Ku Klux Klan - White Supremacy Group - Research Paper Example

Ku Klux Klan The emergence of the notorious white supremacist group called the Ku Klux Klan reflects the deep roots of racism in the American historyand culture. It is related with other white supremacist groups through the Christian Identity theology imported from Europe, which posits that the Aryan people of the Northern European region – whites only- are the true chosen children of God. Indeed, Ku Klux Klan claims: Our main and fundamental objective is the Maintenance of the Supremacy of the White Race in this Republic. History and physiology teach us that we belong to a race which nature has endowed with an evident superiority over all other races, and that the Maker in thus elevating us above the common standard of human creation has intended to give us over inferior races a domination from which no human laws can permanently derogate. (Perry 2003, p. 303). Inevitably, for the KKK, the white race is supposedly occupying the top tier of the human hierarchy, followed by the Jews and the people of color. Here, the Blacks are typically placed on the lowest level. And so the Klan’s hate campaign are primarily targeted towards the Black – their inferiority as a race – for several years. Background Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is considered to be the oldest and most persistent hate groups in the United States. The group was organized at Pulaski, Tennessee back in May 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers who wanted to maintain white supremacy in the Southern Communities in the aftermath of the American Civil War out of fear that outraged former black slaves would case a revolt. KKK or simply the Klan is considered a terrorist organization, achieving its aims and objectives through act of terror, using whipping and lynching against blacks and political opponents during its heyday. The Ku Klux Klan is highly militaristic and violent in their outlook. They do not hesitate to use force and violence in order to achieve their objectives. For instance, from 1868 to 1870, the group was behind the series of torture and killing of African Americans and that they were responsible for restoring white supremacy in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. (Rucker and Upton, p. 706) Many of the victims were burned alive, chained to iron stakes that had been driven into the ground, while others were simply hanged. Later on, the Klansmen would include intense nativism, anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism in their agenda. According to Stout and Schwab, this furnished an outlet for a kind of militant patriotism aroused by World War I and that it stressed fundamentalism in religion. (p. 154) Through the years, there has been a fluctuation in the KKK’s strength and numbers. From it’s peak in the 1890 to the early 1900s, its membership deteriorated afterwards. Civil rights activities in the South during the 1960s helped to support the resurgence of the Klan and that in the early 1990s its strengthened popular support culminated in the candidacy of Klansman David Duke for elected office in Louisiana. Ku Klux Clan as a Protest Group In regard to the Klan’s focus on Blacks, activities were justified on the grounds that the Klan is doing society a service by punishing licentious blacks. With its scenes of lawless, marauding black soldiers, unkempt, illiterate, chicken-eating black congressmen, and a bug-eyed, lascivious black rapist, D.W. Griffith’s epic film The Birth of a Nation (1915) contains a range of antiblack images that have influenced American popular consciousness for the remainder of the twentieth century. (Fine and Turner 2001, p. 171) The Klansmen conjures an image of themselves as a vigilante – citizens who banded together to combat perceived threat to their social well-being. Later on, Steffan Vanel (2004) argued that Klansmen would specifically see themselves as victims of Civil Rights advocates or of worldwide Jewish Conspiracy, so therefore they feel justified in victimizing others. (p. 130) Indeed, while the motives for joining the Klan may be many and understandably anchored on sheer bigotry, researchers who have studied and interviewed members of the KKK and the neo-Nazis have discovered that this white racist movement allows members to feel like victims who have been unjustly victimized and that they want and need to belong to a group so that they can feel better about themselves and have the sense that they belong to a fraternity that is advancing their interest and greater good. (Stout and Schwab 2002, p. 155). Garbed in flowing white robes, their faces covered with white hoods, and with skulls at their saddle horns, Klansmen posed as spirits of the Confederate dead returned from the battlefields. According to Malee Craft (1994), the Klan offers a license to hate that is why it is becoming a significant force again in America as people who feel alienated and victimized by the recent trends and social policies increase. (p. 34) The Klan also manipulated White men’s deepest fears about the dangers to their manhood as posed by the Blacks and even the Europeans. By clothing all these anxieties within the secrecy of shrouds and personal anonymity, the Klan developed a particularly ominous forum for many white men to brazenly express, inflate, and in some cases, maliciously act out their apprehensions. There are twentieth century historians of the Reconstruction that argued that the Klan atrocities represented a justifiable effort to suppress crime and disorder allegedly spawned and promoted by the Union Leagues, the “semisecret political organizations of loyal Negroes.” (Frederickson 1988, p. 98) Whether this is true or false, however, does not cover the fact that there are level-minded individuals who view the Ku Klux Klan and its activities as valid and legitimate expression of rights and redress to grievances.  