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The Ku Klux Klan Was The Main Goal Of The Reconstruction Era

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The American Civil War is a war in which the Union and the Confederate States of America were pitted against each other because of one specific heated topic: slavery. There were a few other topics which caused this war to break out, but those topics were either far inferior to the topic of slavery or topics that were related to slavery in some way. In the United States, slaves were always of African descent. The Union, or the northern United States, ended up winning the war, therefore abolishing slavery everywhere. The Reconstruction Era then began, leaving African Americans to deal with many different issues which are still prevalent in society.
It is known that the main goal of the Reconstruction was to rebuild the relationship between …show more content…

The Ku Klux Klan has emerged in three different instances, but the Reconstruction Era is the time in which the original Ku Klux Klan first emerged. They wanted to maintain white supremacy throughout the country and to make sure African Americans did not overthrow what white people had created. By using strange disguises, having midnight rides, and by using a unique language and mysterious commands, they played upon the fears of African Americans. Usually, they succeeded in achieving their aims through only terror. However, sometimes they resorted to physical punishment to get what they desired. The Ku Klux Klan put fear into the hearts of African Americans, making them too afraid to do anything because of the possible repercussions that could occur. Moreover, this group made African Americans afraid to even vote, giving ex-Confederates political control over most of the southern states. Giving these people control during this time can be considered unconstitutional because it counteracts the Fourteenth Amendment, so Congress passed legislation to combat the Klan in 1870 and 1871. This legislation is known as one of the force bills. Hundreds of members were indicted and imprisoned, making this force bill one of the main reasons the Klan saw a large decline. Continuing to this very day, the Ku Klux Klan still makes various appearances, usually being in a small quantity of numbers. The last major recurrence of the Ku Klux Klan happened in the 1960’s, the most notable division being the White Knights led by Robert Shelton, which shows that the Ku Klux Klan will never fully die out. There will always be supporters of it, no matter what era the world is

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