ipl-logo

Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

938 Words4 Pages

Kimberly Shirley
Mr. Andrew Turner
History 162
24 November 2014
The Rise of The Ku Klux Klan

In the winter between 1865-1866, the Ku Klux Klan was started in Pulaski, Tennessee. Also known as the KKK or the “invisible empire of the south”, the Ku Klux Klan originally started as a secret fraternity club by six confederate veterans. As the organization quickly started to grow, the Ku Klux Klan spread over the entire south. The Klan included every southern state along with mayors, sheriffs, judges and criminals. The name Ku Klux Klan derived from the Greek “kuklos” meaning circle and the English word “clan.” The costume or disguise was a white robe that had a pointed hood that the Klansman wore with masks on their face. The members of the Klan …show more content…

When the Klan started to grow rapidly, it became a terrorist organization. The Klan was known for it’s brutal killings towards blacks. The Ku Klux Klan beat, whipped, and murdered thousands and intimidated tens of thousands of others to keep them from voting during the elections. Blacks often fought back but they were outnumbered and many times they were out gunned. The main targets of Klan’s wrath were the political and social leaders of the black community, but blacks could be murdered for almost any reason. Men, women, children and the elderly were all victims of the violent crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan. A one hundred and three year old woman was beaten and whipped along with a paralyzed man just because they were African Americans. In Georgia, a man by the name of Abraham Colby who was an organizer and leader in the black community was whipped for hours in front of his wife and children. His young daughter begged the Klansman, “Don’t take my daddy away.” In Mississippi, a man by the name of Jack Dupree had his throat slit and he was disemboweled in front of his wife, who had just given birth to …show more content…

African American landowners were driven off their properties and were murdered if they refused to leave. They were also whipped for refusing to work for whites, for having intimate relations with whites, for arguing with whites, and for having jobs that whites wanted. They could even be punished for reading a newspaper, having a book in their homes or simply just for being black. Many beatings and murders were never reported due to the fear of reprisal from the Klan. In a letter written by the Ku Klux Klan, a threat was made towards a man by the name of Davie Jeems, a black Republican whom was a newly elected sheriff in Lincoln County, Georgia. The letter read “To Jeems, Davie. you. must. be, a good boy. and. Quit. hunting on Sunday and shooting your gun in the night. you keep people from sleeping. I live in a big rock above the Ford of the Creek. I went from Lincoln County County during the War I was Killed at Manassus in 1861. I am here now as a Locust in the day Time and. at night I am a Ku Klux sent here to look after you and all the rest of the radicals and make you know your place. I have got my eye on you every day, I am at the Ford of the creek every evening From Sundown till dark I want to meet you there next Saturday tell platt Madison we have, a Box. For him and you. We nail all, radicals up in Boxes and send them away to KKK - there is. 200 000 ded men

Show More
Related
927 Words | 4 Pages

In the South, there was a group called the Ku Klux Klan, or the KKK. They would run rampant killing whoever they pleased, and no one would stop them. The KKK would kill political figures who supported Reconstruction or freedman. In a testimony to the Senate, Abram Colby states, “On the 29th of October 1869, [the Klansmen] broke my door open , took me out of my bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead” (Colby 513). The KKK targeted African Americans and tortured them to death.

Read More
1324 Words | 6 Pages

Additionally, Klansmen were arrested and prosecuted in court for their crimes against blacks and Republicans. As a result, state branches of the Klan began to disband and the Klan as a whole died down. The Ku Klux Klan was built upon the racism that unfortunately was ingrained into the culture in the United States at the time it originated, especially in the South. The fact that it was founded by Confederate Army veterans who had just suffered a big loss and the South as a whole had been humiliated just added fuel to the fire.

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

The Klan has inspired others to create their own groups to enforce white superiority; these groups would have parade floats, sponsored public events, free speakers and partake in cross burnings such as the KKK does. The Klan eventually expanded their violence towards small farmers, planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians, and many more. The KKK became so powerful in the regions where most of the Klan was, that members of the local police departments belonged to the KKK or they did not take any actions against the Ku Klux Klan. This problem only got worse; the people who were convicted to have been in the KKK could not find anyone to testify against them in court, so they never really got sentenced for any

Read More
2005 Words | 9 Pages

The KKK used terrorism, including physical harm and murder, against groups and people that would not agree with the Klan. All three movements have been called the "purification" of American society by the Klan. This felt to the Klan like they had conquered the world, had supreme power, and they had did it. They have erased blacks from our country politically and socially in their

Read More
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.

