ku klux klan definition us history

ku klux klan definition us history

The Evolution and Impact of the Ku Klux Klan in U.S. History

1. Introduction to the Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan has gone through several phases of evolution. While the Klan of the 1860s and 1870s was more centered on the South after the Civil War and did not overtly promote white supremacy as much, the Klan of the 1910s and 1920s openly stated that it was the “100% Americanist” organization. The Klan of the 1910s and 1920s was more focused on deterring newly arrived immigrants as well as Catholics, Jews, foreign workers, and militants from expressing their newly found messages. The post-World War Two Klan has perhaps been the most openly fanatical about white supremacy and the subjugation of non-whites, especially Blacks. The Klan is a secretive and violent organization that operates freely in the United States. Despite its divisive and negative image, the Klan has had a lasting impact on U.S. history.

Since the end of the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, has used violence to intimidate opponents of white supremacy and maintain white political and economic supremacy in the South. The original Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 at the end of the Civil War and the end of slave emancipation. Today, the Klan continues to exist in the United States, albeit in smaller numbers and in different forms. The decline of the traditional American Klan has paralleled increased demands for basic rights and the full enfranchisement of non-whites. When war, slavery, or threats to white rights and power have existed or grown, the Klan has become more active and visible in opposition and in response. Such opposition has led to changes in federal and state anti-Klan laws and has effectively reduced the power of the Klan through widespread public denunciation and condemnation.

2. Origins and Historical Context

The original Ku Klux Klan emerged after the Civil War, but the era of its social and political influence began maybe a decade after the end of the period of Reconstruction and ran through to the end of the 1920s. Later revivals of the Ku Klux Klan were insignificant. Some beliefs regarding the organization are based more on myth than recorded fact. The accepted understanding of the first Klan’s origin is derived from accounts written after the fact. The origin of the name of the Klan was subject to speculation. One story has it that the noise generated was described as similar to that of muskets or rifles, and hence it was called “the Ku Klux Klan.” Another explanation derives the name, “Ku Klux,” from the Greek word “kuklos,” meaning “circle” or “ring.” At its maximum, the Klan probably counted several hundred thousand white men among its members, constituting a formidable shock to local and state administrations, Southern congressmen, and those advocating the rights of African-Americans. The first Klan was organized in 1865 and deteriorated between 1868-1870, which convinced the bigots of the requirement of a combination offensive and defensive, for which an organization such as the Klan was particularly well suited since it was disseminated throughout the South.

3. Key Events and Movements

That New Year’s Eve in 1912, the eve of Grand Master Simmons’ death and the end of the Klan’s Fourth Era, brought forth another movement which might otherwise have been an exact early version of the KKK. The striking differences in the proposals of Booker T. Washington and William Monroe Trotter about the expansion plans and participation of African-American troops, in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, were finally brought to the President’s attention. Fearing more African Americans in uniform would have encouraged riotous, un-Christian acts than needed tamed, Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to the White House. Prominent black men in the state of Georgia were conscripted by Simmons into an organization which was analogous to the KKK in structure and even more intensely secret.

The abated attention of the Klan may have been due to the very different issues facing the nation. For most of the 1920s, both the South as well as the entire country truly had the attention of unprecedented mob violence. As if the embers of World War I had traveled to the U.S. in some insidious fashion, the racial terror of lynch law, primarily confined south of the Mason-Dixon Line, burst forth in the form of the urban race riots which flared up from the middle of the second decade of this century. Some reasonings for the race riots and the catalyst for the KKK’s new, intensified surge in membership were the same. The White Riot in Washington, DC in 1919, was based on the same fears of diminished influence, chiefly under the influence of Southern black men’s votes. The Chicago riot of 1919 was more openly and emphasizes the intensity of job fears.

4. Impact on Society and Politics

Added to that was the minor myth-building that took place in regard to the Klan. Songs, or poetry, even folk art celebrating the Ku Kluxers’ triumphs, were evident. A single romance novel featuring the secret Klan as white knight rescuers of the downtrodden in the South, called The Gilded Age, was a best seller. Indeed, the Klan went out of business more in embarrassment than from any federal crackdown. When the wealthy congregants at a secret midnight Klan initiation pushed acolytes around to see who was strongest, several killed themselves by plunging over the second-floor balcony at St. Charles School in New York City. Amusement, horror, and surprise, but most particularly, national demand to put an end to this nonsense. Since the Klan was already by now fully discredited as a political nuisance even for Southerners, enforcement of a federal crackdown on its actions required neither massive federal military intervention nor another brutal set of emancipation actions to drain it of support. The gaze of the populace was a powerful tool in forcing the Klan to disband.

The Klan of the 1860s remained a mostly informal, local set of organizations, and as a result, its influence was relatively small outside of the South. But, the Klan was an important force in Southern public life. Klan violence helped to force many Republican officeholders from office and to temporarily stifle the political participation of the freedmen. Klan actions in the South also forced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, by Congress. Still, the real terrorist organization of Southern life was the Democratic Party, the party of the defeated Confederacy. The Klan allowed the political control of the Democratic Party to be subterfuge with more informal, but no less direct, violent actions by an overwhelmingly white power structure in the South.

5. Legacy and Contemporary Relevance

Today, much of the contemporary Ku Klux Klan is rooted in the strife of the 1960s. Jet travel and new forms of mass media have greatly aided in Klan dissemination and solidarity. Klan violence of recent years, even when compared only to historic incidents, has been spectacular. Despite some Klan gains, militant opposition grows, and the Klan is a small movement which exercises some impact chiefly through threats, propaganda, and acts of violence. These acts of violence seem unlikely to achieve any of the Klan’s proclaimed goals, but they certainly have managed to bring new divisions and problems to America. The worst of this legacy is not the suffering and violence the Klan has caused, but its arrogant challenges and divided loyalties which have created problems that Americans divided by region, race, politics, religion, morals, and generations must solve united.

The modern Ku Klux Klan’s impact has gone far beyond its crimes: its activities and terrorism have left a legacy of deep and distressing division. Its resentment and hostility towards political, economic, and social opportunities for black citizens have hampered both black and white Americans. Politically, the Klan was the spearhead of massive resistance in the 1960s and contributed to the alienation and frustration which triggered disastrous urban riots in Northern cities. The Klan’s frequent violence and regular reliance upon terror heightened police hostility, making a peaceful civil rights movement very difficult. The Civil War victories of the old Klan and the political violence of the marijuana movement gave terrorists some hope of success.