The Klu Klux Klan in America

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The Klu Klux Klan was actually started in 1865 by six men in Pulaski, Tennessee and their white, hooded guise was meant to mock ghosts. The name came from the Greek word kuklos which means circle and the Scottish word clan. During its beginnings the Klan was thought to be a passing guerilla organization which would last only as long as “Northern carpetbaggers, illiterate Negros, and Southern renegades ruled the Southern states” (Secret Societies). By 1868 there were five-hundred and fifty thousand member of the Klan, also known as Palefaces, the White Brotherhood, the White League, Knights of the White Camellia. Forrest realized he was losing control of the Klan in 1869 and ordered disbandment, an order that was never followed. At one point the Senate proclaimed that in nine counties of South Carolina, over a six month period, the Klan had lynched thirty-five men, whipped two hundred and sixty-two people, heckled innumerable people, and irritated, shot, disfigured, raped, or burned one hundred and three other people (Secret Society).

The Klu Klux Klan has long been a problem in the United States of America. Since the defeat of Confederate troops in the Civil War, many Southerners have seen the government as corrupt and imposing “intolerable oppression,” also many veterans had nothing to do during the economic depression (MacKenzie, 1967). This caused intense feelings of hatred towards the people some Sothern’s saw as their enemies, such as; black people. In the 1870’s President Grant enacted the “Ku-Klux Acts” which enraged the Klan all the more. The Federal government was now in charge of Southern elections and Klan members could be jailed without their right to habeas corpus (Secret Societies).

The size of the modern Klu Kl...

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Holthouse, D., & Potok, M. (2008). The year in hate; active U.S. hate groups rise to 888 in 2007. Retrieved from Southern Poverty Law Center website: http://www.splcenter.org/intelreport/article.jspaid=886&printable=1

MacKenzie, N. (1967). Secret societies. London: Aldus House.

Dahmers murder trial [Radio series episode]. (1998). In National Public Radio. Mississippi: NPR. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/iw- search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_act ion=doc&p_docid=0F58EBF849044293&p_docnum=8&p_queryname =8

Structure. (2010). Retrieved from http://kkk.bz/main/?page_id=43

Tucker, T. (2004). Notre dame vs. the klan; how the fighting irish defeated the ku klux klan. Chicago: Loyola Press.

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