During the winter of 1865 to 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, six former confederate army officers gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word “Kuklos”, meaning “circle”. The Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, but soon became a very serious organization which has changed the world. It?s activities soon were directed against the Republican Reconstruction governments. The group had become a permanent part of history forever.
Most people are familiar with the Ku Klux Klan as a secret and exclusively white group that terrorized former African American slaves following the Civil War. The “second” KKK in the 1920?s was a mass movement of between 2 to 6 million members.
In Atlanta, in 1915, the Klan of the WW 1 era allowed membership to white, native-born Protestant males, (otherwise know as 100% Americans).
They were required to swear oaths to secrecy, obedience, fidelity, and klanishness. The “second” KKK was viewed as a response to growing demands for rights by women, African Americans, and the young.
Discoverers found minutes from the 1920?s Klan chapter of more than 3 hundred members of the La Grande, Oregon KKK records. The documents are the only complete set of Klan minutes ever to be discovered. The minutes provide a detailed account of the Klan?s proceedings for more than 18 months. They say they offer a unique perspective into the rank and file of one of the largest mass movements in the U.S. history. The documents include summaries of Klavern discussions and gossip as well as vital information on new recruits. They also included a list of names of all the 326 members of the La Grande chapter.
The Term Paper on Klux Klan People Members Kkk
After the Civil War was over it was nearly impossible for many of the Southerners to go back to their lives. They no longer had slaves, their family and friends were killed, and their homes and land were destroyed. The state government no longer existed and northern soldiers were now in charge. The whites' right to vote was gone, and it instead was given to the uneducated former slaves. Six white ...
Three hundred miles east of Portland, in the Grande Ronde Valley of Oregon?s Blue Mountains, La Grande served as a maintenance center for the Union Pacific Railroad. It was a huge agricultural and lumber distribution point. Close to 1,600 residents in a town of less than 8,000 were foreign-born or had at least one immigrant parent.
Nearly 37% of people in the Klan in La Grande worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. Ninety per-cent of the KKK members fell into upper working-class or lower middle-class categories. The KKK viewed foreigners and people of color with suspicion. They would call them “japs”, “coons”, “wops”, and “chinks”. However, 1920 census records listed only 15 African Americans in La Grande and 46 people of Chinese ancestry in all of the county. The larger Roman Catholic population was of far more interest to La Grande Klansmen. J.L. McPherson, a local dentist, lectured Klansmen on trading only with the “right” businesses. A member of the Klan made of list of “100% American” merchants and read it at every meeting. La Grande?s KKK also served as a job protection association for Protestant employees of the Union Pacific Railroad.
In the fall of 1922 Klansmen fired a Catholic school teacher for no distinct reason.
The teacher?s supporters drafted a petition demanding she get her job back. When Klansmen took over a majority of school board seats in June, 1923 elections, the new panel selected on e of their own, a local knight, as district clerk and chose a site for the construction of an additional school. Early in 1923, someone complained of the refusal of an Irish-American teacher to read two student essays on the Klan. They stated, “We will someday give her an education on Americanism, if you don?t like the hand that?s feeding you, then go back to Ireland where you belong.”
The Essay on Native American Story of Black Elk
Black Elk tells a story about his family, his tribe, his people, and the circle of life. But most of all Black Elk speaks about his life and his spiritual journey. This is a story of a shaman and as he speaks we go deeper and deeper into his vision from his colorful words we are able to catch a glimpse of Native American religion and their spirituality. By the symbols and Black Elk's poetic words, ...
In the late 50?s and early 60?s, Medgar Evers was a black leader in a struggle to gain equal rights for blacks in his home state. He made campaigns to register black voters and organized boycotts of firms that practiced racial discrimination. On June 12th, 1963, Evers was killed by a gunman in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Byron De La Beckwith, was tried several times for the murder of Evers, but was not convicted until February, 1994. At that time Beckwith was 73 years old, and was sentenced to life in prison. In 1964, civil rights activists helped create Freedom Summer, an effort to focus national attention on Mississippi?s racism. The main goal of the project was to register black voters. About 600 people (many of them white college students), went to the south that summer to help the effort. In June of that year, three of the activists who participated in the project (two whites and one black), were murdered by members of the KKK near Philadelphia, Mississippi. On July 13th, 1998,James Byrd Jr. was beaten and fatally dragged behind a pickup truck down a country road. Three white men, members of the KKK, were charged with Byrd?s slaying.
