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Ku Klux Klan Research Paper

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Imagine living in a world where the color of your skin, your religion or where you came from would make you a target for violence and murder. This is what the African Americans, immigrants and anyone who was not considered a Christian endured in the Southern states and nationwide throughout much of America’s history. Racism fueled by anger after the American Civil War was a dangerous combination and that’s when the Ku Klux Klan or KKK was formed. The Klan is a hate group who targeted not only African Americans but Jews, Catholics, and liberals. The KKK is the most infamous and oldest of American hate groups. The American Civil War was fought from 1861-1865, it ended the institution of slavery. The Reconstruction period followed …show more content…

Simmons reestablished the organization. This was definitely the most popular era for the KKK. It was more of a formal fraternal organization with national and state structure. It included the middle class white Americans and their families. The members varied from small business owners to ministers to doctors and lawyers. Violence wasn’t the attraction to most members. Most didn’t even consider themselves mean-spirited. The second Klan not only had to be a white male, but Christian, religion became the centerpiece. The target was immigrants coming mostly from southern and eastern Europe, mostly Catholic’s. It was spread nationwide. The membership was $10 which was used to pay the Kleagels or recruiters to recruit more members. This movement opposed Catholic and Jews. By 1925, it had somewhere between 4 to 5 million members and support from many more.They used xenophobia as a way to attract new members. The second Klan also wore white costumes and used the same terminology as the first Klan. The emblem was They started burning crosses as an intimidation tactic. A series of sex scandals, internal battles of power, extreme violence and newspaper exposes quickly reduced its influence. It was around 1944 that it dwindled down yet

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