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HATE CRIMES
The Ku Klux Klan was organized in 1867 in the South as a reaction to
the newly drafted State constitutions in the South following the Civil War. This group used terrorism against the freedmen and those who supported them by using tactics such as intimidation, rallies, and lynching. Throughout the years, lynching has been used as a form of ‘justice’ for
the KKK and it has also served as a warning for other targets. Between 1868 and 1870, the Klan reached its peak of violence in Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina. However, in 1869, the Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered the Klan to disband due to the excessive violence that accumulated over the years. That did not stop the Klan from activity in local areas- that is, until Congress passed the Enforcement Act (1870) and Ku Klux Act (1871) to hinder KKK activities. Afterwards, the Klan activities were non-existent because their main goal had been largely accomplished- white supremacy was restored in the South. It wasn’t until 1915 that the Klan was reborn but this time their goal was modified for modern times. The new Klan was formed in response to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, increased immigration that changed the ethnicity of American society, as well as the nostalgia for the old South. Membership exceeded 4,000,000 on a national level in the 1920s but that did not last long because of the Great Depression. Violence decreased then resurged again during the civil rights era in the 1960s. As the years went on, the Klan’s membership and level of violence simmered until it got to the point where membership fell as low as a few thousand and dispersed into smaller hate groups. While the hate groups were small, they still promoted and executed hate crimes as well as spread subliminal messages to persuade others to become members. For more information and statistics, visit:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ku-klux-klan http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/ku_klux_klan.html http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2004/hctable11.htm http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hatecm.htm |