After Byrd?s death, the Byrd family issued a statement urging peace. “let this horrendous violation of the sanctity of life not be a spark that ignites more hatred and retribution. Rather let this be a wake up call for America?for all American?s. May it spark a new cleansing fire of self-examination and reflection.” Reverend Jesse Jackson, who attended Byrd?s funeral urged residents no to attend the Klan rally coming up. He stated, “They need an audience, and people in Jasper out to go fishing. This is a time to choose healing and hope over hate, hurt, and hostility.” When the men in white hoods come to town, what the best response? Ignore them? Hold a civil-rights rally? Confront verbally, maybe physically? According to experts tracking such organizations as the KKK, they are increasingly holding rallies and marches to make their point. It?s a strategy the KKK chooses to get publicity and to draw new members closer.
Devin Burghart of the Center for New Community says, “In the past year, for instance, American Knights of the KKK held 39 rallies in 14 states. The 1978 case involving the American Nazi Party and Skokie, Illinois, established the right of any group to apply for and receive parade permits. When they do not obey, some people say they will confront the marchers peacefully with signs and song. Other plan to confront the marchers more directly.
The Term Paper on Klux Klan People Hitler Jews
... the sixties. "Duke quit the Klan in 1980, and founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People" (Mackenzie, 40). Duke broke ... charged with the beating and stabbing of a mentally handicapped black male who was waiting for a bus outside a Wal ... a hundred years to shatter the dreams of so many people. Many believe that since the civil rights movement, the KKK is no ...
Irv Rubin, national director of the militant Jewish Defense League, flew to Spokane from Los Angeles and stated, “I have to confront an evil that should have been wiped out sixty years ago. Sometimes you have to use your fists. When you ignore them, they rise the level of their activity.” All of this can make things difficult for police officers. A police officer who tracks down groups in the Pacific North West says, “Ideally, the Klan would drive into town to find the streets deserted, all business and public buildings closed. I don?t think they?d have much interest in playing to an empty house.” In the past two years there has been a great deal of violence initiated by anti-Klan protesters. Steven McNames is a separatist from the New Order Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He is 16 years old and lives in Overland, Mississippi. From an interview, a reporter says Steven doesn?t really want to kill anybody or hurt anybody; he just wants to be able to do his own thing and be proud of being white. He feels the Klan should be able to hold their rallies, talk to people, pass out their literature, do whatever is legal. He talks about how real racism in the country is against them, because a black person could go around and say “Black power,” and if a white person said “White power,” he would get in trouble.
He feels upset that black people can make anti-white statements to him, but if he makes an anti-black statement, he risks a beating. He says he doesn?t hate anybody, except the Jews. Steven?s parents didn?t raise him to be racist, but they weren?t against him being in the Klan. He stated, “There?s all different kinds of requirements to join. You might hear some crap that you have to kill somebody, but that?s completely untrue. You just meet the leader, get to know him. When he trusts you, pay some kind of fee so he can get all your stuff, like your uniform, your identification card. We don?t wear the robes. We wear T-shirts, black, button-up shirts, boots and pants. On a comments about school he says, “I think they?re brainwashing kids because they have black studies. They teach things that have white people in it, but they don?t call it white studies.” He says when he gets married and has kids, he won?t force his kids into the Klan or into being racist, because he feels that is brainwashing, also, though he still wants his kids to grow up proud whites.
The Term Paper on African American Media White Black
The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass Media Why as white people have we been lulled into thinking its safe to be around other white people. Why have we been taught since birth that it's the people of that other color we need to fear? They " re the ones that will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the ...
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