Origins of the Ku Klux Klan

Also known as the Invisible Empire of the South

1st branch was established in Tennessee May 1866
Branches grew up in Southern states
1868 - 1870 KKK played an important role in restoring
White rule in Southern states
Similar organisation existed called
White Brotherhood
Men of Justice
Constitutional Union Guards
Knights of the White Camelia

 1st main objective was to stop

Black people from voting
It also undermine the power of
Blacks
Successful Black businessmen
were attacked
Any attempt to form Black
protection groups (e.g. Trade
Unions) was quickly dealt with
By 1871 because its objective of
White supremacy in the South
had been achieved, the
organisation practically
disappeared

Origins of the Ku
Klux Klan

KKK reforms
KKK was reformed in 1915 by
William J. Simmons, a
preacher
He was influenced by the film
Birth of a Nation
Birth of a Nation showed the KKK
saving white families from groups
of Blacks intent on rape and
looting

By 1920 race tension increased

in America and so the Klan grew
again

Ideas and beliefs of the KKK

Extreme WASP organisation
Against and believed the following groups were inferior
Blacks
Catholics
Jews
Socialists
Communists
Immigrants
Anyone thought to be un American

Against civil rights laws

Said their actions were to protect the American way of
life

Organisation of Klan
Led by a Grand Wizard of the Empire (leader)
Officers below this were given such names as Grand
Dragon, Grand Titan, and Grand Cyclops.
Local Klan organisation were called Klaverns

Activity
Put the title Methods used by the KKK in
creating terror and fear
Draw a circle to begin a spider diagram
Using the information on slides 8 14 to
complete the spider diagram.

Methods
Aim was to create fear and terror amongst those
considered un American especially Blacks
Wore masks, white cardboard hats and were draped in
white sheets

Methods
Attacked Blacks and their homes, usually at night
Left behind burning crosses near homes of people they
wished to frighten
Many Black people who lived in lonely farm shacks
sometimes believed it was ghosts had come to kill them

Late at night she was awakened by the thudding of horses

hooves as nightriders, branding torches and yelling like
banshees, swept into the clearing and rode round and
round her cabin. She never knew when they might set fire
to the place, burning her to death inside, and some nights
she was so terrified that she would get out of bed, creep
through the woods to the roadway and trudge the twelve
miles to Durham, preferring the dark, lonely but open road
to the risk of being trapped in the farm.

Methods
Burned churches and schools and drove thousands of
people out of their homes

Methods
Victims might be kidnapped, whipped, mutilated or
murdered (often by lynching)

The Negro was taken to a grove, where each one of more

than five hundred people, in the Ku Klux Klan ceremonial,
had placed a pine knot around a stump, and asked if he had
anything to say. The fire was lit and a hundred men and
women, old and young, grandmothers among them, joined
hands and danced around while the Negro burned. A big
barn dance was held in a barn nearby that evening in
celebration of the burning, many people coming by car from
nearby cities to the gala event.
1921 Washington Eagle newspaper described the death of a Black man
accused of murdering a white woman in Georgia.

Methods
Marched through streets of towns and cities carrying
posters threatening various persons with punishment and
warning others to leave town

Membership
Native born Americans, White,
Protestant
Had to be 16 and over
Membership included all classes
from the poor and uneducated to
governors, senators, judges,
sheriffs and members of the police
in Southern states
At its peak 1 out of 8 American
males between the ages of 21-65
were members

Membership
Typical questions asked of new recruits
1. Are you native born American citizens?
2. Were your parents born in the United States of America?
3. Are you of the white race or of a coloured race?
4. Have you ever been a member of the Catholic Church?
5. Are any of the members of your immediate family members of the Catholic
Church?
6. Do you believe in the principles of a PURE Americanism?
7. Do you believe in White Supremacy?
8. Do you owe any kind of allegiance to any foreign nation, government,
institutions, sect, people ruler or person?
9. Can you always be depended on?

Initiation Ceremonies