History of the Ku Klux Klan after 1965

History of the Ku Klux Klan After 1965

The Ku Klux Klan after 1965 began to come to rest. Fewer acts of violence took place, and the issues of race and discrimination became more equal throughout America. As time went on and discrimination against blacks died down, Klan members were convicted for murders they did many years before. Justice was served for those that were affected by the Klan in the early and mid-1900’s. Although the Klan still exists today, fewer discriminating acts take place and their actions are not as public as they once were before.

1968

Martin Luther King Jr. was a black civil rights activist that fought for equality between all people. He was a symbolic and world leader for the blacks that was jailed and assaulted multiple times for fighting for what he believed. He stood up for the blacks by leading marches, rallies, and boycotts to stand up for black rights as an act to be treated as equals. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray on his second story balcony in a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. King planned to lead a march the next day in Memphis. James Earl Ray was born in Alton, Illinois and was a racist and small time criminal. Although he was not a part of the Ku Klux Klan, Ray was a white supremacy that did not want blacks in the United States. However, the Ku Klux Klan offered $100,000 for anyone who killed a black civil rights activist leader. The money came from the White Knights of Mississippi for anyone that could kill King. The Klan planned Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination a couple years before it happened. They saw the difference he was making in America and wanted him gone.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128314/Martin-Luther-Kings-assassin-wanted-100-000-bounty-Ku-Klux-Klan-murder-racist-holy-war.html

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

http://www.biography.com/people/james-earl-ray-20903161

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128314/Martin-Luther-Kings-assassin-wanted-100-000-bounty-Ku-Klux-Klan-murder-racist-holy-war.html

1989

David Duke was the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana. He is a nationalist and politician that unsuccessfully ran for the Louisiana State Senate, Governor of Louisiana, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In 1989, David Duke led a field of seven candidates in an open primary to advance to a runoff election for a Louisiana state House seat. He defeated David C. Treen in the runoff election by capturing 50.7% of the votes. He served in the House from 1990 to 1992. While in the House, Duke predominantly had a negative effect on outcomes involving bills or other issues presented in the House. Ron Gomez of Lafayette, a colleague of Duke says Duke is “so single minded, he never really became involved in the nuts and bolts of House rules and parliamentary procedure. It was just that shortcoming that led to the demise of most of his attempts at lawmaking.” David Duke became famous and known nationwide because his presence as a politician proved that white’s as a whole were still racist at this time. He stated “Our clear goal must be the advancement of the white race and separation of the white and black races. This goal must include freeing of the American media and government from subservient Jewish interests.” David Duke changed the way Americans viewed white politicians.

http://timelinesdb.com/listevents.php?subjid=664&title=KKK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke

http://newsbusters.org/node/9656

http://www.nndb.com/people/210/000024138/

2001

On May 1, 2001, Thomas Blanton became the second ex- Klansmen to be convicted for the murder of the four black girls in the church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on September 17, 1963. Blanton, 33 years old at the time of the bombings, was charged for planting nineteen sticks of dynamite in the basement of the black church. He was sentenced to life in prison on May 2, 2001. Blanton, now 83 years old and still in prison in Alabama, keeps to himself and does not accompany himself with other prisoners. Although he is allowed to talk with other people he in the prison, he does not. Blanton, caught on tape saying to a friend, “I like to go shooting, I like to go fishing, I like to go bombing,” still pledged his innocence in the court room. After his life sentencing, Blanton said, “I guess the good Lord will settle it on Judgment Day.” The trial lasted seven days, and it took less than an afternoon for the jury to come to the decision of guilty. The case was finally closed and the closure the city of Alabama needed was finally received.

http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/blanton-thomas.htm

http://start.toshiba.com/news/read/category/political/article/ap-congress_honors_birmingham_church_bombin-ap

