Ku Klux Klan: Shrouded Brotherhood or Hooded Americanism - Essay Example

Ku Klux Klan: Shrouded Brotherhood or Hooded Americanism The Ku Klux Klan was started in the town of Pulaski (seat of Giles County), Tennessee, sometime between Christmas 1865 and June 1866. At first, it was only "a thing for amusement" but how this small group grew into an organization for terrorism is an interesting topic for this paper. When young soldiers from the Confederate Army returned from war, they realized they had nothing to do; jobs were literally non existent. James Crowe, Richard Reed, Calvin Jones, John Lester, Frank McCord, and John Kennedy met in the house of Colonel Thomas Martin in Giles county, and formed what first they called "the circle" which when translated into Greek is kuklos. Crowe suggested kuklux so no one would know, and they added klan because the boys were all of Scotch-Irish descent. After that, they draped themselves with sheets, bed linen, and pulled pillow cases over their heads and went out riding to the town to their satisfaction and curiosity of the people. They also adopted other costumes such as long, loose-fitting white gowns, belted at the waist and decorated with meaningless occult symbols in red flannel - spangles, stars, half-moons. Tall conical witches' hats also completely concealed their heads, as eyeholes were punched out for vision. (Wade, 33) James Crowe stated emphatically that the original Ku-Klux Klan was "purely social and for our amusement." The organization had no practical, humanitarian, or political significance, and just obligated its members to "have fun, make mischief, and play pranks on the public" (34). The Klan's pranks were warmly welcome by the depressed townspeople of postwar Pulaski. The group sometimes invaded barbecue and outdoor evening parties. In one moonlight picnic, the horsemen came out of the woods wearing "rather a pretty and showy costume", and danced to the music and cavorted with the delighted guests, disguising their voices in low, mysterious tones. (34) They formed six offices, and these were: The Grand Cyclops (Mc Cord) which functioned as president, the Grand Magi (Kennedy) as vice-president, the Grand Turk was served by Crowe, while Lester and Jones served as Night Hawks. Reed served as Lictor charged with maintaining order within the meetings (34). The little town of Pulaski had had a mixed population, most of Scottish ancestry. Before the war, Giles county had been a major slave-holding region, and after the war the freedom of so many blacks made whites extremely nervous. Reports from the Freedmen's Bureau soon described Pulaski as a scene of repeated disturbances committed on freedmen and a convenient rendezvous point for "roughs" and rowdies from neighboring towns. The place was dominated with emancipation, sporadic violence, and economic chaos, aggravated with a natural disaster which was a severe cyclone in December 1865 that tore through the splendid plantations (32). It was in this situation that the six veterans formed "the circle". It had evolved, naturally, because from the beginning the klan had no centralized governance, other chapters or locals were formed and operated autonomously. "The Klan was born during the restless days after the civil war, when time was out of joint in the South and the social order was battered and turned upside down" (Chalmers, 1981:2). The Klan offered some relief from the deadly monotony of small town life. However, the conversion of klan purposes from amusement to terrorism was demonstrated when representatives of various local klan "dens" held a unifying convention in Nashville,Tenn, in 1867. They first elected former Confederate Army General Forrest as their grand wizard. Also the U.S. Congress enacted laws which sought to bestow civil rights on the recently freed slaves. (O'Donnell & Jacobs 2006:5-6) Under General Nathan Bedford Forrest as Imperial Wizard, they formulated the fundamental objective of the Ku Klux Klan which was "maintenance of the supremacy of the white race". Membership was restricted to those who would oppose not only Negro "social and political equality" but also the radicals then dominant in the U.S. Congress who were to be defeated in order to "restore State sovereignty". Other objectives formulated were support of the U.S. Constitution, assistance in execution of all constitutional laws, protection of the weak and innocent, relief of the injured and oppressed, and succoring of the unfortunate, especially widows and orphans" (O'Donnel & Jacobs, 6). And so, "adopting the uniform of a white cloak and hood and the symbol of the burning cross, members pillaged black neighborhoods and murdered black leaders. The cloak and hood, which served to hide the identity of the Klansmen, also frightened black southerners with a ghostly image of deadly terror." (CH II Publishers, 1997) The Klan soon turned into a vigilante force. The masked Klansmen rode out across the land, where intimidation and violence was used. They raided solitary cabins and invaded towns, preferably at night, but in the daytime if necessary. The death toll of Negroes and Republicans probably ran close to a thousand. (Chalmers 1981:2) Their first objective was to stop black people from voting. After white governments had been established in the South the Ku Klux Klan continued to undermine the power of blacks. Successful black businessmen were attacked and any attempt to form black protection groups such as trade unions was quickly dealt with. (Spartacus International) An example of these brutal activities of the Klan is the whipping of Richard Moore, described in the article The Whipping of Richard Moore: Reading Emotion in Reconstruction America, by Edward John Harcourt of Vanderbilt University. On August 18, 1868 Richard Moore, a former slave and Union veteran, journeyed from rural Lincoln in Middle Tennessee to testify in Nashville before a Republican-controlled committee of the Tennessee State Assembly