The time period from 1865 to 1880 in America was known as the Reconstruction. This was the time after the civil war, when the government was trying to fix what they had been fighting for during the war. They were able to accomplish many great things, such as creating amendments to the constitution that gave the black peoples greater rights and freedoms. Though these may have sounded great to the people of the north, the people of the southern states did not take these lightly. Though the north had one the war, the south still held fast to its culture and beliefs. So as a form of retaliation they passed the black codes, while at the same time the Ku Klux Klan grew in strength and number. The rate of lynchings also skyrocketed. All of these were …show more content…
Founded as a social group in Tennessee in 1866, the KKK consisted of former confederates and radicals. Their main goals were to fight against Republican politic control and freed blacks. They were able to accomplish this through acts of social and political terrorism. Their methods ranged from riding around on horseback in outlandish costumes to intimidate black voters and white republicans, to the murder of anyone who got in their way. During 1868, the Freedman’s Bureau reported 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill across Georgia from January 1 to November 15 of that year. Another popular method to cause intimidation and fear among blacks was lynching. These lynchings would range from a few townsmen hanging a black man at night, to a grand spectacle with hundreds if not thousands of onlookers. The victims of these lynchings were almost always innocent people who were wrongly accused of some heinous crime, often rape or murder. They would then be tortured in ways one can only imagine; chopping off the fingers, toes and genitalia of the victim and selling them as souvenirs to the onlookers. They would then either be shot or burned, then hung up on a tree for everyone to see. The number of lynchings only grew stronger as the years went on, continuing into the 20th century. Little federal action was ever taken against lynchings. The reason for the rise of the KKK and lynchings is because the hearts and minds of the people could not be changed. They all felt that blacks belonged under the thumb of white people. That backs should stay as close to slavery as they possibly