How long did kkk last

Spurred by the film The Birth of a Nation , which depicted savage, bestial African Americans intent on raping white women who were rescued by the heroic KKK, it amassed somewhere between 3 and 6 million members.

Its success in regions where the black population was still very small 2. Whiteness thus stood for an authentic Americanism, from which people of colour were permanently excluded. In the s, Klan bigotry was entirely mainstream and was probably shared by most white Protestant Americans. This s KKK stood out only in the intensity and breadth of its fear-mongering.

For example, many institutions at this time — including most elite universities — either excluded Jews or established Jewish quotas. It constituted an evangelical revival, and claimed to have 40, ministers among its members.

Although this figure is almost certainly an exaggeration, it is certain that thousands of ministers lauded the Klan in their sermons. Klan religiosity also showed in its denunciation of evolutionary theory and, of course, support for Prohibition. Closely related was its anxiety about sex and gender matters.

Its sensationalist, and fake, accounts of Catholic perversions were so detailed that they allowed Klan supporters to condemn but simultaneously enjoy a pornography.

Jews were even worse in the eyes of the Klan. That claim was generally, but not completely, true — for episodic Klan vigilantism constituted an important part of its appeal. But the major KKK strategy was electoral. The Klan provides a vivid example of how social movements work together with electoral politics by threatening politicians and candidates with loss of votes.

Two major national victories in exemplify the electoral power the organisation held. Congressman and Klan member Albert Johnson of Washington state, chair of the House Immigration Committee, shepherded the bill to victory he also liked to brag about his participation in a mass vigilante action that drove the entire South Asian population out of Bellingham, Washington.

This statute remained the law until Not surprisingly, while 1, votes had been cast in Columbia County for Republican governor Rufus Bullock in April, only one vote was cast for Republican presidential candidate Ulysses Grant in November Black churches and schools were burned, teachers were attacked, and freedpeople who refused to show proper deference were beaten and killed. But, Black Georgians fought their attackers, rebuilt their churches and schools, and shot back during attacks on their communities.

While these attacks surely terrorized some freedpeople, they failed to destroy the cultural and social independence Blacks had gained with emancipation.

While John B. Gordon may have left the Klan by late , Klan activity clearly continued throughout and After the Klan-supported Democratic triumph in the state elections of , the formal Klan organization began to fade away with aggressive federal intervention in and Local Klanlike groups continued to engage in racial and political terrorism, often calling themselves minutemen or rifle clubs, but they lacked larger organizational ties or even commonality of purpose.

Bryant, Jonathan. Bryant, J. Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era. In New Georgia Encyclopedia. Founded in Tennessee in , the Klan was particularly active in Georgia from to the early s.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder. The Ku Klux Klan was a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists during the Reconstruction, whose goals included political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy in response to newly gained civil and political rights by southern Blacks after the Civil War.

Author Jonathan M. Bryant , Georgia Southern University. The law was hailed by supporters as a necessary step in preventing alleged communist subversion in the United States, while opponents decried the legislation as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The act, Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Art, Literature, and Film History. War of This Day in History. Vietnam War. Sign Up. Cold War.