Was the Ku Klux Klan an Extremist Movement?

 At the end of the American civil war in 1866 the Ku Klux Klan formed. It is a white supremacist group that uses violence and intimidation to reassert white domination in the United States. The Klan's attacks have been aimed at African Americans, Jews, Catholics, immigrant and other minority groups.The Ku Klux Klan believes that after the Civil War in America white citizens faced many problems due to the release of African American slaves. They feared that these slaves would rise up and form a revolt against white Americans. The Klan believes many of these cases did occur and the government turned a blind eye too often. The Ku Klux Klan then formed in May of 1866 to make sure the people wouldn't rebel.It is said that members of the Klan attacked many coloured citizens and many were tortured and murdered.

In 1871 congress passed an act that gave permission to the president to intervene in troubled states where disturbances due to the Ku Klux Klan occurred. This legislation was used several times, however by that time the Klan had already achieved its objective of white supremacy and the group practically disappeared. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s was to some extent an extremist movement because of the extreme killing they did, the fear that caused them to do it, and because the thought of rebellion would happen. William J. Simmons reformed the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. By the end of the First World War the group became just as hostile to Jews, Roman Catholics, socialists, communists and foreigners. In 1922 Hiram W. Evans became the Klan's main leader and under his leadership the organization grew rapidly and many Klansmen were elected into political power.

By 1925 the membership grew to 4 million.After the conviction of the Clans leader, David C. Stephenson for second degree murder membership fell to around 30, 000. This then continued during the great depression and the Second World War and in 1944 the organization disappeared. KKK is known as the Ku Klux Klan, the name for a group of White Americans who hated non-whites people. The Ku Klux Klan members were racist and killed the black peoples. Ku Klux Klan is classified by British Dictionary means a secret organization of White Southerners created after the civil war to fight back emancipation and Northern domination. They started a Ku Klux Klan to put fear and terrified the innocent Black Americans after they lost confederate war. The Ku Klux Klan members discriminated against different groups such as Roman Catholics, Jewish, Latinos, and African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan is the most American hatred group who forced the blacks and other non-white people to live in a fear that they did not deserve.Klansmen were sworn to protect, one had particular urgency.pg 217       

 In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was created as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee by the six Confederate Army Veterans. The Confederate Army Veterans were John Lester, James Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, and Frank McCord. They required overturning the new Republican state governments and putting the black men out of the politics. They also banned the black labor and rebuild black subordination. During the meeting at Maxwell House in Nashville, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was selected as a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan while other generals served as state grand dragons. In 1869, the Ku Klux Klan threatened black voters and reversed the elected Republican governments in the South. In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed legislation and Ku Klux Klan acts to protect blacks rights on violence. Ku Klux Klan focused on opposing African/Black Americans when it was established. They opposed anyone who supported them and the federal government because they supported their rights. As time passed, the groups of people turned into enemies of the Ku Klux Klan such as Jewish people and other different immigrants. The major targets of the Ku Klux Klan were Black Americans and Jews because they were famous.

After the American Civil War, the members of the Ku Klux Klan targeted the African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was never considered former slaves as being free and intimidated African American relatives in the South. There were numerous different groups had immigrated to America for several years. It is an ordinary legend that the Ku Klux Klan targeted only the Black Americans; they also hated Jews, Catholics, and poor black families in the South. In 1915, the Second Ku Klux Klan was founded by William Joseph Simmons in Atlanta, Georgia. The Second Ku Klux Klan fought to maintain the dominance of white protestants over Black/African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and new immigrants. They still attacked African Americans, Jews, and Catholics during that time. In 1920, the economic problems were raising that made the Ku Klux Klan grow again. The Ku Klux Klan argued over White Supremacy that they were better than the people that are not white and rule them. Before World War II, the Ku Klux Klan controlled the white supremacist while the Great Depression disappeared during the war. Many white men were fighting off for their country and white racists had little support for uprisings against minorities. The black Americans lived in Atlanta during the war; they were still subject to discrimination and violent attacks. One of the main issues that faced Black Americans in Atlanta was discrimination in the workplace and community. The Ku Klux Klan was vanished from the war when there was no real leadership or way to select new members.

