The Klu Klux Klan

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The Ku Klux Klan is an American terrorist group that has plagued our country’s history with their radical movements since their rise towards the end of the Civil War. While the Ku Klux Klan is made up of a large number of people from all over the country, every member of the Klan is united in their common belief of white supremacy. Throughout the years of its existence, the organization as a whole has maintained its dedication to the use of extreme violence along with any other means they deem necessary in order to spread their commonly held belief. While the Klan has always maintained their same beliefs on hate and violence, they have fluctuated between periods of moderate activity to periods of extreme intensity and violence. One period of severe violence took place right after the Klan’s revival in 1915, which is the period this paper will focus on. During this time, the Klan had many targets for their hate, including African Americans and their supporters, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals, and the many different groups of immigrants that colored the United States. It was during this time of extreme hate that the Ku Klux Klan worked to implement their goals of spreading white supremacy, anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism as well as restricting immigrants and developing control in the government.
Hatred towards African Americans has characterized every period of the Ku Klux Klan’s history, especially after the 1915 revival of the Klan. The KKK was obsessed with the idea of maintaining “racial purity” during this time, and that concept further reinforced their ideals of white supremacy. But the Klan did not only want to maintain their supremacy: they also wanted to keep African Americans out of what they considered “their” jobs. A...

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...ly against those whom it considered its enemies” (The African American Registry.) With the power they held in the government, the KKK’s control could be sensed throughout the country.
The Ku Klux Klan acted in ways they believed necessary in order to maintain the lifestyle they were accustomed to in the rapidly changing United States. Their influence in the government as well as their violent practices were their way of conserving the “traditional morality of native, white, Protestant Americans who exhibited character, morality, Christian values, and ‘pure Americanism’” (Clash of Cultures). While their actions were all coping mechanisms in this wildly uncertain time, they caused much damage and harm to the minority groups of the country. Their unyielding violence and radicalism has left them to be remembered as a leading terrorist group in our American history.

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