The Ku Klux Klan

1. The Ku Klux Klan

2. Birth of the Klan • In 1866, Six ex-Confederate soldiers created a secret boys’ club. • They named their club the Ku Klux - derived from the Greek word for circle. • Similar to a typical male fraternity, the men designed the club around secret rituals, words, and playful mischief.

3. The KKK in Historical Context • Before the war … • the majority of Southerners = white yeoman farmers. • Slaveholders lived in fear of slave rebellion • After the War … • 4 million former slaves were newly enfranchised by 15th Amendment. • Congress passed the 1st Reconstruction Act (1867) which, in part Protected the freed slaves.

4. Birth of the National KKK By1867, fraternal Klansmen from various southern Klans met in Nashville, Tennessee   "To reorganize the Klan on a plan corresponding to its size and present purposes; to bind the isolated Dens together; to secure unity of purpose and concert of action.” The National KKK was born.

5. Present Purposes of the KKK • The "present purposes" of those who gathered to reorganize the KKK were to make it "an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism; embodying in its genius and its principles all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose."  Its goals were: “To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenceless, 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 Confederate soldiers; to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and the people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever; 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 to the laws of the land.”

6. How did the KKK interpret their “present purposes?” • "the injured and  oppressed" were southern whites who were condemned to suffer in the crazy new world where blacks could vote and have an equal say in society. • "the violent and the brutal" were the officials who enforced black civil rights. • "constitutional" laws were the Black Codes relegating every aspect of the freedmen and freedwomen’s lives. • "unlawful seizure" meant any "radical" activity that raised taxes to support public schools to the arrest try KKK members. • The KKK’s ultimate goal was "home rule" by whites, for whites within a states' rights context.

7. Klan Hierarchy The National Klan was organized into realms, dominions, provinces, and dens, and each was headed by a separately designated leader. Each Klan unit was responsible for its own affairs and decided its own degree of militancy.

8. The National KKK • Former Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest became Grand Wizard and he purposefully developed the Klan into an exclusive and secretive brotherhood of upper class white men. • KKK membership soon exploded in the south.

9. Reasons for KKK membership • In 1870, Congress passed the KKK Act which made it a federal crime to prevent the freedmen from voting. • Between 1870-1871, Congress passed the Enforcement Acts which made it a federal crime to prevent freedmen from voting or holding office and imposed heavy penalties on persons who "shall conspire together, or go in disguise for the purpose of depriving any person or any class of persons equal protection of the laws.” • In 1875, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which prohibited racial discrimination in all forms of public transportation and accommodations. • These acts encouraged many southerners - especially those who were poor and feared the rising influence of the freed slaves - to join the KKK. Consequently, Forrest’s ability to control the organization decreased.

10. The consequence of increased membership and less control from the National KKK – Klan Terror • The Klan used extremely violent measures to terrorize blacks, carpet- baggers, scalawags, and anyone else who contributed to the degradation of old southern ideals. • Assault • Rape • Arson • Murder

11. Decline of the First Klan • The Federal government started enforcing the anti-Klan legislation. • As membership numbers climbed, the national KKK discovered that maintaining control over Klan activities became impractical. • As Reconstruction came to an end, white southerners regained the legal political influence that had been taken from them. • In January of 1869 Imperial Wizard Forrest ordered the dissolution of the order and the burning of all its records. • By 1872, southern white rule had been reestablished and KKK lawlessness was no longer necessary.

12. Federal actions denying rights to freed slaves • In 1883, the US Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional on the grounds that the 14th and 15th Amendments only applied to states, not individuals. • In 1885, Congress repealed the Enforcement Acts. • In 1888, the Williams v. Mississippi U.S. Supreme Court case held that state constitutions did not discriminate against blacks when they were disenfranchised by means of property or literacy qualifications, poll taxes, or "grandfather clauses.” • In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court case held that because "legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts," Southern segregation laws were constitutional, as long as the separate public facilities for blacks were equal to those of whites.

14. The Rise of the Second Klan • On Thanksgiving night, 1915, William Joseph Simmons and sixteen followers marched up Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, GA. to "bathe in the sacred glow of the fiery cross."  Soon thereafter, Simmons had devised a series of rules, rituals, words, and codes for would-be members of a new KKK.

15. Simmons supposedly had an epiphany in 1901 while he looked at the clouds in the sky. He believed that God had given him a sign to reorganize the Klan. • It took him until 1915 to prepare properly for the Klan rebirth. • The second Klan played on Nativist fears prominent at the time – fear of blacks, immigrants, Catholics, Jews. • The KKK spread quickly out of the South and into the Midwest and Northeast to counter the post-WWI mass migration of African Americans.

