THE+EVENT+FROM+THE+PAST

=RACIAL VIOLENCE= =Ku Klux Klan (KKK)=

During the period of Reconstruction in the United States after the Civil War, 1863-1877, many organizations were formed in an attempt to preserve white supremacy in the South. These organizations wanted to stop the integration of African Americans into the social, economic, and political system. One of these major organizations was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

The Ku Klux Klan was created on December 24, 1865, by veterans of the Confederate Army. They used methods of terrorism and violence in order to intimidate and oppress the freed slaves. For the first few years, the Klan spent their time breaking up black prayer meetings, and stealing firearms out of black homes. Members of the KKK were "opposed to Negro equality both social and political," and they believed in "maintaining the constitutional rights of the South."

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave trader, stated tis in response to the KKK:

="That's a good thing, that's a damn good thing. We can use that to keep the niggers in their place."=

The Ku Klax Klan believed that they needed to control the social ans political status of freed slaves, so, in an attempt to accomplish that, they tried to take away their rights to an education, their voting rights, and their rights to bear arms. In order to do this they targeted schoolteachers, and those who operated the Freedmen's Bureau, which was an agency set up to help former slaves in adjusting to their newly found freedom.

The Klan was for the most part a military force acting on the interests of the Democratic party, who had their eye set on restoring white supremacy. By 1868, the Ku Klux Klan had become a nationwide organization of 550,000 men.

="Each man wore a long white robe and his face was covered by a loose mask with scarlet stripes."=

Some of the reasons the Ku Klux Klan became so well known and widespread was because it was an "invisible group, it had no membership rosters, no dues, no newspapers, no spokesmen, no local officers, no state, or national officials. Its popularity came from its reputation."



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