What were the goals and tactics of the Ku Klux Klan?

Ku Klux Klan
African Americans in the South faced other problems beside poverty. They also faced violent racism. Many planters and former Confederate soldiers did not want African Americans to have more rights. In 1866, such feelings spurred the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan’s goals were to restore Democratic control of the South and keep former slaves powerless.

The Klan attacked African Americans. Often it targeted those who owned land or had become prosperous. Klansmen rode on horseback and dressed in white robes and hoods. They beat people and burned homes. They even lynched some victims, killing them on the spot without a trial as punishment for a supposed crime. The Klan also attacked white Republicans.

Klan victims had little protection. Military authorities in the South often ignored the violence. President Johnson had appointed most of these authorities, and they were against Reconstruction. The Klan’s terrorism served the Democratic Party. As gun-toting Klansmen kept Republicans away from the polls, the Democrats increased their power.

Ku Klux Klan movements have swept the country periodically since the 1870s. A Ku Klux Klan movement rose again in the early 1900s. More than 3 million members made the KKK a powerful political force in a number of states in the Midwest and South. The organization faded in the 1920s and 1930s. Following World War II, the Klan revived again, especially as the civil rights movement gained momentum. In the 1970s, its membership tripled to around 10,000. Since then, it has declined and when it holds rallies, opponents frequently outnumber Klan members.

1. 
   What were the goals and tactics of the Ku Klux Klan?
   
2. 
   Why was the Klan successful?
   
3. 
   How did the actions of the Klan benefit the Democrats?
   
4. 
   Why do you think membership in the KKK was never outlawed?
   

FOUNDING OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

A group including many former Confederate veterans founded the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866. The first two words of the organization’s name supposedly derived from the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning circle. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention and established what they called an “Invisible Empire of the South.” Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or “grand wizard,” of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans and grand cyclopses.

At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide. The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson’s relatively lenient Reconstruction policies, in place from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts, and each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted “equal protection” of the Constitution to former slaves.

5. 
   Where did the Ku Klux Klan name originate from?
   
6. 
   Why would members of the KKK be upset with the Reconstruction Act in 1866?
   

KU KLUX KLAN VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH

From 1867 onward, African-American participation in public life in the South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction, as blacks won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress. For its part, the Ku Klux Klan dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both black and white) in an effort to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South.

By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. Even at its height, the Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership. Local Klan members–often wearing masks and dressed in the organization’s signature long white robes and hoods–usually carried out their attacks at night, acting on their own but in support of the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where blacks were a minority or a small majority of the population, and was relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871, 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners.

Lynch – public murder without a trial.

7. 
   What was the goal of the KKK?
   
8. 
   What actions did the KKK take against African-Americans? Be specific.