The Ku Klux Klan history and activity

1. Escola Secundária de Alcochete
The Ku Klux Klan
Patricia Camejo
Number 22
11th F
English
Teacher Paula Aguiar
January 2015

2. The Ku Klux Klan was a racist, anti-Semitic and a very active terrorist group who
advocated white supremacy and white nationalism.

3. Where, when and why they appeared?
The Klan has been in three distinct movements in the United States:
 The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six
veterans of the Confederate Army.
 The first played a violent role against African Americans in the South during the Reconstruction Era of the 1860s.
 It was disorganized, informal, had no routine, broadcasts, neither formal recognition.
 In 1868, Forrest (Leader) closed the Klan saying that the Klan did not have the same aims as before. Even after it
was closed in 1873, one of the biggest massacres occurred in Colfax, Louisiana.
1st Klan (1865–1870s)

4. 2nd Klan (1915– 1944))
 In 1915, the second Klan was founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
 The second Ku Klux Klan was founded by William Joseph.
 Grown based on a new anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and
anti-Semitic idea, which developed in response to
contemporary social tensions.
 The quantity of member increased dramatically.
 It collapsed when the member David Stephenson was
accused of violating and killing Madge Oberholtzer.
 Another reason was that there was no clear leader.

5. 3rd Klan (since 1946)
 It appeared in the 1950s and 1960s when a local KKK group bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham.
 Today, many sources classify the Klan as a "subversive or terrorist organization”.
 They bombed homes, killed, firebombed and violated laws and many rights.

6. Klan Members
1st Klan unknown
2nd Klan 3,000,000 - 6,000,000
3rd Klan 5,000 – 8,000
The Membership numbers

7. Convictions, Beliefs and Goals
† Restore America back to being a white and a nation free
from drugs, homosexuality, immigration and race- mixing.
† KKK has extreme pride of their ideology. On their
website, they claim to be proud of their race, history, and
traditions.
† They refer to the acts that the KKK did in the past as
accomplishments, and believe they are building a better
society for everyone to live in.
† One of their goals was prevent black people to vote.

8. The Ku Klux Klan Acts
• The Ku Klux Klan Acts of rebellion included: Racism, Murdering of Black and White People, Church
bombing and more.
• They were a constant influence on Southern states trying to keep them from desegregation.

9. The burning cross is a symbol used by the Klan to create
terror. Cross burning is said to have been introduced by
William J. Simmons, the founder of the second Klan in
1915.
Members made their own costumes: robes, masks, and
conical hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their
identities.
The KKK burning cross

10. The Ku Klux Klan Attacks
1951
Members of the Ku Klux Klan firebomb the home of
NAACP Florida executive director Harry Tyson Moore
and his wife, Harriet, on Christmas Eve. Both are killed
in the explosion.

11. 1963
On September 15, 1963 the KKK performed a huge act of
rebellion with violence. On this date a white man exited his car
carrying a box which he then placed on the steps of a church
named “Sixteenth Street Baptist Church”. After that was an
explosion that caused the death of four black girls and 23
injured people. The man suspected oh the crime was Robert
Chambliss, who was a member of The Ku Klux Klan.

12. 1964
The Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan firebombs twenty
predominantly black churches, and then (with the aid of local
police) murders civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew
Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

13.  In the 1960’s, the revival of the Klan was not very successful, but they did become much more violent.
 In 1964, was a year when Klan members in Mississippi killed civil rights workers named: Michael Schwerner,
Andrew Goodman and James Chaney.
 In 1965, Lyndon Johnson the President had publicly condoned the Klan and had four of the Klan's men
arrested for murder of a white woman civil rights worker.
 The FBI had intelligence about KKK that could have brought the Klan down, but they never put this
information to action even during the intense civil rights movement era.
 In 1979, FBI Director William Webster told a reporter, "We have investigated specific klaverns (KKK groups)
that have engaged in, planned, or plotted acts of forceful violence, and we have had indictments in Alabama
and elsewhere."
KKK after 1960

14. Martin Luther King, Jr. did many things to bring
greater equality to America and to make sure that
civil rights were for all people no matter their race.
The major things that Martin Luther King did were
to:
• Bring publicity to major civil rights activities and
efforts.
• Encourage the importance of non-violent protest
and resistance.
• Provide leadership to the African-American civil
rights movement.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King was shot dead because of a £62,000 price.
Assassin James Earl Ray was in jail when he is said to have
heard on the prison gossip that the racist group would pay out
to anyone who ended the life of the black U.S. civil rights
leader.

15. The second Klan entered a period of steep decline caused by internal fighting,
scandals and increased activism by opponents. By 1930 the KKK, which had
attracted an estimated 5 million members during the early 1920s, was reduced to
about 30,000 supporters. Georgia's KKK membership declined from
approximately 156,000 members in 1925 to 1,400 in 1930.
Reasons for the KKK’s decline

16. Current status
o Today the Klan is estimated to have about 5,000 members.
o Klan groups are fractured and dispersed.
o Today's Klan groups have been divided by internal conflicts
over territory and personality, and by operating in an
environment much less welcoming to their political goals.

17. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is one of America's oldest and most feared groups. Driven by the dream of a world with
only one race. No matter where the Klan is, violence is sure to be the destination. They have been for over 130
years and continue in America's society today. They have become a symbol of crime.
Conclusion