The Rise of the KuKlux Klan – An unfavorable Act

By Roland Lohr gen Stahl

The Civil war and the years after that were frustrating times for the Americans. A result of that the conclusion were new laws and regulations. That gave people from the south nothing else than to accept the new slavery laws issued by the political parties and Congress. This is still a question many are argue about especially in the south. It created anxiety among people in the north, who mostly were against slavery. This did also apply to both political parties consisting of Republicans and Democrats.

The question, naturally put on the rights of the black people. Battles with some people occurred who felt it was his duty to stand up for his idea.

What was the idea of the “American way?”

In the year of 1866, just a few year after the Civil War, six of the Confederate veterans formed a “social Club” in the small town of Polaski in Tenessee. These men were to set out to perpetuate the white supremacy throughout the South. The social club were an official and open club and the members came to name the club “Ku Klux Klan.” The name was originated from the Greek word “Kuklos” meaning circle. Rituals were copied from the College fraternities. Special members received awarded positions. It consisted the “Grand Cyclops”, Chairman, Grand Magi, Vice chairman and the Grand Minister of finance, Treasurer…………The Clansmen adopted a special uniform, a long dress, white with whites masks and a tall pointy hat.  

1866-67 when the Republican Party adopted a reconstruction programme it threatened to turn the whole Southern Society up and down. The promise of “equal rights” for blacks flew in the face of the white Southerners that the black race was innately inferior. This deep racist beliefs had helped to justify slavery, and it remained a major obstacle to uplifting blacks after civil war. It did drove anti-black hate to some white people to the extreme measures to resist the reconstruction.

This feared the republicans that the barring blacks would dominate the Democratic Party in the South and in Congress. It devided the South by the Congress in five military districts controlled by martial law. It took away the vote from a large number of insurgent whites and it declared that all Black men could vote and hold office and ordered the rebel states to write new and democratic constitutions. As Tennessee became the first Southern state with the permission to give black men and freed slaves the right to vote it became the most affected. With the GOP controlled states, ex confederates began to take up arms to resist reconstruction. Threats and violence were increasingly used against blacks and their supporters in the Republican Party. These rampage of brutal acts were mostly directed the dreaded “Ku Klux Klan.”

In 1867 Klansmen met in Nashville where they adopted a prescript or Constitution. This allowed the Klan to spread over the south. The prescription set a startup fee a dollar a member. Confidentiality promised recruits to protect the weak, the innocent and the defenseless from violations injustices and atrocities. The Ku Klux Klan became widespread. Clan leaders proved that they were out of control to their many supporters around the South and turn into a reign of horror which brings us back to turmoil caused by the Republican´s reconstruction.   

The Klansmen´s main objectives were either black or white, and connection with the hated Republican Party. They invaded homes of the black people at night for their alleged and wrongful acts. The idea was to insult white people to vote for Republicans and blacks were compelled not to vote for Republican candidates. The clan also led threats and attacks against white Republicans, especially those who were public officials. Republicans who were target that came from the North and South who cooperated with them, the Klan´s terror campaign was to keep them from being elected or if they got elected forcing them for retirement.

The Ku Klux Klan came up with a new vengeance – the secret order – spreaded from Confederate states, Virginia to Texas, just as in Tennessee. The Clan growth initiated by the execution of the reconstruction, which lasted legal rights, especially the vote to blacks. Newspapers to the democratic Party spread the word about this new anti-black and anti-republican organization. A large number of people of both races in the South held for the first time political meetings.

This was the signal for the Klan and several other secret organizations to combine their fear in an attempt to destroy the Radical Reconstruction. The black people had a political mission but had gradually lost the little power they had to defend themselves while they saw their white allies dropping out from the Republican Party.

In Georgia, a mob of masked men murdered George W. Ashburn a white republican who was active in state politics. The terror campaign by the Clan culminated in the election campaign of 1868 when violence was ready to defeat the Republicans and thousands of black and white were victims. They were beaten up or murdered. At this point democrats still denied the Ku Kux Klan as a problem, republican officials started to prosecute Klansmen in federal court because of the Ku Kux Klan Act of 1871 adopted by the Congress in 1870. The Klan´s terrorist Act was isolated to certain areas so violence did continue.  

Long after Ashburn´s death the Reconstruction Klan lived in the southern part of the Confederation. On the issue of the black equality the republican government an Ku Kux Klan were a heroic defender of the southern life in the eyes of many law abiding whites, yet the clan had not despised reconstruction. A shift of power to the Republican Party after Civil War created a hostile environment for the Confederates. Reconstruction brought in by the Republicans putting fire to the racism of the people. Republicans adverse actions and caused the rise of the Ku Kux Klan and now setting fire to racism.

* This short part is the background of the coming new book of the "The invisible Empire" which is a new production of mine ready during 2013. The book will be written in swedish and english. The Ku Klux Klan and among them many other organization are part of today´s discussion on weaponcontrol and restrictions.