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Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. Whippings, tar-and-featherings, threats of violence, and for black victims, lynching, became common practice in some regions of the South, Southwest, and Midwest. As the Klan marketed its message nationwide through paid "kleagles" and Klan membership climbed into the millions, many groups came to resemble community fraternal organizations rather than bands of masked nightriders. The Klan's goals also included the political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy in response to newly gained civil and political rights by southern blacks after the Civil War. Most Klan action was designed to intimidate black voters and white supporters of the Republican Party. Most Klan action was designed to intimidate black voters and white supporters of the Republican Party. The political terrorism was effective.

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The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), created in 1866, was widely spread in southern states by 1870. It was basically seen as a terrorist group. Their purpose was to eliminate immigrants, Catholics, jews, blacks and any organized labor. They began burning crosses and staging protests by rallying and marching for their belief. They were noticed majorly during the civil rights movement of 1960, with the bombing of black schools and churches. The first branch KKK was founded by former confederate veterans in 1866 in Tennessee. They began to create more branches and spread across the world. It's an organization that still exists today mainly in the southeast part of the USA. Towards the end of the 1920s, the Klan had been increased by over more than 4 million people nationwide, but has slowly decreased to today amount of about 3000 members.

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1. Kyklos- The Greek word for "circle"
2. Supremacy- Being superior to others
3. Klansman- A active member of the Ku Klux Klan.
4. Kalendar – The Klan calendar, which no one can ever work out how to use but occasionally refer to nonetheless, especially when they want an extra birthday.
5. Kardinal Kullors –The Klan “cardinal colors” of white, crimson, gold and black.
6. Lynching- An extrajudicial punishment by an informal group.
7. Supremacist- An advocate of the supremacy of a particular group, especially one determined by race or sex.
8. Clandestine- Kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit.
9. Prejudice- Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
10. Carpetbaggers- A political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections.

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This document is a manual to the Ku Klux Klan. It provides us with information about who they are. Each section talks about something different. For example, the name, the different divisions, its nature, its government, its authority and their objects and purposes. Their main purpose is "to maintain white supremacy." "To maintain forever the God- given supremacy of the white race."

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Fraternal order history records the failure of many patriotic societies that were organized on a so-called democratic basis. Without this feature of the military form of government which is designed to provide efficient leadership, effective discipline, intelligent cooperation, active functioning, uniform methods, and unified operation, quickly responsive to the call to put over the immediate task at hand, even the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan would degenerate into a mere passive, inefficient, social order.

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This letter is from a supposed deceased confederate claiming that he is back to terrorize blacks and non pure Americans. The Klu Klux Klan was also referred to as "The Invisible Empire of the South". The handwriting is unsettling and when you begin to view the document it becomes more frightening. Many claims source that James is being watched and hunted. There is a note included on the back stating that indicates that Jean is elected sheriff and that similar threats from the KKK had prevented other republicans from taking place in office.

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Reconstruction politics was a catalyst for widespread racism and hatred that freed people experienced throughout the South. The Ku Klux Klan, founded by a Confederate general in 1866, became known as the "invisible empire of the South" in which members represented the ghosts of the Confederate dead returning to terrorize African Americans and Republicans. Although it was a covert organization, the Klan's displays of violence and intolerance were anything but discreet. Many murders and beatings were never reported due to fear of reprisal from the Klan. This document is an example of the type of threats for which the KKK became known. In this case, the target was Davie Jeems, a black Republican recently elected sheriff in Lincoln County, Georgia. The language of the document evokes a ghostly menacing presence; even the handwriting is reminiscent of a ransom note. The word "notice" and the two holes at the top indicate that it was most likely posted in a public place. Someone has written on the back of the sheet that "similar threats have prevented all the other Republican officers to take their [commissions]." With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1871, the already weakened Klan became dormant, but it resurfaced again in 1915.

A full transcript is available.

Excerpt

Notice

To Jeems, Davie. you. must. be, a good boy. and. Quit. hunting on Sunday and shooting your gun in the night. you keep people from sleeping. I live in a big rock above the Ford of the Creek. I went from Lincoln County County [ sic] during the War I was Killed at Manassus in 1861. I am here now as a Locust in the day Time and. at night I am a Ku Klux sent here to look after you and all the rest of the radicals and make you know your place. I have got my eye on you every day, I am at the Ford of the creek every evening From Sundown till dark I want to meet you there next Saturday tell platt Madison we have, a Box. For him and you. We nail all, radicals up in Boxes and send them away to KKK - there is. 200 000 ded men retured to this country to make you and all the rest of the radicals good Democrats and vote right with the white people

Questions for Discussion

Read the document introduction and transcript and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer these questions.

