The Ku Klux Klan And A 100 Percent Americanism
The Ku Klux Klan started after the civil war, advocating for a “100 percent Americanism” world. They wanted rights for white men and woman, no one else. In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan showed themselves by torture and violence, but ultimately everything ended with their power being over ruled.
After the African Americans of the United States gained their independence back, old military veterans disagreed. In result, the Klan was formed by veterans in Tennessee. After the war, the 14th amendment which gave former slaves full citizenship, and the 15th amendment which gave everyone the right to vote, made white supermists mad so, many riots took place in the streets between black and white people. The leaders of the newly formed Klan decided to go to a rally to recruit new members to the Klan. That day the Klan grew big enough that they could call themselves “the empire of the south”.
The Klan used violence to discriminate against the African American community. The Klan’s methods of violence were, mass murders, fogging’s which is beating someone with a whip or stick as punishment or torture, and sexual assaults. They also used the burning of big wooden crosses, breaking storefront glass windows, and kidnapping as a tactic to make people live in fear. Their victims consisted of mainly African American teachers, priest, soldiers, politicians, or any African American who had power or was known in the world. They also discriminated against immigrants and people of different religions. The leaders of the Klan did these things to lower the population of the African American community.
The Klan is the most notorious religion based cult. The Klan had training camps for their members. They got the money for the camps by armed bank robberies, and counterfeit money. In the camps they were taught their religion was Christian, but the leaders don’t follow the rules of the Church. Because they have a leader not a God, the leader can tell the members what they want them to believe so, they told them that the people of the Jewish religion and people of color are spawns from the devil. Therefore, they think it is okay to commit mass murder, because they think they have no souls.
The Klan used scapegoats for their violence. The adults of the Klan recruited young people from the ages of 13-25 to take the blame. They wanted the crime that the kids were doing to look as a kid doing prank instead of an adult doing a crime. Often the adult leaders of the Klan would plot a mass murder and then send the kids out to do it so they didn’t get incarcerated and punished. Later, the government figured this out by listening to the phone calls between the leader and young members of the cult.
The Klan tried to replace powerful people in the government and education, trying to teach the thought of 100 percent Americanism. During the time of elections, the Klan wanted to overthrow the republicans in the south and replace them. So, to go through with this plan, they started with a mass murder and killed most people that voted republican, over 2,000 people were killed during election time (Columbia). If they did replace the government, they wanted schools to teach about their practices and teach about the 100 percent Americanism world, asking to keep the catholic teaching to a minimum.
The Klan was so big and powerful that the government couldn’t do anything about it. They had around 8 million people in the Klan at this time. The Klan’s acts didn’t have any reason to them, they were just out of hate. There are reports of a black male being insolent to a Klan’s member and the black male was beaten and killed. There were also many cases of African Americans who didn’t want to give up their land to white men because that would make them homeless, and they were lynched just for saying no.
The church and the federal government stepped in to make a change, so the African Americans could finally have a life without fear. American Catholics were the Klan’s biggest opponent. The Church thought that if the Klan were to take over the government that they would question the faith of Catholicism, and start changing the rules of the religion. The church took a stand and started with rally’s that promoted diversity in America, which soon lead to laws banning the Klan of parading in most states. After that, another law was passed saying that anyone to be wearing a robe and hat associating with the Klan would be arrested. This lead to a major down fall of the Klan, because with the new laws of no robes and hoods, they couldn’t go through initiation for new members joining the Klan. More than 5,000 people were arrested in the south for associating themselves with the Klan after these laws were passed.
After the fight for peace, the Klan numbers were lowered to almost none, leaving us to a life blended with many other races, religions, and cultures with no discrimination. The Klan showed us what not to do in the future, helping us live happily now.
