Ku Klux Klan In The 1920s

A small group of white men formed the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866, and two years later, the Ku Klux Klan murdered George W. Ashburn, a Radical Republican United States Senate candidate and judge, for being an anti-slavery Republican, beginning their reign of terror. The Ku Klux Klan was designed to intimidate African Americans, specifically African American men who were trying to vote. They threatened violence and inflicted fear on African Americans (Bryant). The Ku Klux Klan advocated for white supremacy and gained support through racism and violence from other white supremacists. In the early 1920s, targeted immigrants, as well as Catholics, Jews, socialists, agrarian radicals, and those involved in organized labor or urban machine politics. (Mcveigh 1464). The Ku Klux Klan induced terror on those they targeted after they were deemed un-American, for not being christian, and migrating from outside of the United States."The son of an officer in the original Klan, he had always dreamed of reviving the order, which he envisioned as the ultimate fraternal lodge” (Mcveigh 1466). After the fall of the first Ku Klux Klan in 1870, the Ku Klux Klan began its resurgence in 1915, then rapidly gained support until they reached their peak in 1920. In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan saw a resurgence due to increased racism and xenophobia, which resulted in their increased racial violence, as well as political and economic influence in the United States.

The Ku Klux Klan targeted African Americans, immigrants and those with opposing beliefs because they were considered un-American

His body was hung on a tree in a residential area to threaten the African American community. This was one of many tactics that the Ku Klux Klan used to threaten, and try to overpower African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and civil rights