Sunday, November 5, 2017
The Ku Klux Klan
On December 24, 1965, six Confederate veterans came together to create the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan during the reconstruction era of the Southern States after the civil war. Members of the Ku Klux Klan adopted the masks and robes in order to hide their identity. The klan was at the peak of its success during the 1920's as they were able to accumulate up to four million members all around the United States. Of those four million, a majority of the members were members of Congress which is the reason that the klan had as big of an impact as it did on the government. The Klan strongly emphasized Christianity and nationalism during its dominance. Now to this day the number of members in the Klan has gone down significantly and has not been talked about much since the 1920's.
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I think the biggest problem with the Ku Klux Klan, as you said, was how many of the members were part of the local police force of somehow related to the government. The problem with this was that there was no way that the KKK could be restrained or punished. They were able to harm anyone without any punishment at all. The main way of killing was lynching, which ended up becoming a form of entertainment for towns. If this was impressed upon citizens, they don't think it's wrong.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems with the KKK was how "normal" it was for a lynching to take place in American society, especially in the South. As Ryan said, lynchings were like spectacles, entertainment for the crowds. People became so numb to the brutal killing that they wouldn't admit they were killing people. Instead, they convinced themselves that because the African Americans were inferior, they could not be considered people (throwback to slavery?).
ReplyDeleteI believe part of the reason people believe that our police are corrupt today is because of the history with the KKK. Police are supposed to be the symbol for justice, but when they are partnering with hate groups, it is hard to see them as the good people they are supposed to be. Also, I find it shocking that people would find entertainment in watching lynchings of people instead of standing up for what is right.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your idea that the KKK hasn't been heard since the 1920's. While they would start to fade away again,t hey also started to become popular again during the 1960's in which this was the time of civil rights movements. They also were heard of in recent news at Charleston where people protested to a statue of a Confederate to be taken down. The KKK was present there to defend the statue.
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DeleteIn agreeance with everyone else, I think it's partly because the political and ethnical believes in the 1920s were greatly divided as many struggled with different conflicts such as the ideas of modernism vs. traditionalism and science vs. religion. As these opinions and divided point of views grew more extreme by the day, the Ku Klux Klan saw it as a potential chance of recruitment as it successfully gained 4 million followers and many powerful connections in the governing branches. However, despite all of this reason behind their success in the 1920s, I am still appalled at the form of entertainment these klan members sought through practicing lynching and even going to the extremes of taking a piece of "souvenir" from the deceased after the ceremony was done.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason the klan became a thing was in order to protect one type of people (wasp) from the type of people they viewed as inferior (not wasp). From there point of view, all they were doing was defending themselves and there culture. However the way they went about doing so was so for from the norm even people who were wasp themselves began to become skeptics.
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