Introduction
According to the Ant-Defamatory League [ADL] (2007), the Ku Klux Klan [KKK] is an organization with racist intentions. It is a movement committed to severe violence to meet its goals of racial divisions to expose white people as supreme over other races. There may be many other groups that perpetuate this philosophy in the US such as the Neo-Nazis but the Klan is expansively spread. It consists of over 40 subgroups with various chapters (often referred to us the ‘Klaverns’) (Ridgeway, 1995). These chapters form about 6000 members nationwide. The group used to be active after WWI&II through the civil rights movements up to the 1970s before its activities began to hush down. However, the group began to resurface in the new millennium to exploit American fear over homosexuality, thought to attack the morals of Christian doctrine as well as urban crime and the influx of foreigners through immigration (MacDonald, 2008). By cooperating with other groups, they have increased their activities and links within the US and even abroad. Moreover, their recent resurgence has sprouted in communities hitherto seen as calm and antiracist by distributing racist writings. In most of its operations, they have targeted Hispanics and blacks whom they torture to death (ADL, 2007). In this essay, we shall discuss a brief history of the KKK, its cultural formation, strategies involved in its operations, the role of the media in the perpetuation of its activities, and the impact of this group on the victims.
Background to the KKK
David Chalmers asserts that the Ku Klux Klan was initially called the Klan; a name for the hate groups in the US aiming at defending the interests of whites by intimidating other races. One of these groups is thought to have originated from the southern states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee by spreading tentacles to the entire country. Their trademark dressing was illustrated by white robes, large hats, and masks. They used the latter for hiding the personal identity of members even as they terrorized anyone supportive of the Roman Catholic Church and the labor Unions. The exact year of KKK formation is largely unknown but it is believed to be around the 1860s (1987). By 1925, the group had about 5 million members who were mostly momentary. However, loyalty was sustained by the taking of a solemn oath and a fee of about 16 dollars. This fee was intended to make one the official regalia and membership card thus thought to keep one’s commitment to the group (Bohn, 1925).
Initially restricted to the Southern States, the Confederate Army groups who first formed the Klan were determined to fight for white dominance following the American civil war. They resented the country’s restoration by killing freed slaves and the whites who supported their freedom. The Klan was then weakened after the Federal government introduced the Force Acts in 1871 (Martin, 2006). Through prosecutions and deterrent punishments, the group’s operations were severely reduced. However, the group remerged disguised in names such as the White League and the Red Shirts and continued with violence to suppress Republicans to quit office. As a result, white democrats regained political seats in most states of the south (Matusevich, 1998).
By 1915, another Klan had been rebuilt and this grew faster in years after the WWI taking advantage of the industrialization progress in the North and the social pressures emergent from that. Many immigrants moved to the north from southern states as well as Europe. As it would appear, the newcomers brought with them the new religion of Catholicism, the desire for equality among races, and communism. In response to this, the KKK promulgated racism, fought the Roman Catholic Church, and supported a free market economy. In the south, many houses were set ablaze and many people were lynched. With the region being highly lawless, the group freely conducted its violence. Despite all these activities, the Klan of that time was more formal than the previous one. It had a national outreach with a sizeable population. However, by 1930, ideological differences among members and increased pressure from outside dropped its membership to about 30,000. The great depression and the 2nd world war only contributed to its further loss of esteem (Feldman, 1999).
Since WWII, Ku Klux Klan has been used to refer to groups that campaigned against the Civil Rights Movement and the abolition of racial segregation in the 1950s to 60s. Amid this period, this group ostensibly allied with the police and governor’s secretariat to continue their extremism, even though most of the KKK members were sentenced to death and life imprisonment; after the events of the 16th street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham and the murder of civil rights workers in Mississippi (Martin, 2006).
At first, the group targeted African-Americans and whites who supported them as well as the federal government which sought to defend their rights. It was composed of middle and low-class workers. Later, the group morphed from the effects of social changes brought by immigration to target Jews, homosexuals, and minority immigrants seen as economic and social threats (Dray, 2002). The operations of the KKK were dwindled again from the 1990s to 2000 by the neo-Nazi group but when it collapsed in 2005, the Klan group began to resurface with its racist activities. With immigration reaching its peak in the early 2000s, the Klan instilled fear among the natives against the newcomers. The group continues to use this to spread propaganda and draw attention (Parsons, 1998).
The culture and perceptions of the KKK
Despite being the oldest terrorist group in the US, it has undergone several reorganizations to survive through the world wars, the civil rights period, and government intrusion. For instance, it has changed from a social organization to an underground society and even broke into different splinter groups. However, the beliefs, customs, and practices remain consistent (Ridgeway, 1995).
