The Ku Klux Klan - Essay Example

Ever since 1868 through the early 1870s, the Ku Klux Klan operated as a loosely organized group of social and political terrorists (Alexander, 2015). Some of the main targets of the group were the maintenance of the total white supremacy about the newly gained civil and political rights by the southern blacks just after the civil war and the political defeat of the Republican Party. This group is considered to have been successful in their political goals considered to how they thrived to attain their political gals during the reconstruction period. The group was started as a social club but not a terrorist group. There were political ambitions that were to be attained by the group as well as social ambitions. However, during the formation, the social ambitions which were to make the group a social group were given much priority.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded a social group. It is believed that the name of the group originated from the Greek Word Kuklos which means circle. The group was founded on 1866.lan was another term that was used to mean clan, and therefore the full name Ku Klux Klan meant band, circle or brothers. Following the passage of the Military Reconstruction Acts that were in March 1867, and the prospect of freedom of voting in the South, the Klan slowly turned into a political organization. It had its ideologies that it believed in and there were people that were aligned to the ideologies. The former confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest has a chance that he served as the Grand Wizard or the group leader of the Klan and particularly played a big role in its organized spread during the beginning of 1868 (Cunningham, 2013). It is during the early phases of the formation of this group that different agendas other than that of a social group were created. This could have been brought about by the events that were taking place in the United States.

In Georgia conservative whites that were frustrated by their political failures during 1867 started to look for some new and better ways to defeat their Republican enemies and control the lately enfranchized freed people. This shows that the group was diverting from their main role of uniting people and being the social group that they wanted. They never campaigned again for the unity but instead fought for the white supremacy. They turned out to be dangerous to people that were opposing their ideas. There were a lot of black people that affected as a result of the frustration that the members of these groups were going through. For a lot of people, the group and its free political wing, the Young Men’s Democratic Clubs, gave out a chance to take action. In that year, February and March 1868, General Forest paid a visit to Atlanta from Tennesse a lot of times and met with the great Georgia conservatives. General Forrest probably assisted to organize a statewide Klan structure during the visits. During the summer of 1868, the group had had its places nearly in the whole of Georgia (Cunningham, 2013).

The Ku Klux Klan was a very loosely organized group. It was big and the ideas they shared at first changed over time due to selfish ambitions of the individual members. They changed from a social group to a group that’s its activities can be termed as terrorism. The hierarchical structures that were beyond the county level probably were more symbolic compared to their operation schedule (Jenkins, 2016). The plan in Georgia had a titular head, the Grand Dragon that at one given instance was probably General John B. Gordon. Every congressional district had a grand Titan and below him were the Grand Giants for each county.

The group was first thriving well as a social group. It managed to collect people from different geographical locations, share ideas and solve problems that were affecting them. However, when the bill was passed that threatened the existence of the white supremacy, this group turned into a terrorist group that wanted to kill the blacks and other races to retain the white supremacy. The Klan’s planned terrorisms started most probably on the March 31st, 1868 when the Republican organizer George Ashburn was killed in Columbus, Georgia. This was personal to them, and they felt that they needed to act in response to it. In the following month s, Klan-inspired violence spread in the entire of the Georgia’s Black Belt and into the northwestern corner of the state. A lot of the actions that were taken by Klan were aimed at intimidating the black voters as well as the white supporters of the Republican Party. The members of the Klan group could line up on horseback at night dressed up in outlandish costumes, and they ended up threatening particular Republican leaders with violence. As this group was rising to be more powerful and dangerous during 1868, they became more violent ranging from whippings of black women that was regarded as insolent to the assassination of the Republican leader. There was a lot of terror that was unleashed on people who supported the ideologies of the Republican leaders.

