I did this report in high school and got an A-. My thoughts since then have been we should let the racist mouthpieces say their peace so that way there are less surprises.
Besides the rallies the Klan still has, do Americans pay much or any attention to the KKK today? Are they still into clandestine activities?
The Ku Klux Klan may be one of the most exciting things that occurred in the South during Reconstruction. I am going to explain how the Klan was put together, what their goals were, and how they achieved those goals.. I am also going to give a brief summary of how the Klan prospered in the twentieth century.
"Not a single solitary sound reason has yet been advanced for putting the Ku Klux Klan out of business. If the Klan is against the Negro, so are all of the States south of the Mason-Dixon line. If the Klan wears grotesque uniforms, so do the Knights of Pythias and the Mystic Shriners. If the klan holds its meetings in the dead of the night so do the Elks. If the Klan conducts its business in secret, so do all college Greek letter fraternities and the Department of State. If the Klan lynches a Moor for raping someone's daughter, so would you or I."1
In the early days of the Klan, which was organized after the Civil War, it was vigilante group which operated mostly at night and almost always in secret. The Klan wanted the Negro returned to slavery and the leaders before the War returned to their original power. To reach these goals, intimidation was not sufficient. Solitary cabins were raided, towns were invaded and the Klan pulled these acts off with few casualties compared to the thousands of Negroes and Republicans that were slaughtered.
After the soberer leaders tried unsuccessfully to coordinate the Klan with a hierarchical, and centralized organization, the Klan was officially disbanded in 1869 by the Imperial Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, but some local dens continued to exist as the Ku Klux Klan. The Invisible Empire of the Klan was finally brought to an end in 1871, mostly because of martial law.
The Birth of a Nation, by Thomas Dixon and D. W. Griffith rekindled the memory of the Klan which had terminated more than thirty years before this epic. Col. William J. Simmons, an Alabama fraternalist, turned the rebirth of the Klan into a reality by instituting fraternalism into the Klan's structure and boasting the protection of traditional American values. "The changing world of the 1920's, which saw postwar restlessness and new waves of immigration combined with the Prohibition-accented erosion of both the small town and fundamentalist morality, brought the Klan millions of recruits."2
Klan Day at the Texas State Fair in Dallas saw the appearance of Wizard Hiram Evans, a local dentist, and 75,000 of his Klansmen.
The rest of the history of the Klan in the twentieth century is how it almost lost all of its power at the beginning of the great Depression and how it was revived at the end of World War II, when Dr. Samuel Green, an Atlantan obstetrician, took the Imperial Wizardship, the Klan had another great leader. Again, the Klan tapered off in the late fifties, but again it was revived in the sixties by the campaign of Negro lunch-counter demonstrations and protest marches.
The Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction
The Klan originated as a purely harmless club in Pulaski, Tennessee in December of 1865 where six young men commenced in horseplay and went to secret meetings in ghostly disguises all after dark. The name, Ku Klux Klan, was taken from the Greek word for circle, Kuklos. After the idea of the Klan grew for a year and a half, a meeting took place between representatives of the Klan at the Maxwell House in Nashville. "Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, lately of the armies of the Confederacy was elected Grand Wizard and his Empire divided into realms, dominions, provinces, and dens, headed by Grand Dragons, Titans, Giants and Cyclopes and composed of Ghouls."3
"The Imperial legislature of the Ku Klux Klan was called the "Klonvokation." Meeting biennially or at the request of the Imperial Wizard, this body was composed of the Imperial Wizard, the Emperor, the Genii and the presiding officer of each subdivision's invisible Empire, Advising the Imperial Wizard. Additionally, the Klonvokation was the 'Kloncilium'. Assembling annually or during an emergency is a special session called by the Imperial Wizard, the Klonocilium, consisted of by the Genii and any other Klansmen asked to serve. Primarily a judicial body, it could also act legislatively whenever the Klonvokation was not in session."4
The Klan did not feel guilty of the violence it committed for the "needs of the times" justified its actions. "It threatened, exiled, flogged, mutilated, shot, stabbed and hanged. It disposed or belonged to military or political organizations such as the Loyal and Union Leagues. It drove out Northern school teachers and Yankee storekeepers and politicians and 'took care of Negroes' who gained land and prospered or made inflammatory speeches or talked about equal rights."5 They practiced this kind of violence in nine states in the Southeast area.