investigating incidents of violence against freedmen. Moore testified before the committee that on July 30, 1868 sixteen members of what he called the Ku Klux Klan broke into his house and struck him about the head with pistols and sticks. They then demanded his pistol and voter registration certificate. The assailants goaded him to take his bloodied shirt and carry it to the legislature, threatening to kill him if he did so. Moore identified his assailants in his testimony. (Harcourt, 261) Violence against blacks was so widespread that President Ulysses S. Grant was forced to commit large numbers of federal troops to put down the Klan. The local dens proved uncontrollable and continued to operate for private as well as political ends, even after Forrest formally disbanded the Klans in 1869. (Chalmers 1981:2) Republicans in Congress urged President Ulysses S. Grant to take action against the Ku Klux Klan. A Grand Jury was formed. The Jury reported that the Ku Klux Klan, or "Invisible Empire of the South", had for its membership a large proportion of the white population of every profession and class. It had a constitution and bylaws that provided that each member shall furnish himself with a pistol, a Ku Klux gown and a signal instrument. The jury also described the operations of the Klan as being executed in the night and directed against the members of the Republican Party. It was inflicting summary vengeance on the colored citizens by breaking into their houses at the dead of night, dragging them from beds, torturing them in the most inhuman manner, and in many instances murdering. (Spartacus International) The organization declined from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed by President Ulysses S. Grant's action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. President Grant signed the Butler's legislation, which was used with the 1870 Force Act to enforce the civil rights provisions of the constitution. Klansmen were prosecuted in federal court, where juries were often predominantly black (The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow - The Enforcement Act 1870-1871). Hundreds of Klan members were fined or imprisoned, and habeas corpus was suspended in nine counties in South Carolina. The Klan was destroyed in South Carolina. (Wade, 102) In 1876, the Hayes-Tilden Compromise, which gave the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in return for the removal of federal troops, enabled white southerners to reassert political control of their states. Various legislatures kept blacks from voting so that the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan were no longer needed. Slowly the Ku Klux Klan faded into oblivion. It began to rear again its ugly head when, after the turn of the century and particularly following World War I, black Americans asked for fuller participation in the industrial economy. (CH II Publishers, 1976) A combination of reasons for the eventual decline of the Ku Klux Klan of the Reconstruction period are: (1) growth of public sentiment in the South against activities of masked terrorists; (2) State, and even more particularly Federal legislation, under which, martial law was declared and hundreds of alleged klansmen arrested in one State; and (3) so-called changed historical conditions which included the gradual restoration of segregation oriented State governments. (O'Donell & Jacobs, 8) The Klan's Revival The Klan of the 1920s advocated white supremacy and at times relied upon overt racism and violence to drum up support (Chalmers 1987, cited in McVeigh). In public, however, Klan leaders more frequently adopted a paternalistic approach toward African Americans. Kathleen Blee (1991) notes that in Indiana there was an attempt to organize a "colored" division of the Ku Klux Klan. Through their numerous newspapers and publications, Klan leaders argued that it was the Klansman's duty to protect African Americans from foreign influences, in particular labor radicals and union organizers (McVeigh, 1999). They shifted tactics. Most of the movement's attack was now directed toward immigrants, Catholics, Jews, socialists, agrarian radicals, organized labor, urban machine politics, big business, vice, and immorality. (McVeigh, 1464) What sparked the revival of the Klan Colonel William Joseph Simons was responsible for resurrecting the Ku Klux Klan. He was the son of an officer in the original Klan. And he called the order the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Mecklin 2006:4). The film The Birth of a Nation and the sensationalized newspaper coverage of the trial, conviction and lynching of Leo Frank of Georgia sparked the Klan's revival. Added to this was the great migration from southern and eastern Europe, and from rural areas by Southern blacks. The movie glorified the Reconstruction-era Klan, portraying the Knights as valiant defenders of the South's unique culture and political institutions as well as the protectors of the purity of white womanhood. (McVeigh, 1464) On October 16, 1915, Mr. Simmons, together with some thirty-four friends, three of whom were bona fide members of the old Klan, met and signed a petition for a charter. And when this charter was granted, on Thanksgiving night, 1915, they gathered "under a blazing, fiery torch" on the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, and took the oath of allegiance to the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. (Mecklin, 4) By the beginning of 1920, Simmons contracted professional organizers Edward Young Clark and Elizabeth Tyler. Both Clark and Tyler had previously been involved, with an amount of success, in handling publicity for the Anti-Saloon League, the Armenian Relief Fund, and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association, among other organizations (Wade 1987, cited in McVeigh, 1465). Clarke became head of the propaganda department with complete charge of organization. Aided by Mrs. Tyler, they proceeded