KKK:The Beginning
...with Jews and the usual blacks. One death occurred in 1870 in Greene County, Alabama. Alexander Boyd was murdered in his bed because he was a prosecuting attorney fighting against the Klan for a group of blacks. The KKK was punished, but the punishment didn’t fit the crime and often never did. Because of their resources, they were always able to pay the fine, which was always the punishment. Although many groups fell apart in the late 1800s after the US government removed troops from the South, violence increased reflecting the White’s hate for various racial, ethnic and cultural groups. African-Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Jews, and Asians were targets of violence from these Klansmen who were showing off their white dominance. Sometimes hanging a successful black farmer or immigrant merchant meant new economic opportunities for local whites. By 1871, the Klan was so powerful and out of control, President Grant enacted the Ku Klux Act, which was designed to make it easier to prosecute Klansmen. Since by this time the Klan had achieved what they had set out to do, regain power for white southerners and stop black participation in the government, Nathan Forest disbanded the Klan. Also a large number of blacks from Kentucky gathered and petitioned for Congress to stop the KKK from their horrible destruction of life and property. Congress didn’t really do anything. The Federal troops they sent in weren’t enough to end the killings and Congress didn’t bother to send more men after the first batch was killed. This was the end of the first era of the Ku Klux Klan. There were two other major eras of the Klan and a minor one that has began in the last fifteen year. The Klan in each of its eras is started by an increase in power or numbers of minority groups to the nation. With so many Klansmen working for the government, the KKK was set financially. Many parades and events were paid for by their fellow members working in high places. The rest of the members as well contributed money to pay to keep the Klan together. Meanwhile most of its leaders had done extremely well financially from the dues and the sale of the Klan merchandise. Social, political, and economical factors, were reasons why the Ku Klux Klan stayed alive and kept killing and terrorizing all the people it considered its enemies. If it weren’t for the increase of immigration, or the Klan members getting involved in politics, the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan would have died a lot sooner than it did. Membership in the Klan also started decreasing. Followers of this Klan spread the word of the Klan around. The Klan was to be pro-American, which to them meant anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic. The second era of the Ku Klux Klan began in 1915 when William J. Simmons reformed the Klan under the same basic ideals as the previous era. Williams took inspiration from the book The Ku Klux Klan written by Thomas Dixon in 1905 also from the film Birth of a Nation. The idea about white supremacy was specifically stated, to include not only discrimination against blacks, but Jews because the Klan felt that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. Also the Klan opposed socialism as well as communism because these forms of government organized the minorities and they could then have the opportunity to over throw the white population. In addition to all these groups the Klan would not allow Catholics to join the KKK for fears of a night rider confessing to his priest a crime he committed while affiliated with the KKK. In general the Klan was opposed to any foreign person or group. William’s group grew slowly until 1920, when William struck a deal with two publicists, Edward Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler, who were in charge of promoting the KKK. By 1921, the Klan’s enrollment went from a few thousand to nearly one hundred thousand and by 1925 there were approximately four million Klansmen. This is when the Klan was most powerful, the Klan helped elect a US senator from Texas, four state governors as well as many other more local elections (“Ku Klux”). Many towns were secretly run by the Klan and they elected many officials. Town justices couldn't convict accused members for anything, because they were above the law. Court cases were biased, police officers allowed violence to take place, and many stations became corrupt. Race riots broke out in twenty different cities. One example in Chicago was especially frightening. At a local beach, a black man swam into an area marked Whites Only. The whites in the area felt he was stepping out of his bounds and stoned him to death. As nearby blacks saw this happening, they notified a police officer that did nothing. The African Americans then attacked the police officer. Twenty to forty people were dead at the end of the riot. Many officers of the law took it upon themselves to “discipline” certain areas of society. People were arrested based on the color of their skin, their nationality, or their religion. They believed that by arresting these people they could “keep them in their place” and set an example for