To a large extent, the political terrorism was effective. Despite the fact that, Rufus Bullock who was the Republican gubernatorial candidate, carried the state in April 1868 elections, Horatio Seymour who was a Democratic presidential candidate, by November was already in the lead. There are some counties where the contrast was incredible. For instance, in the county of John Reed’s Oglethorpe County, approximately 1,144 individuals had cast their votes in favor of Republican in April. Ironically, only 116 people voted for Republican in the November elections when the armed Klansmen of Reed surrounded and guarded the polls. Armed Klansmen in Columbia not only intimidated and coerced voters but had also cowed the federal soldiers that had been sent to protect the polling place. In April, 1,222 votes had been cast for Republican governor Rufus Bullock in Columbia County and not surprisingly there was only a single vote that was cast in November 1868 for Republican presidential candidate Ulysses Grant. Such political terrorism, as well as the total control of polling centers, can be attributed to Georgia’s quick redemption as well as a return to conservative white democratic control in 1871.

It was also determined that klan-like violence had been used in controlling freedpeople’s social behavior, how less success was attained. Also notably, black schools and churches were burnt, people were attacked and also freedpeople that did not show deference were killed or beaten. There were some antagonists like the black Georgians who successfully fought their attackers and managed to rebuild their schools and churches. They also shot back when their communities were being attacked. In as much as these attacks led to the terrorization of some freed people, the cultural, as well as social independence of the blacks, were not destroyed instead they gained with emancipation.

There is no clear time frame or rather a clear date for the demise of the first Ku Klux Klan’s activities in Georgia. Despite the fact that John Gordon had probably left the klan in 1868, it is stated that Klan activities were still in existence and continued throughout 1869 and 1870. The formal Klan organization started to fade away after it supported Democratic triumph in the 1870 state elections. There was an aggressive federal intervention between 1871 and 1872. There were still some cases of political as well as racial terrorism that continued within the local klan-like groups. These klan-like groups often called themselves rifle clubs or minutemen. However, they did not have a strong or larger organizational ties leave alone having a commonality of purpose, and as such, they were not as powerful as the other group. A romanticized memory of the first Ku Klux Klan had legitimized their activities and operated as a well-known group with the commonality of purpose. Furthermore, the first KKK had a growing power of a lost Cause mythology that had greatly fostered Georgian’s acceptance of Vigilante violence as well as lynching well into the 20th century. Moreover, many men had openly and proudly admitted to having ridden with the Klan by the 1890s and thus saving the South and Georgia from Negro domination. Based on the manner in which the group had a romanticized vision of the klan had been greatly applauded and created a basis for the more organized Knights of the KKK (Dixon, 2013).

In conclusion, it has been determined that the Ku Klux Klan was an organized group of social and political terrorists. The primary aim of the group was ascertained to be the defeat of the Republican party and to maintain white supremacy to avert the newly gained political and civil rights that had been gained by the Southern blacks particularly after 1861 to 1865 civil war. They had managed to succeed in most of their political activities as compared to the achievements that they had gained about their social goals. They managed to intimidate black voters as well as the white supporters of the Republican Party. They also used threatening techniques to lure or coerce some specific Republican leaders with violence. They also infringed terror including whippings of black women that were considered to be relatively perceived as insolent to the assassination of Republican leaders. Examples of the political manipulations that the group attained have been highlighted above. For instance, the April and November elections in Columbia were very erroneous. There were bigger margins between the two elections which is highly pegged to the influence of the KKK group on the voters. The most surprising outcome was where governor Rufus attained 1,222 votes in April, and only one vote had been cast for Republican presidential candidate in November. All were able to attain all these mainly due to their well-organized manner. However, it was also determined that despite their terror activities terrorizing people particularly the freed people, but they did not manage to influence their social as well as cultural independence, but instead the blacks gained with greater emancipation.

Reference

Alexander, C. C. (2015). The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest. University Press of Kentucky.

Jenkins, W. D. (2016). The Ku Klux Klan in Western Pennsylvania, 1921-1928 by John Craig. Ohio Valley History, 16(1), 91-93.

Dixon, T. (2013). The clansman: An historical romance of the Ku Klux Klan. University Press of Kentucky.

Cunningham, D. (2013). Klansville, USA: The rise and fall of the civil rights-era Ku Klux Klan. Oxford University Press.