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/02/news/mn-58306

2005

On June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was charged for the murders of the three men James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, activists on the Mississippi Freedom Ride, in 1964. Killen was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison exactly 41 years after the murders took place. The option to appeal his case in court was rejected in 2013 by officials as they saw nothing wrong with the first trial he encountered in 2005. Chaney’s sister told reporters in a phone interview, “We, as a family, are very pleased with that rejection and we were rather surprised that (the appeal) was even being considered.” While Killen, an 88 year old man, left the court house, he grabbed a black reporter’s microphone and managed to say “this is not over with,” while looking straight into the camera. Before the case, the district attorney told the jurors, “Those three boys and their families were robbed of all the things that Edgar Ray Killen has been able to enjoy for the last 41 years. And the cause of it, the main instigator of it was Edgar Ray Killen and no one else.” By convicting Killen, the jurors confirmed the history the Klan wrote for Mississippi and all across the United States. Killen was finally being held responsible for the actions he did while he was younger and an active member of the Klan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Ray_Killen

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57610759/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-edgar-ray-killen-in-mississippi-burning-case/

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/21/mississippi.killings/

2009

Raymond “Chuck” Foster was the Imperial Wizard of the Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 2001 in Watson, Louisiana. In 2009, he was charged for the murder of Cynthia C. Lynch, a woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, that turned her back against the Klan. Cynthia Lynch, recruited by the Klan via Internet, met with members of the Southern White Knights to become initiated into the Klan herself. She took a bus from Oklahoma to Louisiana where she was picked up by Klan members and taken to a campground by the Pearl River. Her initiation into the Klan started with shaving her head, then followed by lighting torches and running through the woods. On a Sunday night, Lynch decided she no l longer wanted to be a part of the Klan. Because she did not want to be a part of the Klan, Foster pushed her down and shot her with a .40 caliber handgun. While trying to hide the murder, Foster cut open her body to try get rid of the bullet. Then, with the other Klan members’ help, he quickly disposed of the body in a ditch about a half mile from where the murder took place. Foster, and the other men of the Klan, were recognized by a convenience store clerk and then arrested two days later. Foster was charged with second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Cynthia’s mother says about Foster, “I forgive him and I feel sorry for both him and the entire family. It’s something that never should have happened to a child like Cynthia.” Foster and the members of his Klan, the Southern White Knights, demonstrate the harsh actions of the Klan that are still present throughout America today.

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/11/12/details-emerge-on-accused-klan-killers-history/

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/authorities_identify_oklahoma.html

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/acessory_in_bogalusa_ku_klux_k.html

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/KKK-leader-pleads-guilty-to-killing-Okla-woman-92881594.html

The Ku Klux Klan after 1965 began to settle down as Americans accepted the roles of blacks and minorities in society. As blacks became a part of the freedom in America, the KKK dispersed, and most were sentenced to time in jail for their actions. However, minor Ku Klux Klan groups still formed and displayed actions that previous Klan members viewed as vital for American societies. Fortunately, the Klan is not as violent today as in previous decades. Membership in Klans today are secretive, so people will not be able to tell who are members and who are not. This keeps social justice intact and prevents future violence to innocent people because of their race.

Ku Klux Klan after World War II

Kendra Lynch

10/13/13

Blog #2

Ku Klux Klan after World War II

The Ku Klux Klan was on the rise with violence after World War II. As laws began to change and African Americans gained more rights, the Klan became outspoken in methods of violence and forceful tactics. Once more African Americans began speaking up for their rights, the Klan felt they needed to knock the black community back down and fill them with fear and violence.

1956

The Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education sparked major uproar within the Klan community. The court case Brown vs. Board of Education overturned the “separate but equal” notion in 1954. This desegregated schools and public facilities throughout the south. The Klan began acting out against that ruling starting around 1956. They mainly used economic pressure “directed against local individuals and organizations perceived as supporters of desegregation or insufficiently vocal in opposing it.” The Klan was able to draw support from former Klan members that were inactive for many years. They got strength and support from the ferment in the south. In 1956, the Klan organized one of the largest Klan rallies ever, with around 3000 people present in Stone Mountain, Georgia; the location where the rise of the Second Klan began with the burning of the crosses. The rally expressed the outrage of the Klan members with the new changes of law that allowed the blacks to be treated more as equals. The decision that separate but equal was unconstitutional created an uproar with the Klan. This rallied old Klan members together to go onto a life of violence trying to remind the blacks that they are not equal to the whites.

