Summary Of They Called Ourselves The Kkki

Joe Moore

THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE KKK

INTRODUCTION

“They Called Themselves the KKK,” was written by Susan Cambell Bartoletti in 2010. In the story, she writes about the birth of the American Terrorist Group, the KKK. In the story, she introduces the reader to people who lived after the Civil War, the time known as the Reconstruction. She gathered the information or the book from a variety of sources: interviews with Klu Klux Klansmen and their victims, congressional testimony, interviews, and historical journals, diaries, and newspapers. Bartoletti did not censor the interviews or newspaper articles and photographs; therefore, some people find the book to be racially offensive.

SUMMARY/ANALYSIS

When the Civil War was over, white Southerners

Numerous Confederate soldiers joined the KKK; therefore, they soon dressed as the Ghost of Confederate Soldiers. At first, they would patrol the roads and crash parties. They eventually realized that the freed black people were terrified of them and used this to control their behavior. They started seeing themselves as a law enforcers rather than law breakers. Their law enforcement was traveling at night and randomly beating people who didn't like the klan. Blacks were beaten, as well as White Republicans who pushed for equality.

In the book, Bartoletti writes about educating the blacks and a spiritual aspect of the culture. She tells personal stories of members from the Klan and Black Freedman. She uses their testimonies in order to describe the horror at being threatened at night and not feeling safe at their own homes. She describes the whippings, hanging, and other ways they were killed by the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1868, Ulysses S. grant was elected President of the United States. Later, he passed the Ku Klux Klan Act which enabled the government to go into areas in which people didn't feel safe or wasn't living free or equal. Grant had Federal Judges and U.S. Marshalls gather up some of

They had court and the Freedman came up with their claims. The Klan was broke up and wasn't allowed to call themselves the KKK for a few years. When Grant left office, the KKK was supposedly punished and disbanded. When Hayes came into office, he promised not to mess with the South. He withdrew the federal troops from the South.

In the last chapter entitled, "It Tuck a Long Time," Bartoletti discusses how the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's would be viewed as the "Second Civil War." She states that nearly one hundred years after the Ku Klux Klan was formed, the government passed the Civil Rights Act and Federal Hate Crimes Law. She points out that even today, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist groups do still exist.

At the end Bartoletti gives the history as it continues through time. She includes a little of the Civil Rights Movement and a Timeline that shows the history from the beginning of Civil Rights to the Present.

REFLECTION OF HISTORICAL