16. Rules, Rituals, Words, and Codes of the Second KKK – the Koran • The Kloran provides a series of questions, as well as rules and rituals, for prospective Klan members. • 1. Is the motive prompting your ambition to be a Klansman serious and unselfish? 2. Are you a native born, white, gentile American? 3. Are you absolutely opposed to and free of any allegiance of any nature to any cause, government, people, sect, or ruler that is foreign to the USA? 4. Do you believe in the tenents of the Christian religion? 5. Do you esteem the United States of America and its institutions above all other government, civil, political, or ecclesiastical, in the whole world? 6. Will you, without mental reservation, take a solemn oath to defend, preserve, and enforce same? 7. Do you believe in clannishness, and will you faithfully practice same toward Klansmen? 8. Do you believe in and will you faithfully strive for the eternal maintenance of white supremacy? 9. Will you faithfully obey our constitution and laws, and conform willingly to all our usages, requirements, and regulations? 10. Can you always be depended on?

17. Local dens or Klans were governed by: • Exalted Cyclops - president Klaliff - vice-president Klokard - lecturer Kludd  - chaplain Kilgrapp - secretary Klabee  - treasurer Klagaro - conductor Klexter - inner guard Klokann - investigating committee Nighthawk - proctor in charge of candidates

18. Klansmen sang klodes, held klonvocations, swore blood oaths, lived by the events of its secret Kalendar, and carried on klonversations using code words: • Ayak - Are you a Klansman? • Akia  - A Klansman I am. • Kigy Klansman - I greet you. • Itub  - In the sacred, unfailing bond. • Clasp Clannish - loyalty and sacred principle. • Sanborg  - Strangers are near, be on guard!

19. Membership • Edward Clark and Elizabeth Tyler organized the sale of memberships on a businesslike basis. • Simmons, as Imperial Wizard, received a $170,000 salary. • The invention of the WKKK (women’s KKK) encouraged the growth of chapters in 36 states. • By 1923, the KKK treasury brought in $45,000 a day in membership dues. • By 1925, an estimated 5 million Americans had joined the KKK or WKKK.

20. Klan Power & Influence • To illustrate the Klan’s power, the national organization sponsored a parade, August 8, 1925. • 40,000 uniformed Klansmen & Klanswomen paraded in the nation’s capitol down Pennsylvania Ave.

21. Klanswoman in Indiana - 1920s - When asked why she joined, she responded: “Why not?  It seemed a fun thing to do with our friends.  The next meeting we were told to be ready and wear uniforms when called upon.  The uniforms were white robes, tall peaked hoods with eye holes, so no one could be recognized.  What a thrill when we were told to assemble at a certain place wearing our robes, then marching with others also unknown to us.  A huge cross, set up in the village, flared up in the darkness, crowds had assembled to watch.  As the cross burned, we marched quietly down the roadway.  A hush fell upon the crowd.  There seemed to sense a force of something unknown.  It created a fear, as if like a child being told to be good or the bogey man will get you.” … Kathleen Blee, Women of the Klan (1991)

22. The WKKK worked as a compliment to the men’s group. • Women championed the crusades on vice and anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish legislation. • The female perspective of the time period was used to spread the KKK message into the home. • Where the KKK used violence against people, the WKKK used it to strike fear into its members. • The WKKK spread tales of violence that the Catholic Church used against Protestant girls. • The same argument that was used by women who fought for suffrage was used by the KKK to spread its values into the family atmosphere.

23. Vigilante Justice • No national or state records exist that discuss the extent of new Klan violence. • There are scattered accounts to indicate this era to have been the most racially violent and intolerant. • There already existed a history of vigilante violence in the American West so Klan violence was no big change.

24. End of the Second Klan • Ultimately, corruption claimed the Second Klan. • By 1928, the power of the national Klan as well as many of the local Klans had been lost. • Greed and the loss of control over Klan activities spread and enveloped the organization – the same problem that killed the first Klan.

25. The Third Klan • A symbolic cross burning in 1945 initiated a rebirth of southern Klans. • The new Klan leaders claimed that there was a “new assertiveness on the part of the Negro race.” • A national level of the KKK organization was, again, short-lived.