http://archive.adl.org/issue_combating_hate/uka/rise.asp

http://www.teachingushistory.org/ttrove/kukluxklan.htm

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/segregated-america.html

http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org/2011/05/17/breaking-news/

1957

A twenty five year old, Willie Edwards Junior is killed by members of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan on January 23, 1957. Edwards was a young, black American that was a driver for the Winn Dixie in Alabama. One night when he was going to work, he never returned home. Edwards got a call from his work asking if he could come back and fill in for someone that was sick and would not be able to make their shift. Klan members sat in their car waiting for Edwards to arrive at his work that day. When Edwards arrived, the Klan shoved him in their car and beat him while they drove around. The Klan thought that Edwards was the man that was sleeping with a white woman, even though he was married with children. The Klan drove him around until they arrived at the bridge of the Alabama River. The Klan forced Edwards at gunpoint to jump off of the one hundred and twenty five foot bridge and into the river to his death. His body was discovered until three months later, and the body was too decomposed to determine the cause of death. Willie Edwards Junior was another innocent, black victim of the Klan that was killed simply because of the color of his skin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Later_Klans.2C_1950_through_1960s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Edwards

http://nuweb9.neu.edu/civilrights/willie-edwards-jr/

1963

On June 12, 1963, Civil Rights Activist, Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a member of the Ku Klux Klan while he arrived at his home in Decatur, Mississippi. Evers was an active member in the NAACP, or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose goal was to end discrimination and racial violence in America. Evers grew up in Mississippi living in constant fear of the KKK. Lynching was a part of life to keep blacks in their place and remind them that the whites were dominant in their community. One night, while visiting his sick father in the hospital, Evers saw an attempted lynching by a white mob of the KKK outside the hospital for a black man that was accused of beating up a white man. From this point on, Evers became a strong, vocal activist for the NAACP. Evers says, “It seemed that this (racism) would never change. It was that way for my daddy, it was that way for me and it looked as though it would be that way for my children. I was so mad that I just stood there trembling and tears rolled down my cheeks.” Because of his speaking out against racism and discrimination and heavily outspoken role with the NAACP, Evers and his wife knew there was a target on his back and knew what his fortune would be. Evers’ wife Myrlie said, “We both knew he was going to die. Medgar did not want to be a martyr. But if he had to die to get us that far, he was willing to do it.” One night, while Evers got out of his car, he was shot in the back by Ku Klux Klan member, Byron de la Beckwith, and died shortly after.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medgar_evers.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/national-association-advancement-colored-people.html

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmjustice2.html

http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/Ku_Klux_Klan.htm

1963

Philip Randolph was a civil rights activist leader that pushed for rights for African Americans in America. He was in charge of organizing the March on Washington in 1963 to promote jobs and equality for blacks. The first organized March on Washington in 1941 by Randolph convinced President Roosevelt to sign the Executive Order 8022 that banned racial discrimination in hiring of government defense industry during World War II. Randolph wrote, “On the contrary, we seek the right to play our part in advancing the cause of national defense and national unity. But certainly there can be no national unity where one tenth of the population are denied their basic rights as American citizens.” After the second organized march in 1963, the Ku Klux Klan responded with violence. On September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan placed a bomb in the basement of 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, an African American church. The bomb went off as twenty six school children were going into the basement. Four young girls were killed in the bombing and twenty two others were injured. The bomb was placed in this African American Church as a response to the successful March on Washington that raised awareness of the inequalities and racial discrimination that still occurred in America. This bombing was a turning point of the Civil Rights Movement going on in the 1960’s.

http://www.occidentaldissent.com/american-racial-history-timeline-2/american-racial-history-timeline-1900-1960/

http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/Ku_Klux_Klan.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Philip_Randolph

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmarchW.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing

