Ku Klux Klan

The Klan is a symbol for brutality, violence and hate. It is the most famous and oldest terror organisation of the USA and in some states they even have a political influence and power.

First I talk about the Klan s history because I think it is very interesting how and why the Klan was founded. In 1865 the civil war had end, and the southern people, which had loosed, had quiet a lot problems to live. Many towns were burned down.

In the North there was a law, that forbid slavery and after the war it was also law for the South. Because of this, many fields couldn t be cultivated because too many had been killed in war and now they weren t even allowed to use slaves.

At this time, the Ku Klux Klan was founded. It all began with 6 young college students who wanted to manufacture their friendship in a club, for them this had something mysterious and exclusive. I think that was just a attempt not to be bored, because at this times there weren t neither jobs nor money. So at the beginning the Klan wasn t there to attack blacks, it was just a club of 6 young men. They thought about a name for the club, and remembered the word kuklux which is a Greek word and means circle. Because all of them were Scottish, they also took the word Clan. And so the name of the club became Ku Klux Klan.

They thought that it would be more mysterious if they wore costumes and they began to rode on stolen horses with sheets and pieces of cloth without saying anything.

They learn that their nightly appearances were causing fear, particularly among former slaves in the area. So the Klan got a new meaning, because maybe they could frighten the blacks so much, that they begin to work for them again.

The group quickly began to grow.

In this time, they just had the aim to frighten the slaves and they doings seem very funny today. But the slaves, who often didn t have any education, were very frightened of this.

For example they were horsemen without a head with the help of a pumpkin. But then there was a new government and there were some new laws, so that the black codes doesn t work anymore. The Klansmen were angry and didn t understand that blacks, who can t even read or write, should have the same rights as white persons. The Klan became known as the Invisible Empire of the South and its first leader, whose title was the Grand Wizard, was Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The Klan, which once just wanted to frighten the Afro-Americans, now started to attack them, especially those blacks who wanted to be political active. They terrorized them to prevent them from voting in elections or practising any other right.

The most actions took place at night and in most cases they were very cruel. For example, they took black persons away from home and do terrible thinks with him.

They beat them, whipped them. and at the end they killed them and brought them back to their houses. To show who had done that, they wrote the letters KKK over the door. They also ...