The Successes And Failures Of The Reconstruction Era

The new Klan was against anyone who was not an American Native. This group was based near Atlanta, however there was a large group of the Klan in New Jersey. The new Klan was a sign that the people of the United States were sensing a change in culture and they were not comfortable with it. Therefore they decided to take it upon themselves to make the change stop. In 1924 it was reported that there were four million members in the new Klan.

Through white supremacy, the Klu Klux Klan was born. During the 1920s, cultural conflict and modernization helped resuscitate the Ku Klux Klan. Whereas the original KKK was a violent, racist organization born in the post-Civil War South, the modern Klan was driven by somewhat different concerns. Many white, lower-middle-class, Protestant Americans in the North and Midwest were fearful that immigrants were changing traditional American

The Reconstruction era was a historical time period that followed after the Civil War (Dec 8, 1863-Mar 31, 1877), in which the United States grappled with how to reconstruct society, particularly in the southern states, while integrating the newly freedmen into sociopolitical and labor systems. Although Reconstruction granted African Americans the right to certain freedoms, including the right to buy and own property, marry, make contracts, etc., it also enforced segregationist laws. The laws at the time, (those being the Jim Crow laws and Black Codes) contradicted the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments through loopholes in order to retain white supremacy. Legislators were keen on making separate arrangements for African Americans and white people that were overall inherently unequal.

The goal of the reconstruction politically was to integrate Southern states/rebel states back into the U.S., and socially was to integrate the freed slave population to the society. However, ex-confederates of the South resisted this because of the fear of complete turnover of their lives, and to maintain the social hierarchy, where African Americans remained at the bottom by default due to their race. Several organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were formed to resist reconstruction and preserve white supremacy. Congress responded to the resistance by establishing the Freedmen 's Bureau, whose aimed was to build public schools and universities, provide food and medical care, political equality between blacks and whites and equal access to the judicial system. Lincoln planned to be lenient

Reconstruction was a period in American history, spanning from 1865 to 1877, following the Civil war. Its primary aim was to rebuild the South and bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. Additionally, Reconstruction aimed to provide social equality to African Americans who had been enslaved and oppressed for centuries. The goals of Reconstruction were implemented through legislation and constitutional amendments, but they were met with resistance from white Southern Democrats who opposed the changes and sought to maintain white supremacy. One of the primary achievements of Reconstruction was the passage of three constitutional amendments.

Once Johnson was no longer in charge congress put into place the Civil Rights Act, an act that declared everyone who was born in the United states to be granted a citizen no matter their race or previous conditions. This meant all former slaves could become true legal citizens. Similarly, the 14th amendment made it so that each state was to give equal protection of the laws to everyone because it too declared all citizens were equal. This amendment also would not allow for confederate political leaders to hold positions and it would not forgive any debts of the confederacy. Following the civil rights act and the 14th amendment the 15th amendment and then another civil rights act were also put into effect.

The original Ku Klux Klan started in 1865, but within years, numbers dwindled, leaving only small-town clusters. Decades later, in 1915, a Georgian preacher named William J. Simmons reorganized the KKK. He was inspired by the silent film “Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the Klan as knights. Simmons brought together millions, promising to protect the “morals of the nation.” He appealed to the ideals of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, the only people allowed to join.

Before the 1920s, William Joseph Simmons, tried to recreate the Klan but, the organization had only a few hundred members. Then in the early 1920s Henry Wesley Evans took control, he managed to have the Klan to be at as many as five million members. This new Klan was different than the old Klan because more people were involved in the organization. Not only was there a Ku Klux Klan, there was also WKKK which stood for Women Ku Klux Klan. At this time, immigration was growing and people were coming from all over the

Two organizations were founded; one immediately after the Civil War and lasted until the 1870’s and the other began in 1915 and has continued to the present (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). The 19th-century Klan was originally organized as a social club by Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. The organization spread quickly and became a powerful tool for Southern white underground resistance to Radical Reconstruction (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). Klan members sought the restoration of white supremacy against the newly enfranchised black freedom by intimidation and

Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.

The thirteenth amendment stated that all former slaves were granted freedom. The reconstruction period, “did create the essential constitutional foundation for further advances in the quest for equality”. It laid the building blocks for the future building for civil rights not just for blacks but women and other minorities. Former slaves, “ found comfort in their family and in the churches they established”. Blacks took community in each other and bonded over the mutual idea of freedom .

In 1915, a man named William J. Simmons watched the movie, ”Birth Of A Nation”, which is about the reconstruction, but it takes place through the eyes of someone in the KKK. This inspired William to reorganize the KKK. He claimed that the group was dedicated to “comprehensive Americanism”, and when the movie aired in Atlanta, he put an ad in the Atlanta paper for the KKK next to the movies ad. He had very good timing considering the United States was getting an immense number of immigrants. The KKK had claimed to be “purely benevolent” and when World War I had begun, the group promised to protect the home front from many different racial groups.

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s also saw the surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of black schools, and churches. The second Klan was national in scope, with a surprisingly small footprint in the South and its highest per capita state members were in India and Organ. By 1925, when its followers staged a huge Washington, D.C. March, the Klan had as many as 4 million members an, in some states, considerable political power. The Klan arose the third time during the 1920’s to oppose the Civil Rights Movement and to preserve

The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.

The Second Klan reborn in 1915 in Atlanta was the resurrected version of the original Ku Klux Klan of hoods and robes, post-Civil War. In addition to the original KKK ideology of white supremacy and superiority over Black people, the Second Klan also targeted and attacked Catholic and Jewish immigrants, feminists, and many other groups of people. The Ku Klux Klan members, Klaverns, were native-born white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who, in the name of patriotism and religion, used violence, suspicion, and prejudice to intimidate and threaten the “others” in their community. Something very striking and surprising to me were the whipping parties, character assassinations, and violence caused by the Ku Klux Klan.