objectives of the Klan soon changed because we were not under the same controls that...