They stopped because they owed more money than it could pay. Members of the Ku Klux Klan wore traditional white hoods and robes known as a glory suit with masks and a tapering hat to hide their identities. These costumes are still worn today by the Ku Klux Klan in the states such as Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, Virginia, etc. There are reasons why the Ku Klux Klan attacked Black/African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan still continues its hate all over the United States lecturing its beliefs to all Americans and advised everyone to join for the good of their country. The Black Americans were free people, but they had the same rights as the white people. The White Americans became furious and formed groups to support their beliefs to let people with the same ideas to gather and share their ideas. The purpose was to provide the people of the South with the leadership to get the values of Western Civilization back that was in use from them. The Ku Klux Klan might have been established because some white people were jaded then they created a group but never knew how much their little club could influence American history to this day. White Americans hated Black Americans, they were racist so they started to kill and murder the innocent black people.

The way White Americans treated Black Americans were worse. They treated Black Americans awful. The Ku Klux Klan members killed black people by hanging without a trial, and took the law into their own hands. It was difficult for the government to change white people behaviors in the South. Today, some White Americans are still discriminating against Black Americans. Black people do not need white people to like or love them. As for the Ku Klux Klan inspired violence, they should understand that hurting black people was a crime under the federal law. People who committed the hate crimes were prosecuted as they are back then and now. The Ku Klux Klan still exists today all over the United States. The Ku Klux Klan burned the houses, churches, and schools that owned by the Black Americans. Teachers were attacked, and freed people who refused to show respect were beaten and killed by the members of Ku Klux Klan. Blacks were also beaten up for refusing to work for whites and for having jobs whites wanted. Black people from Georgia fought their attackers, restore their houses, churches, and schools. They were shot back during attacks in their communities. These attacks terrorized some freed people; they failed to destroy the cultural and social independence that blacks had gained with emancipation. The first group of the Ku Klux Klan did not burn crosses. It took almost forty years for that tradition to take place. In 1915, the founder of the Second Ku Klux Klan -William Joseph Simmons burned a cross during the meeting of the newly-established Knights of the Ku Klux Klan on the Stone Mountain near Atlanta.

Burning crosses are considered one of the hallmarks for Ku Klux Klan ever since. They burned the cross as a symbol to create terror. Racism against non-white people is all over the world today. There were many white supremacists blamed immigrants. The racism of non-whites are well around the world. In the world today, there are still White Americans who think they are better than the Black Americans and this is causing conflict and all kinds of problems in all regions of the world. When the Ku Klux Klan first started, White Americans were the only members who joined because they were racists. Racist whites joined the Ku Klux Klan. They focused the majority of its hate and violence on Black/African Americans. Today, some White Americans in other states are still racist and hating black people and other people that are not whites. They do not have lots of members today as they used to have in the 19th and 20th centuries. The racist is never ending in this world. Political and violence are the two methods used by the Ku Klux Klan. They attacked black political leaders and they took the heads of black families, including black leaders of the churches and communities because they had roles. The Ku Klux Klan uses the method of violence to control the lives of blacks. They killed numerous of Black/African Americans and wounded black republicans.

Researching on this topic made me feel frightened knowing that everything happened in the Ku Klux Klan was worse. The Ku Klux Klan is the America's most hated group today. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Ku Klux Klan was created to stop the blacks from voting and attacked them. They use fear to control the blacks and take the political rights away from them. They also used their white power and rule the blacks. The Ku Klux Klan is a problem that will never end. As we all know, the Ku Klux Klan will be active for a period of time and then fade away. Hopefully this hatred group will stop in the future, so the Black Americans can get their freedom.

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