The Ku Klux Klan is a terrorist organization that emerged in the United States, in the 19th century, and was marked by being the largest organization of its type in the history of that country. It is known for wearing macabre clothing and for promoting acts of violence against blacks, Jews, Catholics, etc. In the context in which it was created, this organization persecuted freed blacks and people who supported the granting of greater rights to blacks in the southern United States. It had four million members in the mid-1920s.
Summary
The Ku Klux Klan is a terrorist organization that emerged in the United States in the 19th century, right after the American Civil War. Created as a diversion by its organizers, the Klan became a group that promoted terror in the southern United States. Chased, beaten and murdered blacks freedmen and civil rights advocates for African Americans.
She became well known for hanging her victims and arson in homes that were inhabited by black people. Klan members used macabre clothing to scare away their victims and also to hide their identities. From the 1920s, they started to burn crosses, which amplified the macabre air of the organization.
The historic performance of the Ku Klux Klan is divided into three major phases. The current phase began in the mid-1950s in response to the strengthening of the black movement fighting for the civil rights of this community in the United States.
What is the Ku Klux Klan?
The Ku Klux Klan emerged in the United States, more precisely in the state of Tennessee, after the end of the War of Secession (also known as the American Civil War). This organization is also known as “KKK ” (referring to the initial letters of each word) or simply “Klan”.
The Klan emerged in a period of American history known as Reconstruction and started shortly after the end of the American Civil War. During this period, the Southern United States reacted to the measures advocated by Northern politicians to expand the civil and political rights of blacks in the United States.
Initially, the KKK emerged only as a secret organization that brought together citizens from the local community, but due to the context of events and the prejudice against blacks, the Klan became an extremely violent group. . Political scientists and historians characterize the Klan as a far-right organization . This classification is based on the analysis of its ideology, which currently includes ideals such as supremacism white , anti-Semitism , xenophobia etc.
Phases of the Ku Klux Klan
Klan ritual organized in Tennessee in the mid-1940s, featuring one of the organization's greatest symbols:the flaming cross.*
Over time, the Klan's history has been summarized in three phases. The first phase of action took place in the period between 1866 and 1869. Some scholars of the subject extend this phase until 1871, when the American government enacted a law to fight the Ku Klux Klan. In this phase, the small organization that emerged in Tennessee gained expression in the south of the United States and only lost strength with government repression.
The second phase The Klan started in 1915, when a movie called The Birth of a Nation (The Birth of a Nation, in Portuguese). This film presented a heroic image of the Klan and, therefore, is considered responsible for the rebirth of the organization. This Klan phase lasted until the mid-1940s and was the period of greatest strength for the Ku Klux Klan.
At this stage, the Klan had approximately four million members spread throughout the United States. Throughout the 1920s, Klan members began to make public appearances, gained political influence in certain places, and added xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism to their ideology.
The third phase The Klan was started in the mid-1950s and is considered a reaction to the movement that emerged in the African-American community that fought for civil rights for that community in the United States. This phase remains in effect to this day, despite a visible weakening of the organization.
Also see: Malcon X, one of the biggest names in black activism in the 1950s and 1960s
Founders, symbols and historical context
The foundation of the Ku Klux Klan officially took place in early 1866 (some say it may have taken place in late 1865 as well). The organization was created in the city of Pulaski , located in the state of Tennessee, by six former officers of the Confederate Army , therefore, it was created by soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.
At first, the Klan was just an organization made up of wealthy white men from the town of Pulaski. They would meet secretly in the forests of the region and perform secret rituals at dawn as a form of entertainment. Because of the historical context in which the southern United States was, the organization became radicalized.
The United States had just gone through the Civil War, an internal conflict in which Southerners (called Confederates) fought against Northerners (called Union). The war was caused by a conflict that divided American society at the time:the issue of the expansion of slave labor to the new territories conquered in the west.
This impasse that divided northerners and southerners widened when Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Shortly after this, the southern states declared secession (separation) from the United States and, in response to this, the northern states (from the Union) declared war on the Confederates in 1861.
The war ended in 1865, when Confederate troops surrendered to the Union and were reintegrated into the United States. At the end of the war, the South, in addition to being defeated, was economically devastated and would face profound transformations due to the abolition of slave labor, decreed by President Abraham Lincoln.
The period right after the end of the Civil War had such challenges promote the political integration of southerners with the Union, recover the economy of the southern United States and promote the economic integration of freed blacks. In this context, issues began to be debated that would grant the right to vote to blacks, in addition to providing this population with civil rights, which would legally make them equal to white Americans. The possibility of freed blacks having the right to own private property was also discussed. This debate terrified southern society, marked by racial prejudice against blacks.
The response from conservative southerners was a package of laws passed in many southern states, the so-called Black Codes . These laws restricted the liberties of blacks in many ways and, in labor matters, forced them to live in a kind of servitude scheme. This measure generated a response from the US Congress, which aimed to carry out a radical reconstruction to make the transformations in Southern society more rigid and increase the control of Northern politicians over the South of the United States. It was in this context of southerners' dissatisfaction with the changes taking place that the Ku Klux Klan was born.
The founders of the Klan were all from well-off families. Their names were :Frank McCord, John Kennedy, Richard Reed, Calvin Jones, John Lester and James Crowe. They founded the largest terrorist organization in the United States , which was responsible for thousands of murders.
The name of the organization created by the former officers was inspired by a word from the Greek language, kyklos, which means circle. This word was adapted for Ku Klux and added to the expression Klan in reference to clan (means clan, in English). The clothing used was a long white garment and a conical hood and was intended to frighten and protect the identity of Klan members. The burning cross and the cross on the Klan emblem were only made official as symbols of the organization in the second phase.
Ku Klux Klan today
White supremacists at a rally in Chicago in 1986. The cross on the shield is the symbol of the Ku Klux Klan emblem.**
The Ku Klux Klan still exists today, although its expression is much more weakened in relation to what the organization once was. The Klan is accompanied by institutions such as the Southern Poverty Law Center , an entity that monitors the activities of extremist organizations in American territory. According to this entity, the Klan currently has 72 cells across the United States – some with strictly local operations – and have 5,000 to 8,000 members .
The Klan is a very weakened organization today because of the US government's efforts to fight its growth, but also because of the emergence of other extremist white supremacist organizations, which attracted Klan members. . Currently, the Klan has in its ideology supremacist, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-liberal and anti-communist ideas, promoting hate speech against blacks, Muslims and LGBTs. The movement also has a strong relationship with neo-Nazi movements .
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*Image Credits:Everett Historical and Shutterstock
**Image credits:Mark Reinstein and Shutterstock
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