to "sell" the Klan to the American public, so that by 1921, when the Klan was investigated by Congress, the Klan had grown to about 100,000 members. (Mecklin, 7-8) They promoted supremacy of white Protestant and 100% Americanism to attract new members. And they were successful in recruiting from many protestant congregations. (McVeigh, 1464) Its greatest selling point was the protection of traditional American values. These were to be found in the bosoms and communities of white, native-born, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, whether in the small towns or transplanted into a newly minted urban America. (Chalmers 1981:3) With the new upheaval in activities, Klan members participated in a seemingly endless succession of parades, rallies, and marches, and organized baseball teams, barbecues, carnivals and picnics. In many communities throughout the nation, the Ku Klux Klan came to dominate nearly every aspect of the everyday lives of its members (Blee 1991; Chalmers 1987, both cited in McVeigh, 1467). Activities and socials grew for the Klan. It became a national phenomenon, picking up its first genuine Klan senator in Texas and almost got the governorship. Its particular center was Dallas where the appearance of Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans, a local dentist made good, drew 75,000 of the members to Klan Day at the state fair. In Arkansas the Klan was so politically powerful that it held its own primaries to decide which member to support in the regular Democratic ones. Klan violence in California was as brutal as anywhere in the South. In the town of Taft, in Kern County, the police and citizens turned out to watch an evening of torture in the local ball park. Indiana Klansmen elected a senator, the governor and the legislature, and in one small town went down to say much against the Pope when it was rumored that he was coming on the train from Chicago. The quarter-of-a-million Ohio Klan also fought against migration. In every county in New Jersey, the Klan was organized. Klansmen and Irishmen spent their summer nights rioting in central Massachusetts and in Maine the Invisible Empire helped boost Owen Brewster into the governorship. (Chalmers 1981:3) McVeigh offered a behavioral theory for this phenomenon. The Klan emerged during a period of rapid social change. Industrialization, urbanization, and migration were just some of the important changes taking place. The Klan served as more than an outlet for frustration. (McVeigh, 1468) The Klan was concerned with promoting the supremacy of race, religion, and culture. During the depression, the Klan was reduced to about a hundred thousand, and concentrated much in the South. In the 1920s, the Klan fought against Catholic and immigrants, and now in the thirties, they had to face communism, anti-semitism, and even organized labor which fought against one-hundred-per-cent Americanism. Klan organizers were told to lay off Roman Catholics, Jews, and Negroes and concentrate on the invasion of the South by communism in the form of CIO's Steel and Textile Workers Organizing Committees. (Chalmers, 4) Present-day klan organizations dedicate themselves to commemorating the achievements of the Ku Klux Klan of the Reconstruction era and to perpetuating the principles of the first phalanx of nightriders to appear on the American scene. (O'Donell & Jacobs 2006:5) What happens now after about a century of the Ku Klux Klan Leonard Harris of Purdue University offers an interesting theory in his article entitled "Believe it or not" or the Ku Klux Klan and American Philosophy Exposed. It falls on the "Issues in the Profession" topic, and Harris says that the Ku Klux Klan secretly created a profession which is an American Philosophy. It is a "Believe It or Not" story about the success of the Klan's creation. It means that after the Klan, there is still white supremacy even in the academe. Harris says that there are no Blacks on the faculty in the Philosophy Department at any of the eight Ivy League universities and no Blacks on the faculty in the Philosophy Department at nine of the eleven Big Ten universities. Conclusion The present activities of the Klan are focused only on commemorating the achievements of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction era, but the influence can still be seen in the ordinary and present day American life. Works Cited Books: Chalmers, D. M. (1981). Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd ed. Duke University Press edition: United States of America, 2000. Mecklin, J. M. (2006). Ku Klux Klan: A Study of the American Mind. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. O'Donnell, Patrick & David Jacobs (2006). Ku Klux Klan America's First Terrorists Exposed (Shadow History of the United States). New Jersey: Idea Men Productions 2006. Wade, Wyn Craig (1987). The Fiery Cross: The Klux Klan in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987: 31-35. Websites: CH II Publishers (1997). A Brief History of the Ku Klux Klan. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 14. (Winter, 1996-1997), p. 32. 14 March 2008 Harcourt, John Edward. The Whipping of Richard Moore: Reading Emotion in Reconstruction America, Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 2. (Winter, 2002), pp. 261-282. 24 March 2008. Harris, L. "Believe It or Not" or the Ku Klux Klan and American Philosophy Exposed. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 68, No. 5. (May, 1995), pp. 133-137. 24 March 2008. McVeigh, Rory (1999). Structural Incentives for Conservative Mobilization: Power Devaluation and the Rise of the Ku Klux Klan, 1915-1925 Social Forces, Vol. 77, No. 4. (Jun., 1999), pp. 1461-1496. 14 March 2008. Spartacus International. 14 March 2008. Stearns, Peter N. (1990). Historical Interpretations of the 1920's Klan: The Traditional View and the Populist Revision. Journal of Social History, Vol. 24, No. 2. (Winter, 1990), pp. 341-357. 15 March 2008. Read More