26. KKK members sought to destroy un-American subversive groups like communists • They also sought to destroy Jewish members of FDR’s New Deal administration • Attacking the government turned into the Klan’s fatal mistake

27. Another Klan’s Decline • The Klan began to be portrayed as a terrorist organization. • The federal government planted informants amidst the Klan, and journalists wrote investigative stories. • Ultimately, the Klan was shunned through many parts of the nation. • By 1950, due to considerable negative attention, the Klan abandoned the national effort.

28. A New Kind of Hate • Although the sun had set on the third Klan, American racism had not diminished. • Racists felt the need to form a different kind of group. • As a result, the White Citizens Councils developed.

29. White Citizens Councils (WCC) "Blacks who tried to register to vote, who signed a petition for school desegregation, who belonged to the NAACP, who spoke out for equality received the treatment.  Bankers would deny loans; black merchants couldn’t get credit from wholesale houses or sometimes could not get supplies even with cash; insurance policies were canceled; employees were dismissed; renters were evicted from their homes; mortgages were recalled.  Blacks dependent on whites for employment or credit were often forced to boycott black ministers or doctors or craftsmen who were violating the racial etiquette in Yazoo, Mississippi in the summer of 1955 ... 1,500 of the town’s 11,000 population belonged to the White Citizens Council.  The council ran an ad in the town paper listing the names of all the petitioners [for school desegregation].  The list of names appeared in the stores, in the bank, even in cotton fields around the city.  White community leaders would visit individuals and suggest that their action was not proper for a ‘colored who wanted to live in peace.’ If that didn’t work, it would be followed by visits to employers, creditors, and landlords.  It was not long before the original list of 53 signators to the petition had been reduced to 6 ... Similar treatment was given to blacks who sought to register to vote." … Jack Bloom, Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1987

30. White Citizens Councils (WCC) • The first WCC arose in Indianola, Miss in 1954. • Known as “the rich man’s Klan.” • Meetings were held in public places. • Despite WCC success, it could not meet the “needs” of the people. • Yet again, the Klan needed to arise to “save the people.”

31. The New and Improved 4th Klan • 1961, Robert Shelton formed the United Klans of America (UKA). • The national movement lasted only about 5 years. • Despite poor success on the national level, the UKA revitalized state and local klans.

32. Local Klans • Concerned with “Mongrelization” – race mixing that integration would encourage. • School desegregation was seen as the first step in the mongrelization process. • The KKK felt an obligation to preserve “White Christian Civilization” It is during this period that Klan members increasingly are seen as fanatics, rather than upholders of Christianity, patriotism, and the status quo. Thus, the fourth Klan fades away.

33. The Modern Klan • 1975- David Duke started a new campaign to start yet another Klan. • He tried to appeal to a different group than in past Klans. • In the 1970s, Klan members were typically high school graduates, some had college education, and had stable blue collar employment or worked in service occupations. • New Klans were less secretive and more willing to be seen as proud racists upholding the status quo.

34. The Modern Klan • 1975- David Duke started a new campaign to start yet another Klan. • He tried to appeal to a different group than in past Klans. • Today, Klan members are typically high school graduates, some have college education, and most have stable blue collar employment or worked in service occupations. • New Klans are less secretive and more willing to be seen as proud racists upholding the status quo.

35. The Legacy of the Klan 1. The rise of formally organized, national and statewide Ku Klux Klans has always been brief.  The first period lasted from 1866 to 1870; followed by the period of greatest involvement from 1919 to 1926; and continuing with the most recent period from 1975 to the present. 2. The real power of the KKK has been at the local level.  Local KKKís, often working with spontaneous lynch mobs, have been responsible for almost all Klan related violence over the past 140 years. 3. The rise of the five generations of revitalized klans is directly related to two larger issues: • the perceived threat to white supremacy based upon larger domestic and/or international incidents; and • the continual tension between federal and states' rights advocates.

36. The Legacy of the Klan (continued) 4. The KKK's most powerful legacy has been its success.  Local klans operating in their first 100 years successfully helped to maintain the political, social, and economic status quo of whites in every region of the nation. 5. The Klan's successful brand of terrorism has always relied upon two things: • toleration and support of local communities and the KKK reputation as being the "most American" of American organizations; and • philosophical and political flexibility and a willingness to adopt the militant stance and hate- and fear-filled rhetoric of the era. 5. Only when community toleration and support disappeared did the Klan become unwelcome in many American communities as well as prosecuted by federal, state, and local agencies. 6. The melding of modern Klan with various other right-wing hate groups has given it new strength as it continues to keep many local non-white, non-Protestant, and immigrant populations in a perpetual state of fear and terror.