1. Why was this notice addressed to Davie Jeems? Explain why the notice was apparently posted publicly.

2. How did the author(s) of the note use fear of the supernatural to frighten the reader?

3. To what extent does this note show the frustration and anger of some white Southerners to the policies of the Radical Republicans?

A printer-friendly version is available here.

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Reconstruction politics was a catalyst for widespread racism and hatred that freed people experienced throughout the South. The Ku Klux Klan, founded by a Confederate general in 1866, became known as the "invisible empire of the South" in which members represented the ghosts of the Confederate dead returning to terrorize African Americans and Republicans.

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This image is of the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross in Tennessee in 1948. They were strongly against black and white activists. They only began burning crosses after the KKK was revived in the early 20th century. Adding or using religious symbols brings mystery and menace to this group and their situation. Timeline writes, "... the Klan has always claimed they were 'lighting the cross' in celebration, not burning it maliciously." They do not see that they are doing a bad thing, even though everyone else sees that they are.

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This was a great website to use, because it has many images of that time like newspaper clippings, cartoon drawings and real pictures photographed during that time. Along with the pictures they provided a PDF link so we were able to enlarge it and read it easily. Near the bottom of the web page, they writers types multiple discussion questions and framing questions to help us comprehend the text a little more.

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1. Ku Klux Klan

Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. In the guise of protecting community morals, it expanded its victims of vigilante justice to those it deemed lawbreakers, bootleggers, unfaithful spouses, corrupt politicians, etc.-all with no judge or jury beyond the local secret "klavern." Whippings, tar-and-featherings, threats of violence, and for black victims, lynching, became common practice in some regions of the South, Southwest, and Midwest (Indiana was the stronghold of Klan power in the decade).

As the Klan marketed its message nationwide through paid "kleagles" and Klan membership climbed into the millions, many groups came to resemble community fraternal organizations rather than bands of masked nightriders. They sponsored public picnics, parade floats, and free speakers (and for the members, of course, secret nighttime cross-burnings), and they promoted Klan sympathizers for political office. Many eschewed violence, while yet fostering suspicion and prejudice toward local minority groups (e.g., French Canadians in Maine, Japanese in California, Native Americans in the southwest). "Such blending of the extreme and the ordinary was common in the Klan of the 1920s," writes historian Nancy MacLean; "indeed the blurring proved a source of strength."1 The resulting "overlap with the mainstream" led to several years of explosive growth and relative acceptability for the Klan, visible in its widespread political influence. After its heyday in the mid-1920s, the Klan fueled its rapid demise through internal feuding, financial scandal, and the sensational 1925 murder trial of Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson. By 1930 the Klan had virtually disappeared from the American political landscape, its membership less than 50,000. The Fiery Cross had self-immolated.

Collected commentary on the Ku Klux Klan. To provide an overview of the 1920s Klan, this collection offers contemporary commentary from newspapers, magazines, Klan and anti-Klan publications, novels, political cartoons, and a sociological study. How did local communities and the nation as a whole respond to the phenomenon of the 1920s Klan? Selections can be divided among students for research and classroom discussion. (12 pp.)

Political cartoons on the Ku Klux Klan. Sixteen cartoons on the Klan from general circulation (white-owned) and African American newspapers, and from Klan publications, are presented with guidance for analyzing and discussing the cartoons. How did the publications differ in presenting the Klan? What did each find important to emphasize? Study the cartoons with the five other cartoon collections in DIVISIONS, and complete the cartoon analysis chart. (Cartoons: 15 pp., Chart: 2 pp.)

Newsreel: Klan parade in Washington, DC, 1925. "40,000 Ku Klux Klansmen-clad in full regalia-make wonderful spectacle" reads the title frame in this brief British Pathé silent newsreel of the first Klan parade in Washington, DC, on August 8, 1925. Footage includes marchers on Constitution Avenue and at the Washington Monument; at 2:27 appears footage of women marchers. While some footage is repeated (this is probably a draft version), the repetition is helpful for studying the marchers, their demeanor, costume, and signs, and the visual effect of their unmasked parade in the nation's capital. (3:06) BRITISH PATHÉ NEWS

"Timely Topics," humor monologue by Will Rogers, 1923, SOUND RECORDING (3:09); TRANSCRIPT. Renowned as the "cowboy-philosopher" of the 1920s and 1930s, Rogers began a nationally syndicated column of witty yet pungent news commentary in 1922. Becoming popular across the partisan divide, he traveled nationwide delivering his humorous take on the day's events. In this brief recording, released as a 78 rpm vinyl record, Rogers jokes about "timely topics" including crime, divorce, Prohibition, and the parking problem. It concludes with a telling comment on the power of the Klan at the time. (Audio clip online; transcript, 1 p.) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/NHC

See also Black & White, Native & Foreign, and "Reds" & "Americans."