The strategies of the KKK are manifest from their beliefs. After the Revolutionary War, most of the US leaders were white elite Protestants (Kelly, 1998). Kelly adds that they believed that civil freedom and self-government earned after colonialism belonged only to them. Since many southerners owned black slaves, they believed that African Americans were sub-human beings. In order to defend this tradition, the KKK emerged to fight off the threat of new immigrants who had brought new religion, ethnic and cultural features (1998). After the Reconstruction Period, Klan members described the group as a peace keeping organization with the purpose of self-defense: they were suspicious that blacks would rise against them one day (Parsons, 2005). They saw the American police as unable to protect them and saw they launched terrorism against perceived threats to block blacks from voting. Thus shared beliefs that natives were the only deserved owners of the US made them gain popularity (Ridgeway, 1995).
The KKK takes terrorism as part of their ritual although other practices were performed. Oaths were taken to induce members into commitment and to support the standpoint of the group (Feldman, 1999). It had its own by-laws and meetings were conducted like a normal parliament led by Klan officials. To instil order, the Klan military-like had rank officials such as the Imperial Wizard, Grand Dragon, and Klokard and they would be identified through different ceremonial robes. Hoods symbolized legitimacy and leadership powers and members had a special slang used to sustain the comradeship (Kelly 1998). Rituals were officially begun in 1915 when the then Imperial Wizard introduced mimicry of the Klan Rituals after religious observances. Other practices included burning of the cross to raise the morale of members and as a reminder of Jesus Christ’s’ actions. In fact, the Protestant beliefs made them think they were God’s army against His enemies. The Church and the Klan were hence closely related in a way that church services involved public announcements of the Klan. Moral beliefs of the Church also guided its operations (MacLean, 1994).
Activities of the KKK
The choice of masks is arguably seen as a way to hide identities whenever they attacked a target. Their operations were conducted in rural areas and semi-urban towns where they knew their faces would easily be recognized by the victims. Thus they attacked anyone in the backdrop of the masks. They attacked Loyal League and Southern Republicans sympathetic to freed slaves. Aside from slaying political kingpins, they killed family leaders, church leaders and officials of Community based groups. This is seen by scholars as a way of terminating people apt to influence opposition (Parsons, 2005).
Gordon Lee asserts in his Masters Thesis that KKK staged guerrilla attacks on blacks, conducted political unrest owing to reasons often seen as fake. They would set houses on fire, burn all the occupants inside and even evicted black farmers from their own land. In both South and North Carolina for in stance, more than 195 violent incidences were reported in just 18 months of the Klan existence. Before the 1868 presidential elections, about 2000 people either met their end or were severely injured in Louisiana. This served a great deterrence to Republican voters so much that in spite of having about 1050 registered voters at St. Landry Parish alone, no republican turned up to vote. This gave a chance for Democrats to make a kill (1968). Amid the elections, KKK severed close to 200 blacks allied to the Republican Party. Others were just removed from jail cells, shot and buried in a mass grave in the bushes. Intimidation by the KKK made sure democrats snatched a win. By way of example, in Columbia County; preliminary elections saw 1222 republican votes for Rufus Bullock. However, the party’s presidential candidate missed these votes at the presidential elections later with just a single voter choosing Ulysses Grant (Lee, 1968).
In Illinois, the activities of KK shifted away from politics. For example the group once visited a school at Cotton Gin Port [Monroe County] in 1871, ordered the head teacher to admit them to her office. Armed with pistols and hidden behind their usual costumes, they asked the teacher to quit teaching owing to the fact the school charged exorbitant fees. The teacher reportedly left the county altogether as soon. These activities begun to slow down when the government started to flex its muscle (Chalmers, 1987). Even then, democrats’ fear that the federal government intended to use KKK’s violence to keep its authority over the South made them to begin rejecting its laws and hence more lawlessness ensued (Bohn, 1925).
Current Activities of KKK
As observed earlier, the Klan groups begun to resurface in 2006. They have been expanding in size basing their actions on hot issues of immigration and those of the minorities like homosexuals. The Brotherhood of Klans for instance moved from Illinois to Tennessee where they organized gatherings to speak about the aforementioned issues and burn crosses. Another group, the Church of the National Knights of the KKK organized anti-immigration rallies in Alabama in 2006 where they demanded the exit of Hispanics. The Mississippi White Knights of the KKK conducted their cross burning ritual and recruited new members at Amory in 2006 while the Robb’s Knights of the KKK held their national congress in the same year in Arkansas. While the KKK has existed for a long time, its groups usually shift activities and composition owing to changes in loyalty and situation of the day (ADL, 2007).
