History_of_the_Ku_Klux_Klan

Name Instructor Course Date Historical Fiction Mini-Project In the winter of 1865-1866, the Confederate Army veterans based in Pulaski, Tennessee formed the group Ku Klux Klan, designed primarily as a social group. The name was an adaptation from the word “kyklos”, Greek for circle and clan from English. The title Grand Wizard was reserved for the leader of the organization, the first being General Nathan B. Forrest. The Klan was the “Invisible Empire of the South” during the Nashville convention in the summer of 1867. Other names were used for junior officers in the organization including Grand Cyclops, Grand Dragon, and Grand Titan (Gitlin 12) The members of the group chose to dress in sheets and robes to disguise their identity and hence evade the federal troops. The attire also served to frighten black people. However, with time, the organization evolved into a terrorist group carrying out the orders of the Democratic Party while trying to maintain white supremacy. Their mode of operation was seeking to destroy Congressional Reconstruction mainly by killing blacks and also the whites affiliated to Republican politics or in favor of offering education to the black children. They burnt chases while at the same time making many flee their homes. In 1867, probably due to the unwillingness or inability of the local law enforcement officers to stop the Klan, the Force Bill was passed by Congress. This bill allowed the federal government to prosecute any members of the Klan. The prosecutions and convictions that followed wee not many since only a few individuals were punished but this proved sufficient since it broke up the activities of the Klan (Gitlin 17) In 1915, however, the Klan was reformed by William Simmons in Stone Mountain, Georgia as a Protestant fraternal society. It perpetuated atrocities against the blacks, the Jews, immigrants, as well as the Roman Catholics. Its expansion was rapid, recruiting about two member’s country wide. It further employed use of political force besides tortures, murders, and burning crosses to assert its authority. However, leadership wrangles and public outcry of its violence eventually weakened its influence. Attempts to revive it include during the era of Civil Rights which failed. It is currently a small organization that champions for fundamentalist Christian theology and white supremacy. However, the Klan was historically significant especially due to their contribution to continued slavery in the form of share cropping and racism ( Gitlin 56). There are various incidences in which the Ku Klux Klan appears in the story of the historical book “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”. The ideologies of the Ku Klux Klan are represented in the discriminatory practices in the provision of education. There were different schools for the colored and the whites. The schools attended by the blacks’ children were largely underdeveloped while those owned by the whites received all the resources. For instance, the black children had to walk to and from school while the whiter children had a bus to carry them. Further, there was the incident whereby the black children are issued with old books, presumably after they have been thrown away by the white children. This incident relating to Little Man or Clayton Chester displays the depth of racism in the education system of the time. The Klan is variously referred to as the nightriders or the night men. A character in the book, Mr. Wallace is believed to be a member of this group that perpetuates atrocities against the blacks and hence Papa, a black elderly man warns his children against playing around his shop. Further, a character Mr. Berry who talked to a Caucasian woman got himself into trouble after members of the Klan did not approve such socialization between different races. They thus trailed him and caught up with him when he was out of gas. They poured tar on him and set him ablaze. Such was the racism that the Ku Klux Klan perpetuated against the black members of the society. The characters in the book were to a great length negatively impacted on by the Klan as revealed in their speech. For instance, Papa tells the children that: "The Wallace’s did that, children. They poured kerosene over Mr. Berry and his nephews and lit them afire."(Beech and Taylor 98). By this, he was warning them about the dangers of the Ku Klux Klan. Mama also explains to Cassie her views of the problem and her feelings of being treated as a slave. She says, “So now, even though seventy years have passed since slavery, most white people still think of us as they did back then-that we’re not as good as they are-and people like Mr. Simms hold on to that belief harder than some other folks because they have little else to hold on to. For him to believe that he is better than we are makes him think that he’s important simply because he’s white.” (Beech and Taylor 129). [pic] [pic] [pic] Works cited Linda Beech, Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1999. Gitlin, Marty. The Ku Klux Klan: a guide to an American subculture. California: ABC-CLIO, 2009.