The Ku Klux Klan
The end of the Civil war is very significant part of history. As the struggle of blacks for freedom came to an end, a new form of struggle began to form. Political, social, and economic gains of blacks after the Civil war became frightening, and the idea of whites loosing superiority over blacks felt unacceptable. Poor social class feared of losing their jobs, and wealthy of loosing cheap labor. As a result, racist groups began to form. The name Ku Klux Klan is now known all over the world for the sense of terror that it sends through peoples’ minds. At first formed as a small social club to preserve the white culture, slowly became large heartless group of extremists threatening black community.
In 1865, after the Civil War, in Pulaski, Tennessee Nathan Bed Forrest and six other ex confederate soldiers met and formed the organization. Their name came from a Greek word “kuklos” which means “circle” that symbolizes characteristics of this the group which were Unity and Order. The principles found by the members did not sound like anything harmful or racist at first. In fact, it looked like the Klan would be on the side of poor and hopeless. The goal, at first, was to create a social club that would (1) “protect the weak, the innocent, the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless … (2) “protect and defend the constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto and to protect the states and the people thereof from all unlawful seizure…” (John Mecklin “The Ku Klux Klan” pg.64) The Klan spread and gained its members through the newspapers and clubs, soon becoming an organization with origins in many southern states.
To some whites, the freedom of slaves meant that their social and economic ways of life had been defeated and found satisfaction in Klan. As more people joined, ideas began to change causing the Klan to slowly become violent and fearful. Within a year of its...