The Revival of the Ku Klux Klan During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's

THE REVIVAL OF THE KU KLUX KLAN DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE 1950'S
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(30 July 2011)
The Revival of the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's
Ku Klux Klan was formed in May 1866 at a place known as Pulaski, Tennessee. It started as a social club or fraternity wearing ropes, hoods and high conical pointed hats. This dressing code which was not meant to scare nor harm anybody ended up scaring people especially the former slaves in the area. Having discovered that they were being feared, they decided to take advantage of that situation. It is in that particular moment, they came up with a group of their own, the Ku Klux Klan. In 1867, the Ku Klux Klan met in order to come up with rules and organizational structures which were meant to be adhered to by all members. It is in this meeting that the former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was elected Grand Wizard or Supreme leader of the group. With time, the group was later separated into a number of realms, dominions, provinces and dens. The main aim of this group, Ku Klux Klan was to protect the whites that belonged to the Southern States against the wicked Northern whites and the Negros. Apart from the restoration of the whites’ supremacy, this group was also against Semitism, anti-Catholicism and nativism. In this research paper, the focus will be on the activities of Ku Klux Klan, their fall and their revival.
Immediately after the World War II in 1945, those members of the Ku Klux Klan who had been victims during the War began avenging their bitterness. By 1950s, most of the independent groups had started using the name “Ku Klux Klan” especially those individual groups in Birmingham and Alabama. These groups became resistant to the social changes and the blacks thus bombing their houses.
Their anger could not end their, instead, in 1958, at North Carolina, the Ku Klux Klan went a head burning crosses at the homes of the two Lumbee Native Americans who were known to have an association with the white people. Burning of the crosses was meant to be a sign of intimidation. They later held a night time rally near those places they had burned the crosses but luck wasn’t on their side, they ended up being surrounded by the hundreds of the armed Lumbees hence leading to the exchange of gunfire between the Lumbees and the Klan. It is at that point that the Klan decided to retreat.
Nevertheless, the Klan members never gave up in fighting after being routed, instead, they continued fighting back. In 1963, two members of the Klan bombed a church in Alabama. This was because earlier on, the church had been used by their long time enemies, the civil rights organizers. It is during these incidents that four young girl’s fall into being the victims of death. With the killings of those girls, anger was triggered hence leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Klan’s Activities
However, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in place, the Klan decided to target the political and social status of the freed slaves of which they took control of them. The main victims of the target were the African American. Those who fall victims of that group were the black politicians and the civil right activists. They were killed through beating and whipping. For example, the killings of the civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in Mississippi in 1964. This brutality led to the thousands of the American citizens especially the Republican ones to be killed and ten thousand of voters to be threatened from their freedom of voting. Furthermore, children, aged and crippled were not spared either.
This brutality never ended their, they also torched down churches and schools, beating up those teachers and those blacks who were known to be very well educated. Snatching of the black owner’s properties also took place and for those who did not allow that to happen, death was the only option. They turned the black into slaves and for those who refused to work for the whites, they were whipped. Other than working for the whites, having intimate relations with the whites, arguing with the whites, taking up jobs that could be done by the whites or those jobs the whites wanted, reading newspapers or having books in their homes and worst of it all being black, the above mentioned could lead to a bigger punishment of being whipped.
It in that period, the FBI decided to pay the informant in the Klan. This was evident in Birmingham in the early 1960s when the FBI and the Klan had a vague relationship whereby there were more doubts from the FBI Communist links to the civil activists as compared to controlling the Klan excesses against citizens. This triggered their immediate reactions when FBI’s COINTELPRO program started to penetrate towards the Klan so as to make sure they remained non-existence.
With the ending of the long time struggle over the black voting rights in the South, the Klan decided to take their attention ...