Ku Klux Klan

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Alex Pickett

Ms. Heinsmen LA

17 October 2005

Ku Klux Klan

During the nineteenth century, black people were treated as slaves. White governments introduced many laws to control their freedom. They could not vote. They were denied access to good jobs and to worthwhile education and well into the twentieth century they suffered great poverty. People from the USA wanted to prevent them from voting and holding office. They were called the Ku Klux Klan, it was organized in Pulaski, Tennesee, during the winter of 1865 to 1866 by six former confederate army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word Kuklos.The KKK used violence and intimidation to keep blacks segregated. They used parades, beatings, lynching, and other violent methods to intimidate blacks.

The Ku Klux Klan, or KKK as known today, was started in the spring of 1866. Six Confederate veterans formed a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee. This KKK only lasted a short six years, but left tactics and rituals that later started in generations. (Ingalls, 9)

The Klan was a small group very much in secrecy at first. The exact date of the beginning is unknown. Despite all of the secrecy the six KKK members initiated new members to join their social club. (Ingalls, 9)

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The Klan now started to spread across Tennessee. At first the Klan used tricks to keep blacks "in their place". At first, the Klan would ride around on horses, and with their white robes, and white pointed masks, try to scare blacks. They would try to act like ghost with their white uniforms. Unfortunately, the Klan quickly moved to more violent pranks. (Ingalls, 12)

In 1869, General Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the KKK ordered Klansmen to restrict their activities. The Klan was getting out of control, and Congress passed a Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871. By the end of 1872, the federal crackdown had broken the back of the KKK. Because of the restriction and the Act passed violence was isolated but still continued. The KKK was dead, and Reconstruction lived on in southern legend . This would not be the last of the KKK.

On the night of Thanksgiving in 1915, sixteen men from Atlanta, Georgia climbed to the top of Stone Mountain and built an altar of stones on which they placed an American flag. They then stood up a sixteen foot long cross and burned it. One week later, this group applied for a state charter making it "The Knights of the KKK, Inc." This was put in effect during the Reconstruction. The new Klan at first received little attention. Only in time, it became the biggest and most powerful Klan in history. Klan membership was limited to native-born, white, Protestant American Men. The Klan message was clearly to appeal to