Discussion Questions

1. What general impressions of the 1920s Klan did you get from these primary resources? What surprised or intrigued you?

2. How was the Klan portrayed differently in the pro- and anti-Klan publications and cartoons? in the general circulation and African American publications? What did each choose to emphasize about the Klan?

3. What were Klan opponents' main objections to the Klan? How did the Klan reply to its opponents, in print and in action?

4. How did "true Americanism" and "white supremacy" share the Klan banner of the 1920s? What aspects of postwar America prompted the slogans?

5. How did the 1920s Klan become a national political force? How did the Republican and Democratic Parties deal with the Klan's significant influence in state and national politics?

6. How did the audio and video resources affect your understanding of the 1920s Klan? How might newsreels, radio coverage, and sound recordings-which did not exist in the rise of the 1860s Klan-have influenced national response to the Klan?

7. List four to five adjectives that encapsulate the 1920s Klan. What adjectives did you reject in the process? Why? (You might choose to write several short descriptive sentences instead, but selecting adjectives is a more rigorous and revealing task.)

8. Complete the cartoon analysis chart for this Theme DIVISIONS to analyze the cartoonists' viewpoints and the visual devices they used to convey them, e.g., their use of American symbols of liberty and of the Klan's white hood and robe.

9. Combine these resources on the Klan with others in the Theme DIVISIONS, especially Black & White, Native & Foreign, and "Reds & Americans." Compare the issues, anxieties, and consequences of these social-political divisions of the 1920s. Which were unique to the 1920s? Which appear in other periods of anxiety and rapid change?

10. Conduct research to compare the first Klan of the 1860s-1870s, the second Klan of the 1920s, the Klan revival during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and white supremacy groups of today. Is there one "Klan" that is periodically revived, or one name that is applied to different social phenomena?

Framing Questions

What factors precipitated and fueled the social divisions of the 1920s?

How did each division reflect postwar adjustments and the "modern age"?

What issues overlapped the multiple social divisions of the period?

How had each issue evolved by 1930 as the nation entered the Great Depression?

Printing

Collected commentary
Political cartoons
Cartoon analysis chart
Newsreel, 1925 Klan parade
Will Rogers, "Timely Topics"
Audio
Transcript
TOTAL

Supplemental Sites

1Nancy MacLean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 4.

Images:
- Leslie Rogers, "One Must Be Extinguished," political cartoon, The Chicago Defender, March 31, 1923. Reproduced by permission.
- Klan parade, Washington, DC, Sept. 13, 1926; photograph captioned "Leading the Klu [sic] Klux Klan parade which was held in Washington, D.C. today; on the right is Mr. J. M. Fraser . . . from Houston, Texas." Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Photo Company Collection, #LC-USZ62-96154.
-Fred B. Watson, "The Creeping Shadow," political cartoon, The Afro-American (Baltimore), Oct. 3, 1925. Reproduced by permission of the Afro-American Newspapers Archives & Research Center; digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- WKKK (Women of the Ku Klux Klan), Godfrey Klan 93, Hartford City, Indiana, photograph, ca. 1923 (detail). Indiana Historical Society, Item ID PhotoSubjColl_WKKK_Godfrey_Klan. Reproduced by permission of the Indiana Historical Society.
- Broadside advertising Ku Klux Klan meeting and picnic, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct. 4 [1924]. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, #51778. Reproduced by permission.
- Edmund Gale, "This Is Going to Be Good," political cartoon, Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1924. Reproduced by permission of the Los Angeles Times; digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

*PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site.

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Ku Klux Klan, America in the 1920s, Primary Sources for Teachers, America in Class, National Humanities Center

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Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.

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This site is helpful to us because it provides us with years and detailed events and definitions. It also have hyperlinked words, to know more in depth what we are learning. I like how each new idea is split up into different paragraphs and not one big essay. Another thing I found interesting was how they put an interesting fact somewhere between two topics.

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Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan emerges to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves.

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This website, almost like the American Class website, also provided pictures and the ability to enlarge them. It also has three article reading levels that you are able to choose. It gives us related resources for this article, including, other articles, primary sources and e-books. It gives us more then enough information. As well as the other websites.

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Welcome to Britannica School , a safe, up-to-date, and age-appropriate information resource for Elementary, Middle, and High School.

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http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism
This website relates to our topic globally by sharing the overarching theme; racism. Racism is a troubling topic that has to do with the racial profiling and discrimination towards others. The aftermath of both of these forms of dehumanization leave many understandably outraged and horrified.

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This part of the globalissues.org web site looks into the issue of racism. In some places around the world, racial hatred is increasing. Many modern conflicts also have some roots in ethnicity.