1964

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, are killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob in Meridian, Mississippi. These workers were helping register and sign up blacks to vote. This caused major havoc with the Klan in the area. Michael Schwerner was an activist known as a Freedom Rider. He rode buses throughout Alabama and Mississippi speaking out against racism and helping black men vote. One particular Klan member, Sam Bowers, the local Imperial Wizard of the Klan in that area of Mississippi, decided that Schwerner must be killed. While Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman were riding back into Meridian, Mississippi, they were pulled over by a cop for speeding. That cop, a Klan member himself, help the three men into custody while their murders were being prepared. Once released, the three men were chased down and cornered into an area in the woods where they were shot and killed, then immediately buried in pre dug graves. Eighteen white members of the Klan were charged with conspiracy to violate the rights of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. Unfortunately, these men were murdered in their attempt to make living in the south easier for the blacks and to gain the same rights as the whites.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-kkk-kills-three-civil-rights-activists

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-malcolm-x-to-barack-obama/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers’_murders

http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/Ku_Klux_Klan.htm

The Ku Klux Klan used force and violence to kill innocent African Americans because of the color of their skin. Because blacks spoke up and fought for their rights, they were martyred. The Klan killed innocent men and women because of the changes going on in the United States. The Klan could see the laws becoming more equal for all citizens and providing opportunities for all. After World War II, the Ku Klux Klan rose again, which made blacks pushed heavily for the Civil Rights Movement for racial discrimination to end for their race.

History of the Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan, or the KKK was founded in 1866 by southerners that opposed the Republicans Reconstruction Policy. The group of southerners pushed for white supremacy throughout the country. This is one of the largest violent terrorist organizations in the country. Many blacks and other racial minority groups lost their lives due to this Klan. The Klan peaked in the 1920’s with members controlling the politics of the country.

1867 to 1871

The white supremacist, Nathan Bedford Forrest, became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan murdered thousands of people in the former confederate states to suppress the political participation of blacks and their allies. The main focus of the Klan was to reestablish white supremacy throughout America. They opposed of the Reconstruction policy of the Republicans that pushed for economic equality of the blacks. In 1871, Congress passed the Klan Act that allowed the government to arrest Klan members and intervene in the activities the Klan is participating in. The Klan dismembered for nearly fifty years and was replaced by minor, small violent groups.

1915

After approximately fifty years, the Klan started back up again after a film called “Birth of a Nation” by D.W. Griffiths. This film viewed the Klan as heroic and brought them back into society. The Klan was no longer only racist to the blacks; they also included the Jews Catholics, and immigrants. A Klan member once told the media, “Catholics bar themselves [from the Klan] by their allegiance to the pope; the Jews because they do not believe in the birth of Christ, and negroes [sic] because of their color. We want only Caucasians, who, so far as their allegiance is concerned, have it all confined within the boundaries of the United States. That does not mean that we are opposed to them. We are organized to maintain American principles and are opposed only to lawlessness and lack of Americanism.” The Klan strictly did not want to associate themselves with people that were not one hundred percent American in their eyes.

The Klan and a Georgia lynch mob go on to murder a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank, and then burn a cross on the hilltop, giving itself the name Knights of the KKK. Leo Frank was falsely accused of killing a factory worker, Mary Phagan, in the pencil factory that he managed. He was then sentenced to life in prison. However, the Klan was not satisfied with that decision and drug Leo Frank out of prison and lynched him that night. The lynching of Leo Frank was the rise of the second Klan. It was the first major incident the Klan had done since they previously dispersed. This placed fear into every American, because it was unpredictable as to what the Klan would do next.

William Joseph Simmons was with the Klan that night of the lynching. He was the one that was inspired by the film and wanted to pursue the idea of what the Ku Klux Klan was about. After Frank was lynched, he and the members of the Klan went to the top of Stone Mountain. Inspired from the film, they lit a cross on fire and watched it burn. That night, the members on the hill were inaugurated to form the new Klan. In the film, “Birth of a Nation,” the idea of burning a cross was from the historical Scottish clans as a way to signal from one hill top to another. D.W. Griffiths took the idea of cross burning to symbolize the work of the Klan. From that night on, after the Klan was in action through violence or any other form of work, the Klan members would all go to the top of hill and burn a cross to symbolize the powerful work they felt they had done. They called themselves the Knights of the KKK and rose for the second time and instilled fear and violence in the Americans’ eyes.