The Klan and the State At one time, Klu Klux Klan, was a state sanctioned, if not state-sponsored terrorist organization. In the 1920s, the Klan was the official law enforcement agency of many states, such as Indiana and that in most Southern states, Klan membership was the unofficial ticket to power and status. (Stout and Schwab, p. 154) Those in political office and in the police ranks were Klan members or Klan supporters representing the Jim Crow segregation that was the legal order of the day. In some respects it was regarded as a positive moral force and that this image was fostrered by philanthropic enterprises and church-like rituals. Years later, however, violence can no longer be tolerated by the authorities. The decline of the Ku Klux Klan and its activities was attributed to its criminalization and the vigorous law enforcement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A significant development that tilted the circumstances started when the appellate division of the New York Supreme court upheld the Walker Law – a statute designed to reduce the KKKs influence - by a vote of four to one, wherein a concurring justice compared the Klan to “the Carbonari, the Nihilists, the Fenians, the Tugenbund, and the Molly Maguires.” (cited in Lay 1995, p. 141) In some areas, the Klan scored victories such as in the case which highlight the fact that American laws no longer permits the broad prohibitions on hate speech. For example, the Supreme Court overturned an Ohio state court ruling that made it illegal to advocate crime or to gather with any group or assemblage of persons formed to teach or advocate doctrines of criminal syndicalism and that it was held unconstitutional with the Court arguing that free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is likely to incite or produce such action. (cited in Foerstel 1997, p. 100)   In 1998 one of the Ku Klux Klans chapters was ordered by a South Carolina jury to pay $37.8 million in damages to the congregation of a black church torched by the organization members in 1995 – the largest ever award for hate crime given the fact that back in 1987, a different chapter of the organization was ordered to pay $7 million for its role in the lynching of a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama. (Cashmore, p. 233) In recent years, the clan attempted to join the American polity by referring to itself as a law-and-order organization. Although it called for the enforcement of laws against gambling and prostitution, it focused most of all on the need for Prohibition to be enforced. Several Klansmen attempted to be elected both in state and national positions. Although not successful, it demonstrated the organizations support base in mainstream America. Infighting within the group, finally led to the fragmentation of the organization.   Conclusion The emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, with its well documented history tells us that the foundation of the group was not entirely out of sheer hate and bigotry by disgruntled and mentally-ill white Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was an offshoot of the American Civil War, a reaction to a sudden change in socio-political landscape in the South which, as a matter of fact, was rife with flash points. In a way, it served as one of the Souths coping mechanism in the aftermath of the Confederates loss to the Union. The resentment brought about by the defeat and the new social order, where ingrained cultural, political and social traditions are radically being eliminated, drove the rapid transformation of the Ku Klux Klans objectives and activities from being a legitimate protest over the North-sponsored rights reform to a white supremacist terror organization. Of course, any semblance to legitimate concerns being raised by the Ku Klux Klan cannot justify its atrocities committed during its heydays. However, there remains the fact it enjoyed wide support among Americans. At one point it was a state partner in law enforcement and it exerted tremendous influence in the American political system. At this point, it must be underscored that the Civil Rights movement gathered momentum only in the 1960s onwards. Previously, people might have seen the Ku Klux Klans cause as one that is legitimate because of a different norm that prevailed during the period. This is an important variable to be considered in analyzing the Ku Klux Klan and its activities. Theres the wealth of literature that are in unison in condemning the Ku Klux Klans terrorist activities. However, their cause have arisen in a society that is somehow asking for it. And so, whatever sins they have committed – particularly those perpetuated in the 1890s – is shared by the very society they were in, as it encourage the organization to the point of sanctioning their acts. References Craft, M. (1994). White Supremacist Activity in Monatana. DIANE Publishing. Fine, G. and Turner, P. (2001). Whispers on the color line: rumor and race in America. University of California Press. Foerstel, H. (1997). Free expression and censorship in America: an encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. Frederickson, G. (1988). The arrogance of race: historical perspectives on slavery, racism, and social inequality. Wesleyan University Press. Lay, S. (1995). Hooded knights on the Niagara: the Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo. New York. NYU Press. Perry, Barbara. (2003). Hate and bias crime: a reader. Routledge. Stout, Chris and Schwab, Klaus. (2002). The Psychology of Terrorism: Clinical aspects and responses. Greenwood Publishing Group. Vanel, Steffan. (2004). The Astrological Karma of the USA. Spiritual Co Pr. Read More