Ku Klux Klan

             "Guilty of 4 killings, one mutilation, one blinding by acid, 41 floggings, 27 tar-and-feather parties, 5 kidnappings, 43 warnings to leave town, and 16 parades at which threatening placards were carried."(Meltzer 2). – New York World, October 1921
             Who are these people who would be so audacious as to commit these crimes? This is the work of the Ku Klux Klan and from their innocent start to their rebirth and revival, through their power highs and lows; the Klan has always been a force of terror and a symbol of hate throughout our Nation's history.
             The Ku Klux Klan has been described as "an underground terrorist army rebelling against the government."(Meltzer 6). Ironically, the Ku Klux Klan actually began by some soldiers after the Civil War to bring about a diversion from the South's loss and defeat (Cook 9-10). They ended up making a club and naming it Ku Klux Klan (from "Kuklis", a Greek word meaning bond or circle), dressing up in pillowcases and linens on themselves and their horses, and riding off to serenade their sweethearts (9-10). After having seen the terror effect they had on people, the soldiers saw they could use their club, what started as a little prank, to put Southern society back into what it had been (12). Only a year after the start of the Klan in 1865, there were hundreds of local units in operation in every state from Virginia to Texas, all under the command of Nathan Bedford Forest (Meltzer 6). The purpose of the Klan was to control the newly freed slaves, black voters, and the Northern politicians (Carpetbaggers) that had taken control of the Confederate States (Cook 2). The Klan, full of hate a terror, took control of the Presidential election in 1877 and made a compromise that let the Republican candidate win, but allowed the South to do what they want with the blacks...

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