8.11.4

Trace the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and describe the Klan's effects.
             1866, a dreadful year in for the early United States, was the first birth of the Ku Klux Klan (“the name supposedly derives from the Greek word for circle, kuklos, to which the added klan.”). After the Civil War, a handful of miseries were situated in the Southern states. Few of these miseries consist of 4 million freed slaves, ruined towns and cities, etc. Restoring slavery and preserving “white power” were the major ambitions of the Klan. The violence was a reaction to the Reconstruction, which attempted to expand African Americans’ rights.
             “While claiming to be a social club, they were soon expressing resentment at the changes taking place in Southern society.” This resentment lead to regular murders, which swept approximately 3,500 people in the South away (1866-1875) and “whipped, beat, tarred, and feathered many thousands more”. Several Southern states and Democrats, who also supported slavery, powerfully supported these procedures. Using violence and terror, the Klan intimidated African Americans, Republicans, and sympathetic poor whites, causing them not to vote, thus granting the Democratic party a restoration of control.
             By 1873, the Ku Klux Klan’s commenced their decline, leaving its consequences behind. Thousands of lost lives, a permanent sting of hatred in the hearts of many, the Democratic party’s recuperation of much lost authority, and an undying image of severe violence and terrorism were the interior effects of the “knights”: the Ku Klux Klan.


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