Thanks guys.
Why "circle"?
In fact the beginning of the Klan involved nothing so sinister, subversive or ancient as the theories supposed. It was the boredom of small-town life that led six young Confederate veterans to gather around a fireplace one December evening in 1865 and form a social club. The place was Pulaski, Tennessee, near the Alabama border. When they reassembled a week later, the six young men were full of ideas for their new society. It would be secret, to heighten the amusement of the thing, and the titles for the various officers were to have names as preposterous-sounding as possible, partly for the fun of it and partly to avoid any military or political implications.
Thus, the head of the group was called the Grand Cyclops. His assistant was the Grand Magi; there was to be a Grand Turk to greet all candidates for admission, a Grand Scribe to act as secretary, Night Hawks for messengers and a Lictor to be the guard. The members, when the six young men found some to join, would be called Ghouls. But what name to call the society itself? The founders were determined to come up with something unusual and mysterious. Being well-educated, they turned to Greek. After tossing around a number of ideas, Richard R. Reed suggested the word "kuklos," from which the English words "circle and "cycle" are derived. Another member, Captain John B. Kennedy, had an ear for alliteration and added the word "clam." After tinkering with the sound for a while, group settled on the "Ku Klux Klan." The selection of the name, chance though it was, had a great deal to do with the Klan's early success. Something about the sound aroused curiosity and gave the fledgling club an immediate air of mystery, as did the initials K.K.K., which were soon to take on such terrifying significance.
The Klan, originally, was created by a small group of men in Tennessee, as a social club. The wore the capes and hoods, which at first were multi-colored, as a nod to fraternities, and because they realized that these "costumes frightened negroes. From here, what with the animosity towards negroes, and the problems many disenfranchised whites had after the Civil War, simple "scaring" by a social club, became terrorizing and harming blacks by a terrorist group. Initially, the KKK's power was very short-lived, pretty much dying out by the mid-1870's, only to be revitalized into a much stronger terrorist organization in 1915.
Here are a few links:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/kkk.htm/
Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America
Klu Klux Klan: A Hundred Years of Terror: Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center
These are good starting points.
Let me add that those who believe that the Klan was strictly a southern thing are wrong. The largest KKK chapter in existence was in Indiana. The KKK was once quite powerful, and even marched in Washington.
I'd just like to add that in modern times, the vast majority of Southerners consider the Klan to be a despised relic of the past, or a sad joke worthy only of laughter and derision, or both.
I agree with this post, but believe that some of the minority of Southerners laughter isn't because they find the KKK's ideals or tactics ridiculous, but because they no longer consider the KKK an effective organization. Extreme prejudice can still be found clogging the bowels of the South's backwaters.
I disagree. I think that extreme prejudice is no more common in the modern South than it is anywhere else in the USA, aside perhaps from a few isolated pockets here and there: you know, the ones that the news likes to make such a big deal over.
I base this on the fact that I've run into roughly as many racists who are from other parts of the country, as I find among native-born Southerners.
So it was started after the Civil war by Democrats against blacks AND whites who were Republican. It sounds like it's initial goal was political and not really just hating black people. Did it evolve into just hating black people? Were they always against Republicans?
So it was started after the Civil war by Democrats against blacks AND whites who were Republican. It sounds like it's initial goal was political and not really just hating black people. Did it evolve into just hating black people? Were they always against Republicans?
Don't know much, but here's the basics. They were formed in 1865 by six Confederate veterans in TN. They were a terrorist organization whose aim was to retain White dominance over Blacks by any means necessary. They intimidated, raped, and murdered Blacks and Whites alike to keep Blacks away from the polls. They were largely successful at this. The number of Black voters in the 1870s, the numbers plummeted. The first Klan was largely wiped out in 1871 as militias and the army fought them. In that year, the Ku Klux Klan Act was signed by Grant that allowed Federal troops to crack down on the Klan. Dozens of leaders were brought to trial, and many were convicted as Blacks were allowed to serve in the juries for the first time. The Klan at least ofr now was mostly gone.
In 1915, the Klan saw a rebirth. It cast itself as not just a Southern, Anti-Black movement, but as an "All American Upholders of Law and Order" group of Protestants who also hated Jews, Catholics, Socialists, and Labor Unions. The influence of the Klan grew as membership ballooned to 6,000,000 in 1924. Elected officials in many areas had to be Klansmen to be elected. Even in the Northern state of Indiana the Klan dominated state and local politics. That all changed when the Grand Dragon (head honcho) DC Stephenson raped, beat, and murdered a White schoolteacher. The Klan's role as protectors of Americana and women was tarnished, and many left the Klan. In the 1940s, the guy who wrote Superman revealed many of their secret rituals in a Superman issue and book, which trivialized the former mystique of the Klan which had drawn so many converts. By the 1950s, the Klan was trivial. It has engaged in violence since then, but it has never been the power it once was. Today's membership is only a few thousand.
For further information, the history channel made an excellent documentary on the Klan a while ago. You might be able to find it.
Oh and the name? Ku Klux come from the Greek word "Kuklos" which means circle.
I disagree. I think that extreme prejudice is no more common in the modern South than it is anywhere else in the USA, aside perhaps from a few isolated pockets here and there: you know, the ones that the news likes to make such a big deal over.
I base this on the fact that I've run into roughly as many racists who are from other parts of the country, as I find among native-born Southerners.
No, the lables "Democrats" and "Republicans" were actually pretty irrelevant. It was about southerners being against northerners and blacks. The political thing that you are attempting to add to this is pretty meaningless. It is about south vs. north.
It's not irrelevant since the KKK targeted white Republicans as well as blacks. It was politically motivated.
Yes it is irrelevant because they targetted northerners as well as blacks.
They targeted northern REPUBLICANS. It was politically motivated. Why do you not wish to admit that it was a Democratic group who were targeting the opposing group?
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