As is well known, racism in the USA is anything but history, even 150 years after the end of the Civil War, 50 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King and twelve years after the election of the first black US President. The constant new cases of white police violence against blacks and the Black Lives Matter movement that is forming against it make this all too painfully clear. As a white European, I often find it difficult to understand how this can still be such a big problem in 2020. It helps to take a closer look at America's not-so-distant past. Or more specifically, taking a look at the most notorious racist organization in the states, the Ku Klux Klan. Because you don't want to believe it. He also played a role just a few decades ago and his legacy is still present today.
The Southern States:A Bad Loser
The history of the Ku Klux Klan (or KKK for short) goes back a long way, but it actually does not have a continuous existence. Rather, there have been very different Ku Klux Klans over the past two centuries. But you can still clearly trace when this crazy club first saw the light of day. It was in the American South right after the end of the Civil War. The Southern Confederacy famously lost that war in 1865, and the founding of the KKK was a direct response—just nine months after the war ended. Some former officers got together in Tennessee to forge a secret society. What exactly they wanted to achieve with it was probably not yet clear to them. However, it wasn't long before the first members began riding out in disguise, instilling fear in the local black population.
The reasons for this were certainly complex. On the one hand, the members of the KKK probably believed in the superstitions of the blacks, who could be frightened with spooky costumes, on the other hand, the rides were also a reminder of white vigilantes who had "patrolled" the streets since the days of slavery. At the end of the day, I guess they were just bored young men with nothing better to do. Just hopeless a**holes. Initially, the Ku Klux Klan was a rather small and regional affair without a unified goal. But it grew quickly and by 1867 a national leadership was established. Not surprisingly, a former Southern general was elected the first "Grand Wizard". Unfortunately, it is not known what magic tricks he was able to do. Apparently he was great at making his humanity go away.
Within the next few years, the KKK also gained some political clout, although for a long time it was overrated. In certain regions he was able to exert some pressure and also organized some massacres - with complete impunity, of course. On the whole, however, the Ku Klux Klan was not an influential power and by the early 1807s it was already disbanding. It had less to do with people realizing what a silly thing they were doing with their blind racism, the costumes and the "Grand Wizards", "Dragons" and god knows what. No:They had simply achieved their goals. After almost ten years of pro-Northern governments in the South, white men are now back in power. So things could go on in the south as before. Slavery was a thing of the past. To this end, the democratic politicians of the southern states introduced rigid racial segregation over the next few decades. The system went down in history as "Jim Crow-Laws".
What a racist film can do
The first phase of the Ku Klux Klan was therefore quite short-lived. After its founding in 1865, it was active for just over five years -- even less in many states. In general, the KKK back then had very little in common with what we associate with the Klan today. The members were already wearing costumes at the time; but the classic white robe with the pointed hat did not yet exist. And the burning crosses were still unknown to the Ku Klux Klan of the 19th century. That would take another 50 years and - you can hardly believe it - had to do with a film.
The Birth of a Nation was released in American cinemas in 1915. It is still considered a revolutionary film today, but because of its cinematographic advances, not because of the content. At a time when US audiences were only used to short comedy films of a few minutes, the drama, which ran for almost three hours, was a real box office hit. The film was based on a book called The Klansmen and covered the period before, during and after the American Civil War. Especially towards the end of the film, the "knights" of the Ku Klux Klan take on a heroic role as they ride in and protect humanity from the criminal blacks. Unfortunately, such open racism was also completely normal in art at the time. Apparently, Birth of a Nation was the first film to be officially played in the White House. That, too, is both frightening and significant.
In any case, as a response to the blockbuster, there was now a real clan hype and shortly after the release of "Birth of a Nation" the KKK was re-founded near Atlanta, now with all the features that we still know today and those directly from the Film came from:white robes, burning crosses... the whole theatre. The next ten years became the heyday of the clan, which now opposed not only equality for the black population, but generally everything that ran counter to its narrowly defined ideal of the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and even drinking alcohol (this was also the time of Prohibition, after all) were all enemies of the new clan, and the first lynchings were not long in coming.
When the Ku Klux Klan ruled America
Despite the horrendous crimes, the Ku Klux Klan reached truly gigantic size in the early 1920s. If the numbers are to be believed, more than 4 million Americans must have been members of this racist club. As "keepers of order" they moved through more and more places, cities and states and exercised their own justice on everything that did not fit their narrow world view. The tentacles of the KKK reached far into local police units, politicians' offices and even members of the US Senate. It was not uncommon for the participants in a lynching to later sit on the jury themselves, should there be any indictment at all. So you can imagine how often these racist murders were punished.
With the size came the criticism towards the end of the 1920s. Violence by the KKK became more and more public, and even among its white quasi-supporters it was no longer looked upon favorably. Of course, racism and the murders of black people were still not the problem. It was probably just the rowdy behavior of the clan members that annoyed some. On top of that, financial scandals from ranks of the clan became known again and again. With the onset of the global economic crisis, the relegation of the Ku Klux Klan was then sealed. On top of that, in the 1930s, local groups broke away from the Klan and joined forces with American Nazis, which didn't exactly improve the image.
But the old white phantom in the dumb hood is slowly dying, alas. By the 1960s the "Knights" were back on the scene, albeit as local groups with no national umbrella organization. Everywhere in the US South (but not only there) they opposed the civil rights movement, committed renewed murders and attempted murders - including of Martin Luther King - and even bombed. These became so common that Birmingham, Alabama was sometimes just called "Bombingham". And the Ku Klux Klan still exists today – but it is only one facet of the “White Supremicist” movement. Last but not least, the methods of the Ku Klux Klan are still used in the Republican Party! When Republican politicians make it difficult for black citizens to exercise their right to vote with absurd rules, it's a disturbing constant in earlier times. It's too bad that today's racist criminals can no longer be recognized by their white robes...