Suppression of the kkk

Suppressing the Ku Klux Klan

"I am a member of the white race. My people built this civilization, built this country . We have the intelligence and the initiative for the task. Our blood is different and special. Our heritage has been taken from us; inferior races have taken power through the cunning...Ultimately, we or our enemy will be destroyed" (Ezekiel xvii). This is the view of people associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan is an organization of white supremacy. In American history, the Ku Klux Klan has stirred up both chaos and violence in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The nineteenth century Klan was formed almost right after the Civil War (Ku17). It was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866 mainly as a social club for confederate veterans (Ku 17). The Klan used the secrecy to help them toward "resistance to radical restoration" (Ku 17).

English: William Joseph Simmons, founder of the se...

Ku Klux Klan members and a burning cross, Denver, ...

Cartoon from 1868 ("'Tis but a change of banners -...

The KKK used intimidation and hateful acts towards black men who were free. The First Grand Wizard of the Klan was Nathan Bedford Forrest. The Klan dressed in sheets to scare blacks who were superstitious and so they could not be identified. They did not only beat and murder blacks but also the white men who were black supporters. The nineteenth century Klan achieved its greatest strength between 1868 and 1870, but in the 1870s, Congress passed laws and penalties toward the Klan. The Klan had somewhat died out before "white supremacy throughout the south-had been largely achieved" (Ku 18). The twentieth century Klan was established in 1915 by William J. Simmons (Ku 18 ). It reached its high in the 1920s with Klansmen exceeding four million (Ku18). They took many views of the earlier Klan. The burning of the cross became somewhat of a trademark. Their hateful views...