Ku Klux Klan: Difference between revisions

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===The original Ku Klux Klan===

[[Image:NathanBedfordForrest.jpg|right|frame|Nathan Bedford Forrest]]

The original Ku Klux Klan was created after the end of the [[American Civil War]] on [[December 24]], [[1865]] by six middle-class Confederate veterans who were bored with postwar [[Pulaski, Tennessee]]. It was at first a humorous social club centering on [[practical joke]]s and hazing rituals.{{ref|farce}} From 1866 to 1867, the Klan began breaking up black prayer meetings, and invading black homes at night to confiscate firearms. Some of these activities may have been modeled on previous Tennessee vigilante groups such as the Yellow Jackets and Redcaps. In an 1867 convention held in Nashville, the Klan was formalized as a national organization under a "Prescript" written by [[George Gordon]], a former confederate brigadier-general. A few weeks later, former slave trader and confederate general [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] was selected as Grand Wizard, the Klan's national leader.

In an 1867 convention held in Nashville, the Klan was formalized as a national organization under a "Prescript" written by [[George Gordon]], a former confederate brigadier-general. A few weeks later, former slave trader and confederate general [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] was selected as Grand Wizard, the Klan's national leader. The Prescript states as the Klan's purposes:

The main goal of the Klan was to fight [[Congressional Reconstruction]]. During the [[Reconstruction]] the South was undergoing drastic changes to its social and political life. Whites saw this as a threat to their supremacy as a race and sought to end this process. Due to [[Congress]] enacting laws that promoted racial equality, southern whites could not turn to the law in order to regain their power through the Democratic Party. In addition, the Klan sought to control the political and social status of the freed slaves. More specifically, it attempted to curb black education, economic advancement, and voting rights. Violence came to be seen as the best way to accomplish their goals. However, the Klan's violence was not limited to African Americans; Southern Republicans also became the target of vicious intimidation tactics, and a wave of 1300 [[lynching in the United States|lynchings]] in 1868 was primarily a political purge rather than a racial conflict. The Klan became the violent arm of the [[Democratic Party]]. As federal control of the ex-Confederate states was withdrawn, the local [[Caucasian|white]] population re-established their power.

* "First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of the Confederate soldiers.

* Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States ...

* Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity with the laws of the land."

TheStripped mainof goalobfuscation and attempts to protect themselves from accusations of treason, this is essentially a statement that the Klan's purpose was to fight resist[[Congressional Reconstruction]]. The word "oppressed," for example, clearly refers to oppression by the Union Army, and "peers" implies that white Southern property holders should be protected from [[carpetbagger]]s and uppity freedmen. During the [[Reconstruction]] the South was undergoing drastic changes to its social and political life. Whites saw this as a threat to their supremacy as a race and sought to end this process. Due to [[Congress]] enacting laws that promoted racial equality, southern whites could not turn to the law in order to regain their power through the Democratic Party. In addition, the Klan sought to control the political and social status of the freed slaves. More specifically, it attempted to curb black education, economic advancement, and voting rights. Violence came to be seen as the best way to accomplish their goals. However, the Klan's violence was not limited to African Americans; Southern Republicans also became the target of vicious intimidation tactics, and a wave of 1300 [[lynching in the United States|lynchings]] in 1868 was primarily a political purge rather than a racial conflict. The Klan became the violent arm of the [[Democratic Party]]. As federal control of the ex-Confederate states was withdrawn, the local [[Caucasian|white]] population re-established their power.

[[Image:Misissippi ku klux.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Three Ku Klux Klan members arrested in [[Tishomingo County, Mississippi|Tishomingo County]], [[Mississippi]], September 1871, for the attempted murder of an entire family.]]