KKK and the Role of the Media
The media was comparatively quiet about KKK during its top form. White controlled newspapers like the Muncie Evening Press remained quiet when a Negroe was murdered in 1922 and could only deny that KK was responsible for the action. Later, the paper echoed the City attorney’s (C.E Benadum) denial that KK even existed (Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission [GTRC], 2004). It is argued that most of the Klan members saw the group as a pathway to rid the cities of corrupt alien leaders thus the media was seen to perpetuation of its course. In fact the proprietors could have been members of the KKK as well. When the KKK murdered two black activists Henry Hezekiah and Charles Moore in 1964, there was silence in the white managed media (MacDonald, 2008). However, the black press, uprising during the civil rights era, tried to support the Solution for unsolved violence cases. Janis MacDonald argues that the incidence rarely received mention until two Freedom Summer white civil rights workers were killed later in the year. When the divers were searching for the latters’ bodies, they bumped into the remains of Moore and Hezekiah but attention again shifted back to the whites (2008). However, the efforts of Moore’s brother and the impact of a film by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation created new interests that led to the conviction of James Ford Seale (member of the White Knights of KKK) in 2007. The Federal Court of Appeal however reversed the ruling and further hearing was rescheduled.
Strategies of the KKK
KKK used various methods to influence their course. One such method was the lynching of targets. Often they would hang, burn or even torture their perceived enemies to death. For in stance, in early 1920s, blacks accused of raping white women were lynched in public. This method was slightly abandoned when the organization begun to disintegrate after the WWI (Dray, 2002). To keep economic and social stability, the group would often eliminate blacks from their property and destroyed houses owned by white sympathisers. Flogging was employed to inculcate values and commitment to those who resisted the group. They would whip community members into submission (Kelly, 1998).
Public notes were used to spread threats to the targets so that they would flee and leave behind their businesses. These would then be sold to sustain the group. Crosses would be burned to encourage morality. Public marching in their horrible uniforms also served to discourage people from opposing the group. Besides, this group often kept contacts with public offices such as the police and the judiciary. In Oregon, the House speaker and the president of the senate were Klansmen. Earl Mayfield was the first senator in the US from the KKK. Most of the police officers in the South were Klansmen. Alabama, at one time had members of the KKK as governor and attorney general. Akron, Toledo, Ohio and Columbus once had mayors with KKK affiliations. In return, their actions would be shielded from prosecution. The media also protected the group by avoiding coverage of its violence. The Democratic Convention of 1924 in New York had a quarter of delegates who were Klansmen (Martin, 2006).
Later, the group began to target key leaders of enemy groups. They would murder political figures or key civil rights activists seen as a threat to their course. Additionally, the group would interact with other groups such as the Neo-Nazis and the Aryan Nations. These groups would often collaborate to stage attacks on the common targets (Ridgeway, 1995)
Impact of KKK on victims
The terror conducted by the KKK had an influence on those who received the attacks. It managed to convince southern democrats to support the southern course that free market economy and protestant religion were virtues. Having been intimidated at elections, Republicans would only change tact to win (Feldman, 1999).
The KKK weakened labour unions through intimidation. By beating, flogging and killing its leaders, members cowered from furthering their grievances. The KKK fought for white supremacy thus the life of minority groups and those of immigrants was constantly in danger. The KKK had limitations on the expansion of the Roman Catholic Church to which they saw as an erosion of American values. Members of this church were martyred hence the spread of its beliefs was greatly slowed down (Dray, 2002). It rid the society of blacks of able bodied people. Most of the blacks were either killed or mutilated. Hence apart from reducing the population of these ‘target enemies’, those who remained would either be weak or devoid of further opposition to the group. Besides, the looting and chasing of blacks and other minority groups from their businesses only brought them poverty (Chalmers, 1987).Further still, the granting of civil liberties to all citizens was limited by this group. Despite the freedom being spelt in the US constitution, KKK believed that white natives were the only bonafide recipients of the privilege (MacLean, 1994). Thus they conducted torture on fellow citizens seen as sub-human.
Despite the group’s metamorphosis, most consistent impact of its existence is the fear it causes among the victims. Previously, public lynching and beatings weakened the confidence of the targets. Later, the mass gatherings and the consistent preaching of anti-immigrant and anti-homosexual messages instilled fear among these people who had been ling in peace (ADL, 2007).
Conclusion
In this essay, we have seen how the Ku Klux Klan group originated, how it conducts its activities and the perceptions that drive them. We have identified that the group thrived on strategies of guerrilla attacks, oathing, suppression of opposition and keeping constant contacts with high offices. We have realized that the group intended to sustain white supremacy and the perpetuation of Protestant beliefs. With this, the group tortured opponents and eliminate them from occupations seen as threats to White economic and social order. Much of the groups activities were not exposed by the media because most of the press was owned by members of the group or those who were sympathetic to it. Perhaps the group would have been eliminated early enough had the media covered its heinous operations. The group conducted murders f the minority despite the US laws guaranteeing equality fro all. In most cases, the group had members in leadership positions thus making its elimination difficult. The overall impact on victims was suffering, loss of life and economic capability.
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