Introduction
The Ku Klux Klan had interesting and different tactics for their recruitment, mobilization, and maintenance techniques. The major time for the Ku Klux Klan was in the 1920s where they had different tactics and strategies than they do today. They used to have a different focus as many people joined a group that used much violence and bigotry, where once media displayed these images and were detrimental they now help play a part in transforming their image as well as their recruitment and mobilization techniques expanding to a more generalized public. Since society is ever changing they have now been forced to change their tactics as openly hating on groups is not morally right and the media showing off the violence of the Ku Klux Klan in the past has lead to these horrible images and what much of the group relied on seen as unacceptable. They have tried to change their image from a racist group into a group that supports white superiority. Over time they have had to change their different strategies for recruiting and mobilizing due to changes in society. This paper will argue that their have been many changes in strategies since the 1920s for the Ku Klux Klan in it’s recruitment, mobilization, and maintenance tactics as it’s goals and ideals have been forced to change along with society.
Methods
This paper is a content analysis of secondary resources which will examine and explain information that others have studied and found about the topic.
Discussion and Analysis
The Ku Klux Klan originally started out as a white supremacist group in the southern united states. Many states such as California, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, A...
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...Ku Klux Klan: Organization & Principles, 153.
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On November 9, 1920, Byron de la Beckwith, an only child, was born to Byron De La Beckwith, Sr. and Susie Yerger in Sacramento, California. One of Beckwith’s early childhood memories was of the Ku Klux Klan marching through town, fully clad in their long white robes. During the twenties, there were over two million known members of the Klan and at least two were U.S. Senators. Needless to say, this left quite an impression on the young boy. Beckwith’s father died in 1926, his debts exceeding the value of his estate, leaving Susie and Byron Jr., whom they had nicknamed “Delay”, destitute. Susie left California, along with her son, for her native Greenwood, Mississippi. Beckwith’s mother passed away a few short years later, leaving Beckwith rearing to one of her cousins.
When Jane and a few others decided to leave the plantation patrollers spotted them and killed many of them. Jane says, “Them and the soldiers from the Secesh Army were the ones who made up the Ku Klux Klans later on” (Gaines 21). Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black people in the South during the Reconstructi...
A few years ago, my mother told me something thought provoking: we had once lived on the same block as the leader of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter. That had been in Charlotte, North Carolina, around 1994. The Ku Klux Klan, according to Blaine Varney in Lynching in the 1890’s, used to “…set out on nightly ‘terror rides’ to harass ‘uppity Negroes’….” They are far more infamous, however, for their “lynching”—nightly “terror rides” that included murder—of African Americans. Varney tells us lynching levels reached their pinnacle in 1892, with 161 recorded murders that year. In modern times, most Americans would agree that the Klan, along with any form of white supremacy, has no place in society—and pointing out its survival is a good way to imply that we, as a people, are still not perfect.
During WWI, the United States military armed African-American soldiers and sent them to fight on the front lines. Returning home at the end of the war, many white veterans resented the arming of these African-American soldiers. Conversely, the returning African-American soldiers greatly resented being sent home and back to a life as a second class citizen. Perhaps as an effort to seek some kind of revenge on the black soldiers, or possibly as an attempt to quell the slowly growing equality of African-Americans, the Klu Klux Klan experienced a drastic upswing in membership during the 1920s. Originally founded in 1865 the Klu Klux Klan experienced an upswing in membership during the 1920s after the war. The Klan opened its first base in Oregon after its revival in central California. Historians note that one reason why many influential white Americans may have supported the Klan was because the Klan was in favor of prohibition, the ...
Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865 to the Present by David Chalmers records the history of the Ku Klux Klan quite bluntly, all the way from its creation following the civil war, to the early 1960’s. The author starts the book quite strongly by discussing in detail many acts of violence and displays of hatred throughout the United States. He makes a point to show that the Klan rode robustly throughout all of the country, not just in the southern states. The first several chapters of the book focus on the Klan’s creation in 1865. He goes on to discuss the attitude of many Americans following the United State’s Civil War and how the war shaped a new nation. The bulk of the book is used to go through many of the states, and express the Klan’s political influence on both the local and state governments. The author starts with Texas and Oklahoma, and goes through the history of the Klan geographically, finishing with New Jersey and Washington. The author stresses that the KKK did not just commit acts of violence towards minorities, but also carried political power. He continues to discuss the impact of the Klan on Civil Rights movements in the 1960’s, and various other important political controversies between the 1920’s and 1970’s. Towards the middle of the book, David M. Chalmers focuses on portraying the feelings of governments and state legislatures, as well as normal citizens towards the Klan. To do this more effectively, the author uses excerpts and quotes from editorials and newspapers, along with several dozen pictures. The conclusion of the book was used mainly as an overview of all of the major incidents and deaths involving the Klan, and how their persistence has allowed them to still exist today despite a lack of resources and support.