the rest of that community. The Klan fed on frustrations and fears, including a fear of the many immigrants who were entering the country, fear of communists, fear of the Blacks who were moving north, fear of Jews and Catholics who were rising in the economic and social order, and of fear of labor unions demanding better wages and conditions for members. In addition to political power the Klan was developing a reputation as being brutal in the way they took care of its business with people they felt were not behaving correctly. Everything from whippings to lynching were becoming more and more prevalent and as more and more people joined the more and more corrupt the Klan became. They started burning farms, stores, churches, and meeting halls. They harassed and assaulted schoolteachers, and even attacked black children going to school (Morales, 29). With all this going against the Klan, Congress began to investigate the KKK. The Klan’s ideal was to be moral Christians but the more the Klan lashed out to those who were seen as immoral the more immoral the Klan seemed to become. In 1923, when the KKK rose to power in southern Illinois, their beliefs agreed with the townspeople. They were mostly Protestant, and hated immigrants. The Klan’s mission was to scare off those who were not protestant, and downgrading all other religions. Patriotism was a key factor of the Klan after World War I, and an increase of hate for European immigrants kicked in. The Klan also developed a slogan stating that they were “100 percent American (Chalmers, 96)” Since the Klan had similar religious and cultural background they were able to succeed in southern Illinois. The Klan was real popular in Illinois around the 1920s. Without challenges or anti-Klan movements, the KKK controlled and influenced the south because of their beliefs. These beliefs of hatred against immigrants and heavy patriotism, led the Klan to power. While all of this was going the Klan was actually on the decline. In 1924 there was more than forty thousand Klansmen participate in a march in Washington D.C., but when Williams tried to repeat the march in 1926 turn out was less than half of what it was only two years prior. As the 1920’s came to an end anti-Klan sentiment was rising, and with Great depression starting Klan membership decreased and there were no more than a couple hundred thousand members nation wide. The third era started with the supreme courts ruling on Brown vs. Board of Education. From this ruling all laws about separate but equal treatment for blacks were reversed. This changed the KKK focus slightly from being focused more on moral issues, but instead directed more toward racial issues on where blacks should be allow in society. This directed the Klan’s attention to Blacks in public schools and fighting integration. During the fifties and sixties and the early seventies Klan numbers rose at which point the Klan numbers fell off again due to the acceptance of integration. One of the most controversial cases in this era of the Klan was the murders of three civil rights workers who came to the south to help register black voters (“The Law”, 4). In addition to this specific case there were numerous cases of the Klan burning black churches to demonstrate disapproval of the black’s newfound rights. Lynching and burning crosses became a usual tactic in attempt to scare black people from participating in society. Also during this time there was a social conflict between blacks and whites at major universities of the south. When a black man by the name of James Meredith was admitted to the University of Mississippi, controversy started over him attending the school. The National Guard was called in to try to calm down these issues, but Meredith was eventually killed. The most significant crime was the assassination of Medgar Evers in the Mississippi, a popular black leader in 13 June 1963 by members named Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman (Chalmers, 95). They were later arrested and put in jail by a Deputy Sheriff in Mississippi. Another incident included the visit of a Klansman named Earl Mayfield to the United States Senate in 1922 when they influenced three Presidential Candidates to get them headquarters in Georgia, Alabama, California and Oregon. The Ku Klux Klan also took control over Colorado, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana and Ohio between the years of 1921 to 1924. The Ku Klux Klan has also set up shop in Australia, North South Wales and Queensland. Although they continue to burn crosses in front of Black's homes and churches, their reasoning behind it sounds harmless. The KKK says, “The fiery cross is used as a Klan symbol representing the ideals of Christian Civilization. In no way does it represents the desecration of the cross, for it actually represents the 'lighting of the cross', that is, the truth and the light of our sacred doctrine: the blazing spirit of Western Christian Civilization (Morales, v.6). Now, the KKK holds peaceful protests in front of civil rights organization buildings, the White House, and so on. Because of their peaceful and more educated sounding approach, the Klan gets more posi...