ipl-logo

Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

1349 Words6 Pages

Imagine living in a country where freedom is preached night and day but being driven to constantly dread daily life and tolerate lesser advantages than those around you just because you are part of a minority group. Unfortunately, this was the typical life for anyone who was Black, Jewish, Catholic, or supported communism or socialism, from the 1860s to even today ("Effects of the Ku Klux"). In part, this was because of the discrimination that those groups of Americans were faced with, but in whole, was due to the majority who held the prejudice and took violent actions based on their beliefs. In turn, these majorities formed a destructive group, known as the Ku Klux Klan, that assaults and threatens anyone who does not hold the same beliefs …show more content…

Barring Black Americans from gaining the right to vote was a leading goal for the KKK (Salem Press). The Klan assaulted Black citizens and activists with various methods, which included but were not limited to, whippings, beatings, kidnappings, killings, and more specifically, lynchings (open hangings). Following its rebirth in 1915, after being disbanded in 1871, the KKK began to focus more antagonism on a wider range of minority groups, including Jews, Catholics, Blacks, Immigrants, Socialists, and Communists ("Effects of the Ku Klux"). In fact, after the Klan was revived, it was responsible for more than 500 lynchings of African Americans (Salem Press). As minority groups became more plentiful and widespread, the Klan gained targets. Consequently, they widened their range of assaults and scare tactics to terrorize those groups. Regrettably, as the Klan sought out and alienated these groups, even people who were not Klan members formed stereotypes and adopted prejudiced attitudes towards the minorities, in response to the animosity and angst that clouded their …show more content…

Finally, even with its clearly visible destructive and violent habits, the Ku Klux Klan had heavy influence and involvement in politics in the 1900s and even somewhat still today. After its revival, the Klan began influencing elections and helping to get sympathetic officials elected to various public offices, in both Northern and Southern states. Along with its reputation for being an extremely racist group, the KKK also emanated detestation for other groups, both religious and political (West's Encyclopedia). For example, Robert Shelton, a Klan Grand Dragon, helped elect two Alabama governors (Salem Press). In due time, the influence on politics by the Ku Klux Klan spiraled from the growing support for the group (West's Encyclopedia). This way, the ideas and thoughts of the Ku Klux Klan finagled their way into American government. For that reason, the need for the Civil Rights Movement intensified. Many of the ideas adopted from the Klan were not only racist, but they were discriminatory in many other ways too. The influence of the KKK's thoughts and policies only added to the snowballing prejudice in America. The American government in the mid 1900s had strong influence from the Klan. As a result, along with several Klan members and sympathizers in various offices, American law enforcement showed bias and prejudice in favor of the Klan in a myriad of cases. In one case, the FBI withheld crucial information that would have led to conviction of criminals and prevention of

Show More
Related
1324 Words | 6 Pages

The beginning of the Reconstructionist era was the perfect time for the KKK to attack the black community and Republicans politically, eventually leading to social structure and economy becoming targets as well. The South may have lost the Civil War and the slaves may have been emancipated, but the Klan wasn’t going to let history forget the Confederate movement. But their main goal extended further than the Confederate movement’s, which was to preserve the Southern way of life and the institution of slavery. Since they had lost all this and more, the Klan’s main objective was to maintain white

Read More
548 Words | 3 Pages

However, by 1925, it was discovered that the KKK was a fraud and very corrupted. This caused the Klan’s influence and membership to decline expeditiously. Notwithstanding, the events that occurred in the 1920’s still had a positive effect on the lives of Americans because social reform during this time was the only reason why the KKK shrunk in size in the first place. Many people were able to become

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

Founded in 1866, the (KKK) extended into virtually each southern state by 1870 and have become a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed toward establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged associate underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Congress passed legislation designed to curb KKK, the organization saw its primary goal “the reestablishment of white supremacy” fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South within the decennary. Once an amount of decline, white Protestant nativist teams revived the KKK within the early twentieth century, burning crosses and staging

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
799 Words | 4 Pages

When Confederate leaders rose back to power, this encouraged white southerners to become more open about their white supremacy, which created the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan mainly targeted blacks and the republicans who supported them. According to class notes on the KKK, they raided Freedman schools, invaded towns, tortured and murdered black families. African-Americans have tried to take a stand against this, but with involvement by the authorities and government make it challenging. “We find their deeds are perpetrated only upon colored men and white republicans...

