Ku Klux Klan
From Metapedia
The Ku Klux Klan (Invisible Empire) is the name of a number of past and present White nationalist organizations in American. The first of which was started after the American Civil War in 1866. The History of the Ku Klux Klan is divided in five Eras.
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[edit] First Era (1866-1877)
The first Ku Klux Klan was an American secret association of Southern whites united for self-protection and to oppose the Reconstruction measures of the United States Congress, 1865-1876. The name is generally applied not only to the order of Ku Klux Klan, but to other similar societies that existed at the same time, such as the Knights of the White Camelia, a larger order than the Klan; the White Brotherhood; the White League; Pale Faces; Constitutional Union Guards; Black Cavalry; White Rose; The '76 Association; and hundreds of smaller societies that sprang up in the South after the Civil War. The object was to protect the whites during the disorders that followed the Civil War, and to oppose the policy of the North towards the South, and the result of the whole movement was a more or less successful revolution against the Reconstruction and an overthrow of the governments based on negro suffrage. It may be compared in some degree to such European societies as the Carbonara, Young Italy, the Tugendbund, the Confreries of France, the Freemasons in Catholic countries, and the Vehmgericht.
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former was founded on May 6, 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighbourhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol. The White Camelia was formed in 1867 in Louisiana and rapidly spread over the states of the late Confederacy. The period of organization and development of the Ku Klux movement was from 1865 to 1868; the period of greatest activity was from 1868 to 1870, after which came the decline.
The various causes assigned for the origin and development of this movement were: the absence of stable government in the South for several years after the Civil War; the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the alien, renegade and negro, and the belief that it was supported by the Federal troops which controlled elections and legislative bodies; the disfranchisement of whites; the spread of ideas of social and political equality among the negroes; fear of negro insurrections; the arming of negro militia and the disarming of the whites; outrages upon white women by black men; the influence of Northern adventurers in the Freedmen's Bureau and the Union League in alienating the races; the humiliation of Confederate soldiers after they had been paroled - in general, the insecurity felt by Southern whites during the decade after the collapse of the Confederacy.
In organization the Klan was modelled after the Federal Union. Its Prescript or constitution, adopted in 1867, and revised in 1868, provided for the following organization: The entire South was the Invisible Empire under a Grand Wizard, General N. B. Forrest; each state was a Realm under a Grand Dragon; several counties formed a Dominion under a Grand Titan; each county was a Province under a Grand Giant; the smallest division being a Den under a Grand Cyclops. The staff officers bore similar titles, relics of the time when the order existed only for amusement: Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, Night Hawks, Magi, Monks and Turks. The private members were called Ghouls. The Klan was twice reorganized, in 1867 and in 1868, each time being more centralized; in 1869 the central organization was disbanded and the order then gradually declined. The White Camelia with a similar history had a similar organization, without the queer titles. Its members were called Brothers and Knights, and its officials Commanders.
The constitutions and rituals of these secret orders have declarations of principles, of which the following are characteristic: to protect and succour the weak and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to protect members, of the white race in life, honour and property from the encroachments of the blacks; to oppose the Radical Republican party and the Union League; to defend constitutional liberty, to prevent usurpation, emancipate the whites, maintain peace and order, the laws of God, the principles of 1776, and the political and social supremacy of the white race - in short, to oppose African influence in government and society, and to prevent any intermingling of the races.
During the Reconstruction the people of the South were divided thus: nearly all native whites (the most prominent of whom were disfranchised) on one side irrespective of former political faith, and on the other side the ex-slaves organized and led by a few native and Northern whites called respectively scalawags and carpet-baggers, who were supported by the United States government and who controlled the Southern state governments. The Ku Klux movement in its wider aspects was the effort of the first class to destroy the control of the second class. To control the negro the Klan played upon his superstitious fears by having night patrols, parades and drills of silent horsemen covered with white sheets, carrying skulls with coals of fire for eyes, sacks of bones to rattle, and wearing hideous masks. In calling upon dangerous blacks at night they pretended to be the spirits of dead Confederates, "just from Hell," and to quench their thirst would pretend to drink gallons of water which was poured into rubber sacks concealed under their robes. Mysterious signs and warnings were sent to disorderly negro politicians. The whites who were responsible for the conduct of the blacks were warned or driven away by social and business ostracism or by violence. Nearly all southern whites (except "scalawags"), whether members of the secret societies or hot, in some way took part in the Ku Klux movement. As the work of the societies succeeded, they gradually passed out of existence. In some communities they fell into the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical aspects of the movement excited the North to vigorous condemnation.' The United States Congress in1871-1872enacted a series of "Force Laws" intended to break up the secret societies and to control the Southern elections. Several hundred arrests were made, and a few convictions were secured. The elections were controlled for a few years, and violence was checked, but the Ku Klux movement went on until it accomplished its object by giving protection to the whites, reducing the blacks to order, replacing the whites in control of society and state, expelling the worst of the carpet-baggers and scalawags, and nullifying those laws of Congress which had resulted in placing the Southern whites under the control of a party composed principally of ex-slaves.