One typical riot of the Klan was in 1871 in Meridian, Mississippi where a trial was being held for a group of Negro leaders, who had made inflammatory speeches and disturbed the peace. Numerous freedmen showed up at the court to support these Negro leaders. An unknown person fired a shot which started a confrontation and afterwards one white was injured, but several Negroes were killed and injured.
You can not completely condemn the saga of the Klan during the events of Reconstruction. The southern whites were very much afraid that the newly freed Negroes, who had been kept docile by the conditions of slavery, would then organize militarily and politically. They were afraid the Negro, who outnumbered the southern whites in some places, would become insurrectionary, lecherous, violent and even dominant, I believe. "The very meeting of the Loyal Leagues and their ritualistic secrets, the discharge of firearms, and the 'going about at night' betokened intended mayhem to the alarmed whites."6 The Klan stopped all that. The aggressiveness was eliminated from the freedmen and law and order was established for the Negro.
There were a few differences in information between different sources that I used. One said the Klan originated from six young men looking for fun and the other said it was founded as a social group for war veterans. If the Ku Klux Klan had never existed, the Negro race may have attained equality with the whites decades ago. They stunted their growth towards equality by threatening violence to any Negro who voted, by eliminating Negroes who prospered and many other ways. But, you never can tell because the Klan, even operating in total secrecy, brought the idea of discrimination out in the open by subtly influencing us. With that phenomenon, more people would judge it and hopefully condemn it.
"The Ku Klux Klan," a report, finished 12-15-76
Teach: Content - Covers a lot info... could go into more depth. Organization could be tightened. Analysis: so far so good, but could cover info more specifically.
Teach: form - fine
Grade:
A- A-
B+ B+
1 H.L. Mencken and George Nathan, Smart Set (1923)
2 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., 1965), pp. 2-3
3 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, (N.Y.m "65), pp. 9-10
4 Arnold Rice, The KKK in American Politics (N.J., '62) p.3
5 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., '65) p.10
6 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., '65) p. 17
Bibliography
Chalmers, David M., Hooded Americanism, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1965
Rice, Arnold S., The Ku Klux Klan In American Politics, 1962, New Jersey: Public Affairs Press
Donald, David, "Ku Klux Klan," The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 11, 1973, Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corp.
Besides the rallies the Klan still has, do Americans pay much or any attention to the KKK today? Are they still into clandestine activities?
The Ku Klux Klan may be one of the most exciting things that occurred in the South during Reconstruction. I am going to explain how the Klan was put together, what their goals were, and how they achieved those goals.. I am also going to give a brief summary of how the Klan prospered in the twentieth century.
"Not a single solitary sound reason has yet been advanced for putting the Ku Klux Klan out of business. If the Klan is against the Negro, so are all of the States south of the Mason-Dixon line. If the Klan wears grotesque uniforms, so do the Knights of Pythias and the Mystic Shriners. If the klan holds its meetings in the dead of the night so do the Elks. If the Klan conducts its business in secret, so do all college Greek letter fraternities and the Department of State. If the Klan lynches a Moor for raping someone's daughter, so would you or I."1
In the early days of the Klan, which was organized after the Civil War, it was vigilante group which operated mostly at night and almost always in secret. The Klan wanted the Negro returned to slavery and the leaders before the War returned to their original power. To reach these goals, intimidation was not sufficient. Solitary cabins were raided, towns were invaded and the Klan pulled these acts off with few casualties compared to the thousands of Negroes and Republicans that were slaughtered.
After the soberer leaders tried unsuccessfully to coordinate the Klan with a hierarchical, and centralized organization, the Klan was officially disbanded in 1869 by the Imperial Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, but some local dens continued to exist as the Ku Klux Klan. The Invisible Empire of the Klan was finally brought to an end in 1871, mostly because of martial law.
The Birth of a Nation, by Thomas Dixon and D. W. Griffith rekindled the memory of the Klan which had terminated more than thirty years before this epic. Col. William J. Simmons, an Alabama fraternalist, turned the rebirth of the Klan into a reality by instituting fraternalism into the Klan's structure and boasting the protection of traditional American values. "The changing world of the 1920's, which saw postwar restlessness and new waves of immigration combined with the Prohibition-accented erosion of both the small town and fundamentalist morality, brought the Klan millions of recruits."2
Klan Day at the Texas State Fair in Dallas saw the appearance of Wizard Hiram Evans, a local dentist, and 75,000 of his Klansmen.
