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Ku Klux Klan Influence

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The Ku Klux Klan, the most prominent group of white supremacists in the United States with over four million members, began losing a vast majority of their followers throughout the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The Ku Klux Klan’s losses of influence contributed to the tolerance of African Americans and other minorities in U.S. society.
The Ku Klux Klan, most prevalent in the south, with “Klan membership exceed[ing] 4 million people nationwide [in the 1920’s].” (Ku Klux Klan 86-87) was responsible for the lynching of at least 4,733 people according to Tuskegee University. Other methods the KKK used to terrorize their targets include sexual assault, burning of buildings, and murder. The Ku Klux Klan not only were racially intolerant but had anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic ideals. The Ku Klux Klan frequently attacked schools attended by …show more content…

As more members left, the Ku Klux Klan lost their influence and the United States saw more people assimilating African Americans and other ethnic groups. Before the fall of the Ku Klux Klan many members who were tried for their wrong doings were acquitted of their crimes; after the conviction of David C. Stephenson, however, many of his peers followed his path to prison after being fairly tried in court. Due to the scandal they had lost most of their supporters, especially in high branches of government. As a result of this “Louisiana, Michigan, and Oklahoma passed anti-mask laws intended to frustrate Klan activity. Most of these laws made it a misdemeanor to wear a mask that concealed the identity of the wearer, excluding masks worn for holiday costumes or other legitimate uses. South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia later passed similar laws.” (Ku Klux Klan 87-90). The Great Depression also proved hard to The Ku Klux Klan; after being found guilty for tax delinquency, the organization bankrupt and with very little power remaining was disbanded in

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177 Words | 1 Pages

The kkk was flourished in the 1920s because in the 1920s was the time or the renaissance took place and began being popular to move out all of the African Americans because they thought they were beginning to be intellectual. The kkk believed that America was only a home to white christians and that all non caucasian people did not belong in the USA so the kkk members were 100 percent white and christian. The kkk burned barns, houses, and schools that only black people were allowed to go to, and beat black people. The kkk used photos, posters, and videos as propaganda.

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592 Words | 3 Pages

David Chalmers is a University of Florida professor emeritus of history. He is best known for his seminal work on the Ku Klux Klan, Hooded Americanism, that was first published in 1968. In 2003 Chalmers wrote Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement. As the subtitle indicates, this more recent work of Chalmers’ is about how the activities of the civil rights era Klan prompted the federal government to pass laws that protected the civil rights of African-Americans. “Klan violence played an important role in the passage of the 1964 Public Accommodation Law and the 1965 Voting Rights Law.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

The KKK was a white nationalized group that included former veterans, which created the first branch of the group. The Klansmen founded in 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, is now known as the birthplace of the KKK. This group dedicated themselves to a campaign of violence to Republican leaders and voters. The KKK targeted many people based on their race or sexuality , including, Gays, Immigrants, African Americans, and Catholics(KKK history). Jim Crow laws,

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454 Words | 2 Pages

Going beyond the roots of the southern states, the KKK had a huge impact on the American society in the 1920’s. To fully understand the Ku Klux Klan you have to know how the KKK originated. The Ku Klux Klan founded in 1866 in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee by former confederate army veterans; the first leader of the KKK is also known as the “Grand Wizard” was Nathan Bedford Forrest who was a former slave trader. The KKK was created in order to enforce white superiority in the south. The Klan members primarily targeted people who were not white, Anglo- Saxon, or Protestant.

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496 Words | 2 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.

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407 Words | 2 Pages

The main opponent of the KKK was the National Association for the Advancement of colored people. The Ku Klux Klan had several methods of promoting their agenda. One of those ways was lynching, which is hanging the people they were

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658 Words | 3 Pages

During the economic depression of the 1930s the Klan remained active on a small scale. The Klans rebuth in the 1920’s was very successful and progressive, though the Klan ran into some hurdles along the way they still achieved a lot of their bigotry goals. Until 1920 the klan exercised little influence. Then one night 1,500 men in white robes and masks came together in a valley in the hills above Oakland, California. “A fiery cross

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2333 Words | 10 Pages

The Klan activity since their creation has proven to be one of violence with regards to the law or the rights of blacks, Jews, and

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269 Words | 2 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s was primarily based in the southern United States but had a presence throughout the country, it was known for the use of violence, intimidation, and terrorism to support and maintain white supremacy, and its goal was to prevent progress for African Americans, immigrants, and other minority groups, basically all non-withes. The Klan's resurgence in the 1920s was a reaction to two significant events of the era: the Great Migration and the rise of nativism. The Great Migration was a large movement of African Americans coming from the south United States to the north cities in search of better opportunities and equality, the large Migration of African Americans into predominant white cities created social tensions

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1257 Words | 6 Pages

(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.

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1007 Words | 5 Pages

They tore up parties and barbecues They Klan would put letters in the newspaper inviting people to come to the meetings and join the Klan. The KKK is ran by the ‘Grand Cyclops’ The people became scared of the ‘hooded Lictors’ standing outside, because when they were asked who they were they would respond with “A spirit from the other world.

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645 Words | 3 Pages

Former slaves who “tried to vote or participate in politics [were] likely to be singled out for “punishment”” by a terrorist organization named as the Ku Klux Klan, until the Congress passed the Force Bill in 1871 that gave the federal authorities the right to arrest and pursue active members of the KKK. But, the bill appeared to be only figurative as not really much of the Klan’s members were prosecuted (Hazen

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

Most white supremacy groups were only local town lynching mobs, but another national white supremacy group that was most feared was the “Klu-Kux-Klan” or also know as the “KKK”. According to the Salem Press (2011) Gorrell explained this white supremacy group was formed in 1866 and was a “group of white supremacists, disaffected by the outcome of the Civil War, grew into an organization of institutionalized race hatred.” (pg.3) After the KKK was formed every African American living in the south knew who the klan was and new to stay out of their

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1691 Words | 7 Pages

As the Ku Klux Klan’s membership grew, organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which fought to end racial discrimination and segregation, grew as well. With these two growing groups pushing for opposite ideals, tensions continued to increase. The NAACP pushed for reform and rights for African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan combated their progress with lynching and

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1379 Words | 6 Pages

Laws such as segregation and Jim Crow helped to enforce the idea of white supremacy in America, along with the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan into mainstream culture. A large number of Americans supported the KKK and their philosophies, seeing how there were about 4 million members in the Ku Klux Klan. Because the KKK were public supporters of the white supremacy beliefs, people would often see their writing in newspapers or public spaces. One example of the KKK’s public propaganda is seen in the Park County Herald magazine from Wyoming, the KKK stating, “The Tenants of the Christian Religion. White supremacy…Closer relationship of true Americans”.

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