[edit] Second Era (1915-1944)
In 1915 William Joseph Simmons founds the second Ku Klux Klan. At its peak in the early 1920s, the organization had approximately 4–5 million members. Simmons was a preacher and Freemason, who was a member of dozen fraternal group and two churches. The day before thanksgiving in 1915, Simmons and 15 charter members lit a cross on Stone Mountain, Georgia. He called program of the Klan "100% Americanism." In 1921 the group had over 100,000 members. In 1922 internal bickering forced Simmons out of the organization. He was replaced by Hiram Wesley Evens. Evens moved the Klan headquarters from Atlanta in Washington D.C. in 1924. In 1924 the Klan held a parade where 40,000 robed Klansmen marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.
Internal bickering and Great Depression caused membership fall and it fell further during World War II. The IRS levies a $640,000 lien against the Klan in 1944 forcing the groups disbandment. The Ku Klux cease to exist as a unified national organization after that time.
[edit] Third Era (1946-1974)
In 1946 Dr. Sam Greene, an Atlanta physician, reorganizes the Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Chapters are soon active in California, Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama. Internal disputes and government harassment leave the organization and unstable and by the time of Greene’s death in 1949 membership had greatly declined.
In 1953 an Atlanta auto worker, named Eldon Edwards, formed a new group called U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. After 1954 the group experienced large grown in the wake of forced desegregation. In 1956 Edwards held a rally attended by 3,000 robed Klansmen on Stone Mountain. In 1958 the U.S. Klans had 15,000 members. In 1960 Edwards died and group fell into disarray.
In 1961 Robert M. Shelton formed the United Klans of America (UKA). Members of UKA fought with marxist agitators and were involved in violent confrontations at universities in the early 1960's. In 1965 total number of Klansmen reached 50,000. The most militant group of the 1960's was the White Knights of Mississippi, with some 5,000 members. In 1967 arrests and action by the Federal broke up White Knights of Mississippi. The Ku Klux Klan was infiltrated by government moles and agents provocateur during this time, which causes great damage to the organization. There were as many as 2,000 government agents in various Klan groups. By 1970 membership had declined greatly and Klan organizations were in disarray.
[edit] Fourth Era (1974-1981)
In the 1970's “Affirmative Action” programs are put in place to attack European Americans. In 1975 David Duke, of Louisiana, founds the Knights of The Ku Klux Klan and tries re-build Klan as a national organization. He demands equal rights for European Americans. And to build the Klan into an organization to promote the social and cultural interests of White Native Americans. Louis Beam starts a paramilitary group, the Texas Emergency Reserve, mainly made up of Klansmen. They were involved in confrontations between Vietnamese shrimp fishermen and European American fishermen in Galveston Bay. In 1978 Klansmen were involved in a violent confrontation marxist agitators in Greensboro, North Carolina. Five members of Communist Workers Party are killed. The Klansmen were acquitted of all criminal charges.
[edit] Fifth Era (1981-present)
Robert E. Miles lays out his ideas for the Fifth Era of Ku Klux Klan in his book 33/5. Louis Beam organizes formulates his strategy of Leaderless Resistance.
[edit] Notable Ku Klux Klan members
- Nathan Bedford Forrest (general C.S.A.)
- Edward Douglass White (U.S. Supreme Court)
- William Joseph Simmons (founder of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915)
- Warren G. Harding (U.S. President)
- Hugo Black (U.S. Supreme Court)
- Harry S. Truman (U.S. President)
- Robert Byrd (U.S. Senator)
- David Duke
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The History of the Original Ku Klux Klan(1866-1877)
- History of the Invisible Empire 1866-present
- A Wall of Wizards
[edit] Websites of Ku Klux Klan groups of the Fifth Era
- Imperial Klans of America
- Knights of the White Camelia
- Texas Knights of The Invisible Empire Inc.
- MISSISSIPPI WHITE KNIGHTS
- http://www.kkklan.com/
- http://www.kukluxklan.info/
- http://www.kkk.com/
- http://kelticklankirk.com/