The rest of the history of the Klan in the twentieth century is how it almost lost all of its power at the beginning of the great Depression and how it was revived at the end of World War II, when Dr. Samuel Green, an Atlantan obstetrician, took the Imperial Wizardship, the Klan had another great leader. Again, the Klan tapered off in the late fifties, but again it was revived in the sixties by the campaign of Negro lunch-counter demonstrations and protest marches.
The Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction
The Klan originated as a purely harmless club in Pulaski, Tennessee in December of 1865 where six young men commenced in horseplay and went to secret meetings in ghostly disguises all after dark. The name, Ku Klux Klan, was taken from the Greek word for circle, Kuklos. After the idea of the Klan grew for a year and a half, a meeting took place between representatives of the Klan at the Maxwell House in Nashville. "Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, lately of the armies of the Confederacy was elected Grand Wizard and his Empire divided into realms, dominions, provinces, and dens, headed by Grand Dragons, Titans, Giants and Cyclopes and composed of Ghouls."3
"The Imperial legislature of the Ku Klux Klan was called the "Klonvokation." Meeting biennially or at the request of the Imperial Wizard, this body was composed of the Imperial Wizard, the Emperor, the Genii and the presiding officer of each subdivision's invisible Empire, Advising the Imperial Wizard. Additionally, the Klonvokation was the 'Kloncilium'. Assembling annually or during an emergency is a special session called by the Imperial Wizard, the Klonocilium, consisted of by the Genii and any other Klansmen asked to serve. Primarily a judicial body, it could also act legislatively whenever the Klonvokation was not in session."4
The Klan did not feel guilty of the violence it committed for the "needs of the times" justified its actions. "It threatened, exiled, flogged, mutilated, shot, stabbed and hanged. It disposed or belonged to military or political organizations such as the Loyal and Union Leagues. It drove out Northern school teachers and Yankee storekeepers and politicians and 'took care of Negroes' who gained land and prospered or made inflammatory speeches or talked about equal rights."5 They practiced this kind of violence in nine states in the Southeast area.
One typical riot of the Klan was in 1871 in Meridian, Mississippi where a trial was being held for a group of Negro leaders, who had made inflammatory speeches and disturbed the peace. Numerous freedmen showed up at the court to support these Negro leaders. An unknown person fired a shot which started a confrontation and afterwards one white was injured, but several Negroes were killed and injured.
You can not completely condemn the saga of the Klan during the events of Reconstruction. The southern whites were very much afraid that the newly freed Negroes, who had been kept docile by the conditions of slavery, would then organize militarily and politically. They were afraid the Negro, who outnumbered the southern whites in some places, would become insurrectionary, lecherous, violent and even dominant, I believe. "The very meeting of the Loyal Leagues and their ritualistic secrets, the discharge of firearms, and the 'going about at night' betokened intended mayhem to the alarmed whites."6 The Klan stopped all that. The aggressiveness was eliminated from the freedmen and law and order was established for the Negro.
There were a few differences in information between different sources that I used. One said the Klan originated from six young men looking for fun and the other said it was founded as a social group for war veterans. If the Ku Klux Klan had never existed, the Negro race may have attained equality with the whites decades ago. They stunted their growth towards equality by threatening violence to any Negro who voted, by eliminating Negroes who prospered and many other ways. But, you never can tell because the Klan, even operating in total secrecy, brought the idea of discrimination out in the open by subtly influencing us. With that phenomenon, more people would judge it and hopefully condemn it.
"The Ku Klux Klan," a report, finished 12-15-76
Teach: Content - Covers a lot info... could go into more depth. Organization could be tightened. Analysis: so far so good, but could cover info more specifically.
Teach: form - fine
Grade:
A- A-
B+ B+
1 H.L. Mencken and George Nathan, Smart Set (1923)
2 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., 1965), pp. 2-3
3 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, (N.Y.m "65), pp. 9-10
4 Arnold Rice, The KKK in American Politics (N.J., '62) p.3
5 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., '65) p.10
6 David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism (N.Y., '65) p. 17
Bibliography
Chalmers, David M., Hooded Americanism, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1965
Rice, Arnold S., The Ku Klux Klan In American Politics, 1962, New Jersey: Public Affairs Press
Donald, David, "Ku Klux Klan," The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 11, 1973, Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corp.
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