Read More
1271 Words | 6 Pages

History would be made by a woman named Sarah Breedlove who would soon be known as Madame CJ Walker. Madame CJ Walker was born Sarah Breedlove or On December 23, 1867. Sarah Breedlove was born to Minerva and Owen Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana and was the youngest girl out of six children. She had one sister and four brothers. Between the age of six and seven Sarah became an orphan because her parents had passed away from yellow fever.

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

The KKK was a group of white southerners who did not want the policies establishing political and economic equality for blacks to be successful. The KKK engaged in underground campaigns of intimidation and violence directed at Republican leaders, both white and black. One of the most notorious areas of the Klan was South Carolina. In January 1871, five hundred masked men attacked a Union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners. Acts like these would go “unnoticed” by officials and other influential citizens in the area because of the fear of how the Klan would retaliate and also by the lack of care for what the Klan was doing.

Read More
1539 Words | 7 Pages

“‘Lynchings were violent and public acts of torture that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials’” (Berman). Almost four thousand black people were killed between 1877 and 1950

Read More
418 Words | 2 Pages

The Klan used violence and bribery to force African Americans to be respectful or to make Republicans drop out of politics. Many people joined the Klan; revered leaders, farmers, and everybody in between. The Ku Klux Klan was originally a social club for former Confederate soldiers. It later evolved into a terrorist group responsible for thousands of deaths. They weakened the South’s

Read More
863 Words | 4 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, is one of the oldest and most visible and prominent white-supremacist racial groups in the United States. Members of this organization have been known to devote themselves to opposing movements such as the civil rights movements, racial equality movements, and religious groups such as blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Catholics, and homosexuals (Celep 1). When the group was created in the late 1800’s it functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists (Bryant 1). At the start of the group, it extended into almost every southern state, where its members waged war on political campaigns using violence on black and white political leaders (History.com 1). The KKK is a hate group that, throughout

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan: A challenging time in American history “The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacist group that was created in 1866. Throughout its infamous history, factions of the secret fraternal group have used acts of terrorism. Including bombing, lynching, rape, arson, and murder—to oppose the granting of civil rights to Blacks. Deriving its membership from native born white Protestant U.S. citizens, the KKK has also been anti Semitic and anti Catholic http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ku_Klux_klan.aspx

Read More
896 Words | 4 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 and expanded to almost every southern state by 1870. The Klan was founded as a social club by a group in Pulaski, Tennessee that mainly consisted of confederate veterans. The first two words of its name are based off the Greek word ‘’Kyklos’’ meaning circle. (history.com staff 2009, Ku Klux Klan, URL: history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan) The KKK was formed to fight against the Republican Party.

Read More
875 Words | 4 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan murdered and slaughtered any races different from its own. Anyone against the group, they had killed. The Ku Klux Klan soon became a household name in the United States and their reign of terror was soon going to be unstoppable. The Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist group formed in Pulaski, Tennessee during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency. Their goal was to maintain segregation in the South and convert the Republican leaders back to white supremacy.

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan is born The Ku Klux Klan was founded May 1866 in Pulaski Tennessee by a group of Confederate veterans. Originally formed as a social group, the Ku Klux Klan chose their name from the Greek word “klukos” which means circle.2 They resented the African Americans newly gained rights, particularly their right to vote and it wasn’t long before member of the Ku Klux Klan adopted the ways of their predecessors and began their reign of terror on the African American community. The Ku Klux Klan quickly became a highly organized group and had installed their first leader, Nathan Bedford Forest.

Read More
1601 Words | 7 Pages

From 1868 through the early 1870s the Ku Klux Klan functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists. The Klan’s goals included the political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy in response to newly gained civil and political rights by Southern blacks after the Civil War. At first it was formed as a social club for Confederate soldiers after the war, but it soon progressed to be one of the biggest terror groups in American history. Most Klan action was designed to intimidate black voters and white

Read More

More about Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document