A History of the KKK

A few years back, one forgettable Hollywood movie made an attempt at making an original joke by throwing a white man in a gathering of black people. As the white man proceeds to get on with the groove, he accidentally puts on a large, pointed white hood and gets thrown out by a group of incensed black men.

While the scene might elicit an instinctive laugh, the joke really implies something quite serious; a century after the American Civil War, the shadow of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) is still present, still remembered. For many, the Klan and their reign of terror is anything but funny.

Ku Klux Klan has become the name associated with and assumed by groups then and now who vehemently advocate racism. Traditionally, the KKK has been connected to the nationwide discrimination and violence against blacks in the late 19^th century.

Contrary to what some might believe, the KKK has not been in existence as one continuous organization. Confederate veterans in Tennessee organized the first Ku Klux Klan in December of 1866. What was once intended to be a mere social club quickly became a vehicle for vitriolic resistance to the Reconstruction and to black emancipation. The KKK sought to restore white supremacy and suppress the growing political and social freedom of the once former black slave race. Although the power and influence of the first KKK lasted for only a little over a year, with the following years regarded as a period of decline for their group, the atrocities they committed against blacks and their white sympathizers within those two years have etched them permanently on the historical records of infamy. Dressed in sheets and robes to intimidate their victims and mask their identities, Klansman rode into the night to wage their reign of terror