reconstruction efforts and the civil rights era the Ku Klux Klan continues to be an immoral issue
America in the 1920s was a fast paced society, technology was just starting to blossom with the development of the Model-T car, many recognizing they could achieve the “American Dream”, and live a more successful life than their parents. One group of the popular groups, or communities that was revitalized during this era was the KKK, Ku Klux Klan; six college students created this group in 1865 in the Reconstruction years. The group began as a get together of southern sympathizers, the Klan later began to start commotion for the recently released African American ex slave population, and southern whites that they felt betrayed the Southern way of life. The Ku Klux Klan’s popularity declined by the end of the 1800’s, by many acts of government intervention, of the crimes committed by the group. In the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan, gathered many followers, and became a major part of the Southern way of life. The Northern industrial boom, and the rise of nativism in America sparked this 1920’s popularity of the Ku Klux Klan in the years following the Great War.
...manding, and we expect to win, a return of power into the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualized, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanized, average citizen of the old stock. The KKK has now come to speak for the great mass of Americans of the old pioneer stock" (Document D.) By 1923, Klan membership grew to five million. However, there was a sharp decline in members within a decade, showing how the new frameset of mind took over the old quickly. Accept the new, changing world around them. They represented the old, racist values long thought to have been delegated to the South.
A hate group can never be explained, only accepted and fought against. For an unjustified reason in 1915, The Ku Klux Klan was born and spread its hate across the United States. The Klan started small, but gained millions of members in just a few short years. The Klan preached its beliefs to all Americans and urged everyone to join for the good of their country. Thousands of innocent people were slain because of their backgrounds. The Ku Klux Klan was a horrible group that became a symbol of crime and lawlessness. The Klan's views were based on white supremacy and unfortunately carried into the minds of millions. Although the Klan lasted only a short while, they made a mark in history and were one of the largest organized groups in America at the time. It is very difficult to understand how a terrible group such as the Ku Klux Klan gained so much power. For this reason alone, I have chosen to question the leading theorists on the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's and what they believed caused the rise in Klan membership. It is very evident that the theorists believed there were three main causes in this significant rise in membership. The post-war feelings of many Americans, the natural aversion to anything foreign, and the propaganda spread by the Klan itself caused their success.
We study the beginning of America and the movement of settlers into a new land. Then we look at the formation of the United States through the Revolutionary War. But nothing has ever changed this country from the inside as much as the Ku Klux Klan invasion into the country. The Klan’s influence and ability to cause destruction within a society inspired leaders and dictators such as Adolf Hitler. During the height of the Klan’s power and influence, it was doing many things right. It had attracted mass amounts of people with a simple message and used them to complete a secret agenda. Had the KKK continued to find new ways of bringing people to their cause and working to achieve superiority first, they may have caused an unforeseen amount of damage to the United States. Mistakes that were made by the members grew attention to them and caused society to see them as they were. The Ku Klux Klan of the modern day is still alive. It is barely breathing but growing and changing everyday. The hate will live on through the young, but the good people in the world are the key to truly changing the world for the
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The first wave of the Ku Klux Klan was the founders. This band of brothers lasted from 1866 to 1874. Their goal was to restore the white supremacy by using violence and threats, including murder against blacks, which later spread to including other racial groups. They took on the look of all white with masks and robes to complete their look and hide their identities when “attacking,” usually at night. Some of the members in the Klan claimed to be the ghosts of the Confederate solders to frighten superstitious blacks. At the end of 1867, there were one hundred ninety-seven murders and five hundred forty-eight cases reported of assaults. In April 1868, 1,222 Republican votes were casted but by the ...
Hébert, Keith S. "EOA Links." Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. University of West Georgia, 22 Feb.
"Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America." Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America. http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/crime.html?LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=4&item=kkk (accessed April 28, 2014).
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...