The Klan of the 1930s

The Klan of the 1930’s In 1865, the bloodiest war in American history drew itself to a much-needed end. However, the gory war had severe repercussions. One of which is the Ku Klux Klan, or as it is more commonly known, the ‘KKK’, or even ‘the Klan’. The Klan was not originally meant to perform filthy crimes against humanity, but any group started by individuals with such dark beliefs is bound to morph into something unintentionally. Something horrible. Something that would burn fear into the minds of every Catholic, every Jew, every African American, and anyone else who seemed unfit.

That omniscient ‘something’ is the Ku Klux Klan, an organization equally as treacherous as the Nazi’s to anyone who truly know of them. The Ku Klux Klan is beyond doubt one of most terrifying things in all of American history, and still present day. From it’s unassuming beginnings, to it’s cruelty to their fellow man, to their ????. After the civil war, many ex-confederate soldiers had nothing to do- their bones ached with boredom. That very boredom is what ushered the beginning of the Klan in May of 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee.

Boredom is what started this horrible, seemingly cult-like, group. The group was given its rise by approximately six ex-confederate soldiers as merely a racist, social gathering. Something to lift their sunken spirits. But, gradually, talk began to turn violent. At first, just little practical jokes, then as fate would have it, they evolved into a violent hate group and performed murderous and treacherous hate crimes that society seemed to turn it’s back on and God seemed to flinch at. How could men do such horrible things?

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Had we no souls? Klan violence worked to suppress black voting. Over 2,000 people were killed, wounded and otherwise. Klan members adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and added to the drama of their night rides, their chosen time for attacks. Many of them operated in small towns and rural areas where people otherwise knew each other's faces, and sometimes still recognized the attackers. During the mobbing the Klan would riot by yelling out racist things. They would also hurt people who spoke out against them.

Sometimes they would disrupt a certain black organization and rob people. During the hangings that they did, the KKK would find some black people, whether it meant kidnapping them or taking people just walking by and would take them to a hidden place where they were hung. When shootings occurred, the Klan were often the ones who started it, most likely by going and shooting at rallies for black people. The Klan also just started shooting at cars with black people going by or at a black family’s houses.

Although the Klan did these horrible things, they were very rarely arrested for doing them. Although some police agreed with the Ku Klux Klan, others tried there hardest to find and arrest them. It was hard to find the Klan, because they never stayed in one place for long due to the fear of capture. 3 years ago Report Abuse Additional Details my grand pa was a confederate general, i have nothing against it... 3 years ago the question is what is the third thing i can use for my thesis? 3 years ago

Explain how the KKK are supposedly the "ghosts of the Confederate soldiers" (after they lost the Civil War) and how they hanged Blacks in retribution, bombed Black churches, burned crosses on lawns and killed people during their infamous night rides. The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Tennessee, which had about 550,000 total members. Key members in the second klan were Nathan Bedford Forest, a Civil War veteran.

Forrest allegedly responded, "That's a good thing; that's a damn good thing. We can use that to keep the ******* in their place. " That demonstrates that the KKK's main goal was reactionary, to keep Blacks down after they lost rights to slavery during the Civil War. In 1915, the second Klan was founded. At the turn of the century, the new KKK focused on more groups, such as the Jewish and Catholics. The created the movies called "The Birth of a Nation" that portrayed the KKK as heroes. Also, they were rather infamous in their case with Leo Frank.

Leo Frank, a Jewish man whose controversial death sentence for the rape and murder of a young White girl named Mary Phagan had been commuted, was lynched near Atlanta against a backdrop of media frenzy. Also note the second KKK had about 6,000,000 members total and was VERY successful in terms of numbers and political power. The third klan formed in 1946 and opposed the later Civil Rights Movement. However, the third klan lost most political influence because racism was getting less accepted as times changed. Also note, around this time, they began committing questionable assassinations and bombings of Black churches.

They, in 1963, assassinated NAACP organiser Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was convicted. Of course, the racism resulted in the Blacks forming their own groups for protection. Also put that many KKK groups, from the third re-birth, exist today, in which, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 187 active KKK groups supposedly exist in the United States. The state with the most KKK groups, is Texas, containing 26 total.

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