Ku Klux Klan :: essays research papers

Ku Klux Klan In the 1920s, the KKK was a secret society of WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) that targeted blacks, Catholics and minority groups. Their main aim was to put off these people from voting so that the people the KKK wanted in positions of power stayed there. It was first formed in 1865 as a social group for ex-confederate (southern) troops. It became more sinister after 1867 when it directed itself towards preventing former black slaves from voting. After the war the slaves had been given the right to vote, but the KKK thought that blacks were an inferior race and giving them political power was a bad idea. The robes, hoods and rituals of the Klan terrified African Americans in the south which appealed to white racists, and this cumulated in the Klansmen being involved in flogging, mutilating and killing African Americans. Between June of 1920 through October of 1921, it is estimated at much as 85,000 men joined the Ku Klux Klan. Although the Klan was the strongest in the midwest and the midsouth, it was a nation wide epidemic. Klan members fed off of Xenophobic, a fear of foreigners. Klan members believed that every Catholic in public life, no matter what position they held in society, must be watched carefully. â€Å"The modern Klan added an anti-Semitic element.† Klan theoreticians believed that the Jews were not only unproductive, there were also un-American. â€Å"Jew Movies Urge Sex and Vice,† the Klan title screamed like an echo from Ford’s Dearborn Independent. The position of woman in the humanities of the Klan was expressly conventional. The Klan believed in protection of women because they thought women could help in the â€Å"shaping of America†. Even though they believed so strongly in woman protection, this came at a costly price: violence. In the southern states of America, the Ku Klux Klan was involved innumerous violent attacks against African Americans. Klan intimidation was often targeted at schoolteachers and operatives of the federal Freedmen's Bureau. African American members of the Loyal Leagues were also the frequent targets of Klan raids. In a typical episode in Mississippi, according to the Congressional inquiry, â€Å"One of these teachers (Miss Allen of Illinois), whose school was at Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County, was visited ... between one and two o'clock in the morning on March, 1871, by about fifty men mounted and disguised. Each man wore a long white robe and his face was covered by a loose mask with scarlet stripes. Ku Klux Klan :: essays research papers Ku Klux Klan In the 1920s, the KKK was a secret society of WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) that targeted blacks, Catholics and minority groups. Their main aim was to put off these people from voting so that the people the KKK wanted in positions of power stayed there. It was first formed in 1865 as a social group for ex-confederate (southern) troops. It became more sinister after 1867 when it directed itself towards preventing former black slaves from voting. After the war the slaves had been given the right to vote, but the KKK thought that blacks were an inferior race and giving them political power was a bad idea. The robes, hoods and rituals of the Klan terrified African Americans in the south which appealed to white racists, and this cumulated in the Klansmen being involved in flogging, mutilating and killing African Americans. Between June of 1920 through October of 1921, it is estimated at much as 85,000 men joined the Ku Klux Klan. Although the Klan was the strongest in the midwest and the midsouth, it was a nation wide epidemic. Klan members fed off of Xenophobic, a fear of foreigners. Klan members believed that every Catholic in public life, no matter what position they held in society, must be watched carefully. â€Å"The modern Klan added an anti-Semitic element.† Klan theoreticians believed that the Jews were not only unproductive, there were also un-American. â€Å"Jew Movies Urge Sex and Vice,† the Klan title screamed like an echo from Ford’s Dearborn Independent. The position of woman in the humanities of the Klan was expressly conventional. The Klan believed in protection of women because they thought women could help in the â€Å"shaping of America†. Even though they believed so strongly in woman protection, this came at a costly price: violence. In the southern states of America, the Ku Klux Klan was involved innumerous violent attacks against African Americans. Klan intimidation was often targeted at schoolteachers and operatives of the federal Freedmen's Bureau. African American members of the Loyal Leagues were also the frequent targets of Klan raids. In a typical episode in Mississippi, according to the Congressional inquiry, â€Å"One of these teachers (Miss Allen of Illinois), whose school was at Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County, was visited ... between one and two o'clock in the morning on March, 1871, by about fifty men mounted and disguised. Each man wore a long white robe and his face was covered by a loose mask with scarlet stripes.