The Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of an organisation that advocated white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti- Catholicism, and homophobia. The KKK used terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups. It was known as the Invisible Empire and was run by a ‘Grand Wizard’. All members had to be 16 years or older and white, protestant Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was established after the American Civil War and used violence and intimidation against newly freed African Americans as a way of restoring white supremacy in the states of the south. Dressed in white robes and sheets to disguise themselves, Klan members burned property, whipped, beat and sometimes killed African Americans and their white supporters in night time raids. These violent acts led the government to suppress disturbances by force, and impose heavy penalties upon terrorist organizations. By the end of the 1870s, the Klan had virtually disappeared. The Klan re-emerged in 1915, adding new enemies to its list. The second KKK was now much better organised with an official membership of millions and influence across America. Marches were held in Washington of thousands of Klan members in the 1920s. This showed how powerful they were at this time. Klan chapters were organized all over the country.The revitalized organization drew upon anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti- Semitic, and anti-Communist prejudices, believing that the ethnic character of U.S. society was changing and that white Protestants were losing their dominant position. The Klan extended its reach outside the South and drew most of its members from small towns. By the late 1920s, USA Klan membership exceeded three million. Klan members participated in marches, parades, and night-time cross burnings. Blacks who were seen to be too independently minded were often dragged from their homes and lynched. Lynching was the mob execution of any person who resisted the ideas of the Klan and the racist south. Blacks were hanged, castrated and burned alive. They were mutilated and tortured and then left as a warning to others. Through methods such as cross burning and lynching the black population of the Deep South was kept in fear and prevented from fighting for equality. ‘A lad whipped with branches until his back was ribboned flesh: a Negress beaten and left helpless to contract pneumonia from exposure and die; a white girl, divorcee beaten into unconsciousness in her home; a foreigner flogged until his back was pulp because he married an American woman.’ A Klansman tells of his crimes (1929)