The Ku Klux Klan During The Civil Rights Movement

The Ku Klux Klan, otherwise known as the KKK, is a racist organization that started in the 1860’s by white American men who set out to cleanse black people from society. “Founded in 1866, The Ku Klux Klan extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing equality for blacks” (“Ku Klux Klan” 1). The KKK continued to grow, and were particularly strong during the civil rights movement. The KKK used terror tactics to spread fear throughout black America, especially in the southern states, such as murder, lynching, arson, rape and bombings. One of the most notorious attacks of the KKK occurred in South Carolina in 1871. About 500 masked men attacked the Union County Jail, killing 8 black prisoners by lynching them. The masked men were never put on trial as the police were KKK members or refused to go against them. As a result of this, President Grant passed the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871, which made some of the Klan’s actions federal crimes.

The three were killed by a lynch mob orchestrated by the KKK (“The KKK kills . . . ” 1). When Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were on the road returning from a trip to Mississippi, Cecil Price, a deputy sheriff and a KKK member pulled them over for speeding. He kept them in jail while other KKK members were preparing for their murders. Once released, the three were chased down and cornered in the woods, where they were shot and then buried in their graves, that had been prepared in