| The KKK, a
group of white secret societies, traces its roots back to Pulaski, Tennessee, circa 1865,
when a group of Confederate Army veterans organized to oppose the advancement of blacks,
Jews, and other minority groups. They concealed their identities beneath robes and hoods,
and often used violence and terrorism in an attempt to achieve their aims. Crosses were
burned to intimidate minorities and non-members. After the Civil War they threatened, beat, and murdered
many blacks and their white sympathizers. Its membership grew rapidly throughout the South
until the passage of the Force Bill (1871) gave the President the authority to use federal
troops against the Klan. Following this action, they almost disappeared, resurfacing again
in the early 1900s. The new Klan, organized by a former Methodist clergyman in 1915, targeted groups it considered to be un-American, including blacks, immigrants, Jews and Roman Catholics. By the 1920s, it had over 2 million members nationwide and had become a powerful force across the South, in the West and Northern U.S. It was particularly strong in Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Indiana and Ohio. Its national demise in 1944 was brought about because of disagreement among the membership on the means to impose their vision of America on society. Many members objected to the terrorist tactics, beatings, whippings, murders, and hangings that identified the Klan as an unlawful hate group. In 1946, an Atlanta physician reactivated the Klan and ushered in another period of violence and death. Klan terrorist attacks in the 1960s took many lives, including 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi, a bombed church in Alabama in which 4 black girls were killed, and, in 1979, the killing of 5 anti-Klan demonstrators in North Carolina. "The Sidney Daily News" on April 28, 1923, reported on the Ku Klux Klan at Anna. "We have waited a week to see how sentiment was running in regard to the demonstration of the Klu[sic] Klux Klan in our village, before making any report. The result is, we find the citizens pretty much wrought up over the affair. About 95 per cent being outspoken against such demonstrations. The few who are promoting this Klan business are fast losing the respect and confidence of their friends and neighbors and are gaining nothing. We do not believe in paying any stranger or organization coming into our community $10 to prove our Americanism. Let our actions prove we are 100 per cent. We can do it by being loyal citizens to our country, to our stage and to our community; loyal to God, to our church and its teachings; loyal to our Brotherhood obligations; and above all, loyal to our home and family. What higher degree of loyalty or Americanism can any one demand? What Klansman in Anna or elsewhere can measure up to any higher standard? [Back] [Next] [Up] [New Search] 'Black History' segment written in June, 1998 by David Lodge |