The Ku Klux Klan: The First Era :: Racism Racist Essays

The Ku Klux Klan The First EraWith the ending of the Civil fight in 1865, the period of American history known asthe reconstruction began. It was during this era that the Ku Klux Klan, a whitesupremacist group, spunoff from the freemasons, first came to power. The Freemasonsusually tended to attract peck in the upper-middle class, while the KKK and Knights of Labor, a nonher racist group, attracted the working class. The KKK was formed broadly speaking to restore the peculiar institution of slavery toAmerica and to reinstate the albumen race as the just about superior race in the world. A former Confederate general and Freemason, Nathan Bedford Forrest, founded the Klan in 1866 because Negroes were being allowed to enter the labor union of freemasonry. He served as the Klans first Imperial Wizard, and Albert Pike, another freemason, held the moorage of the Chief Justice of the KKK. He held this office while he was concurrently Sovereign Grand Commander of Scottish Rite, Fre emasons, Southern Jurisdiction. His racialism was rise known, and in justifying his actions, he stated I took my obligation to white men, not to Negroes. When I have to accept Negroes as brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it. (1)The bare facts about the birth of the Ku Klux Klan and its revival a one-half centurylater are baffling to most people today. footling more than a year after it was founded, the secret society thundered crossways the war-torn south, sabotaged Reconstructiongovernments, and imposed a reign of terror and military group that lasted three or four years. And then, as rapidly as it had spread, the Klan played out into the History books. After World War I, a new variant of the Klan sputtered to life and brought many parts of the nation under its paralyzing grip of racism and bloodshed. Then, having grown to be a major force for the second time, the Klan once more receded into the background. This time it never quite disappeared, but it never again comma nded much(prenominal) widespread support. The origin of the Ku Klux Klan was a carefully guarded secret for years, although at that place were many theories to explain its beginnings. One popular notion held that the Ku Klux Klan was originally a secret order of Chinese opium smugglers. Another claimed it was begun by Confederate prisoners during the war. The most ridiculous theory attributed the name to some ancient Jewish record referring to the Hebrews enslaved by Egyptian pharaohs.