Read More
934 Words | 4 Pages

The KKK began to grow and become a large problem for innocent people. In 1833 the United States passed a bill called the Force Bill (Carson 1). This made the klan disappear for awhile but did not stop them. Still to this day people are struggling with the Ku Klux

Read More
407 Words | 2 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan or KKK has created centuries of fear. They originated in Pulaski, Tennessee. The famous hate group was out to re establish white supremacy. The KKK has influenced local governments and people in power. It has also had an impact on American people and specifically black minorities.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

They terrorized Blacks in the South and murdered many by lynching. They also used fear and intimidation to suppress African American suffrage. It was not until the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871 that the government made an attempt at cracking down on the terrorists and defending the rights of African Americans to vote. However, this act became almost obsolete after President Grant’s term.

Read More
1407 Words | 6 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan is a very important piece of our country's history. Characterized by not only animosity towards African-Americans, but also violence towards Jewish people, and equality supporters. It is one of the most brutal organizations to ever start in the United States. The Ku Klux Klan started and fell, but then reappeared in a reorganized fashion. They tried multiple times to reemerge as a more powerful and collected group but ultimately dissolved.

Read More
1751 Words | 8 Pages

Since the Ku Klux Klan’s beginning, it has thrived off the racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and anti-semitic qualities of americans, all in the fight for white supremacy. In the Klan’s beginning, it was a group against the reconstruction of Black lives after slavery, but after that, they began to those who were against the KKK or different from the KKK in anyway. KKK members were and still are willing to do anything from lynchings to marches to bombings in the name of their cause. The KKK was and is allowed to infect U.S. government in a large scale, so it has given them an edge unlike many other hate groups in the U.S. Throughout the Ku Klux Klan’s history, they have influenced American life through violence and fear by terrorizing anyone who

Read More
1187 Words | 5 Pages

And since the Klan didn't believe that African Americans should have the same rights as white people do, they figured they would have to put a stop to it, and later assassinated him. On Election Day, the Klan came and stood by all of the voters and terrorized them to change their political views so they would be the same as the Klan's beliefs, Democratic beliefs. Throughout the years, the Klan became more and more violent. In eighteen seventy-one (1871), the Ku Klux Klan Act was passed by congress and brought the federal law enforcement against them. The federal law enforcement had finally slowed, and almost got rid of, the Klan's violent actions in the nineteenth (19) century.

Read More
957 Words | 4 Pages

More people were in support of republicans and the organization which led to more violence and too much powers in which the government held. You could literally post the requirements of being a Klansmen on a pole like you were in search for a lost dog. Popular movies such as “Rebirth of a Nation”, gave America the idea that blacks were dangerous and we needed more KKK membership to protect our nation. Promotions of the KKK was also done through songs such as "The Old Rugged Cross" which was a popular hymn written in 1912 by song-leader George Bennard. He was also an evangelist, “which is someone who seeks to convert others to the christian faith.”

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
722 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
568 Words | 3 Pages

As tempting as it is to admire the aura of Achilles as a great war hero, his character flaws, as outlined throughout The Iliad, prove his actions to be no more heroic than they are merciless acts of rage. Driven primarily by personal glory, Achilles will do anything for his name to be remembered through time. As great as he is on the battlefield, he ultimately fails as a hero on the grounds of poor morality, dishonourable behaviour, and a severe insensitivity towards his love for Patroclus. Achilles lead a life of malicious and violent behaviour, revealing little to no moral conduct. The death of his lover Patroclus unleashed a rage that provoked perhaps the most cruel of all his mean spirited endeavours, the mutilation of Hectors body and

Read More

More about Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document