1923

In addition to the southern, white men of the Ku Klux Klan, the women formed as an auxiliary group to the Klan. Their main function was to sew the Klansmen symbol on their clothes or make other clothes for their disguise. They also promoted racism, nationalism, traditional morality, and religious intolerance through nonviolence actions (Blee 1991). They were big on advocating for the Prohibition movement and used that as a focus point on their “agenda.” They felt that alcohol was a detriment to society and wanted it banned. The women were also against all racial minorities, and not just the blacks. “Klanswomen also participated in boycotts of businesses owned by Jews and others who were not considered ‘100% American’ (anyone not native-born, white, and Protestant)” (Kleinegger). The women of the Klan strove to teach others about the Klan’s beliefs rather than act on them in a violent way.

1924

By this time, the Klan went on to hold elections for office from the east to the west. In states like Colorado and Indiana, enough officials were elected in positions of power to run the government. It was known as the “invisible empire.” Indiana had the largest national organization with 250,000 members, about thirty percent of the native born white men in the United States. This government stressed more social issues than just racism. They wanted to uphold moral standards, enforce Prohibition, and end political corruption. The government would do whatever they could to make sure they had just the right citizens in their area that held up to their standards. They attacked gamblers, adulters, and the undisciplined youth. They wanted the people to listen and vote for everything they wanted, like no Catholic schools. This government was very anti-Catholic and wanted no Catholics to exist. They felt that the Catholics were planning to overthrow the government and begin taking over. The government was very wealthy and held much of the power in the state. They used their money to get officials elected and put into power. They bribed Americans and wanted them to vote with them and drive minorities out. In fact, street fights would break out between Klan members and minorities in the heart of Indianapolis. The Indiana Klan rule of the government sharply declined when the Grand Dragon, D.C. Stephenson, was convicted of rape and murder of a woman. Once Stephenson was imprisoned, he began to tell the press all the Klan members that were paid to vote certain ways to that paid other people to vote certain ways. When investigations began, thousands of Klan members dropped out and did not want to be associated with the Klan any longer.

Late 1920’s

In the late 1920’s, the number of members of the Klan began to decline. The Klan peaked in the mid 1920’s, but by 1930 it is estimated that only 30,000 members remained. The fall of the Klan was due to new state laws, poor publicity, lack of interest in its members, and the depression in the 1930’s. Laws prohibited the wearing of masks, which eliminated their secret element. They got bad publicity from their so called “thugs” in their organization that made them look bad. The southern Klan spirit broke the Democratic hold in the south. In 1928, a Catholic man, Alfred E. Smith, was the Democratic Presidential candidate. Also, members of the Klan could no longer pay the dues of being a part of the Klan. Financially, they were unstable and unable to keep the support of the people. Because of the depression, most people were worried about finding jobs and food for their families rather than being a part of the Klan. This demonstrates how the Klan no longer took over the country, and other methods of peace were trying to be resolved. This was only a hiatus, however, as the Klan would later start up again

The Ku Klux Klan swept the country in the 1920’s. By the use of their violent terrorist tactics, they held most political power in the states. Innocent lives of the blacks and other racial minorities were lost because of the mindset of white supremacists. As the Klan expanded into racist women, the dominant southern group created destruction all over. The KKK is an organization that negatively impacted the country to try promote a society that would never coexist.

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/historyprofiles/tp/History-Ku-Klux-Klan-KKK.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/flood-klan/

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/ku-klux-klan-the-second-ku-klux-klan.html

http://kkk.org/klansmen-bios/nathan-bedford-forrest

http://martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/kkk1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_the_Ku_Klux_Klan

http://usslave.blogspot.com/2012/10/women-of-klan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Klan

http://instruction.blackhawk.edu/ghoffarth/race/reunit2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-ku-klux-klan-and-american-anti-catholicism.html

http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan