Republicans! Unfavorable acts caused the rise of the Ku Klux

REPUBLICANS! UNFAVORABLE ACTS
CAUSED THE RISE OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

The years after the civil war were frustrating times for
the Americans. New laws and rules were posted for which
to abide by and due to the outcome of the civil war, the
people from the south had now to accept the new slavery
laws issued by the political parties and congress. This
created turmoil amongst both northerners, who mostly were
against slavery, and southerners. This was also true for
both political parties that consisted of the Republicans and
the Democratics. Again the issue was always on the rights
of blacks. The battles with certain individuals who felt it
their duty to stand up for their idea of what the American
way was.
In 1866, just a year after the civil war, six
confederate veterans formed a social club in the small town
of Pulaski Tennessee. These men were set out to perpetuate
white supremacy through out the south. The social club
became official. The members came up with the name of
Ku Klux Klan. It was a name taken from the Greek word
"Kuklos" which means circle. They came up with rituals
copied from college fraternities. They also assigned
positions to special members. They were composed of the
Grand Cyclop, The President, the Grand Magi, the vice-
president, and the Grand Exchequer, the treasurer. The
Klansmen adopt a uniform. The uniforms were white, long
robes, White masks, And high pointed hats. ( Ingalls,
Hoods 3 )

Adopted during 1866-67, the Republican party's
Reconstruction program threatened to turn southern society
upside down. The promise of equal rights for blacks flew in
the face of the widely held opinion of the white Southerners
that the black race was innately inferior. This deep-seated
racist belief had served to justify slavery, and it remained a
major obstacle to uplifting blacks after the civil war.
Indeed, Antiblack hatred drove some whites to extreme
measures to resist Reconstruction.
( Ingalls, Hoods 6 )
The Republicans feared that barrings the
blacks from politics would make the
Democratics Party dominant again in the south
and in congress. Congress divided the south into
five military districts controlled by martial law.
It took the vote away from large numbers of
rebel whites. It declared that all black men could
vote and hold office. And it ordered the rebel
states to write new and democratic constitutions.
Since Tennessee had become the first southern
state to give black men and freed slaves the right
to vote, it became most affected. ( Meltzer, 23 )
With the republican party controlling state
government, exconfederates began to take up arms to
oppose Reconstruction. Intimidation and violence were
increasingly used against blacks and their supporters in the
Republican party. ( Ingalls, Hoods 11 ) These rampages of
brutal acts were mostly the work of the dreaded Ku Klux
Klan.
In 1867, Klansmen met in Nashville where they
adopted a prescript, or constitution. This permitted the
Klan to spread across the south. Prescript set an initiation
fee, a dollar a member. Sworn to secrecy, recruits pledged
to 'protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless,
from the indignities wrongs, and outrages of the lawless,
the violent and the brutal.
The Ku Klux Klan became widespread. Klan leaders
proved unable to control their many followers and their
harmless pranks turn into a lawless reign of terror. This
leads us back to the turmoil caused by the republican's
Reconstruction.
The Klansmen's prime targets were either almost
always black or if white, associated with the hated
republican party. (Ingalls, Hoods 12-15)
Klansmen invaded homes of blacks at night for their
alleged wrong doings. These pertained of insulting whites
to voting for republicans. Blacks were forced not to vote
for Republican candidates. The Klan's political emphasis
also led to threats and attacks against white Republicans,
particularly those who were public officials. Directed at
Republicans "carpetbaggers" who came from the north and
southern "scalawags" who cooperated with them, the Klan's
campaign of terror was designed to keep them from getting
elected and to force their resignation if they won. (Ingalls,
Hoods 17-18) The Klu Klux Klan came up with a new
vengeance, this was the Secret order. The Secret order
spread to the Confederate states from Virginia to Texas.
just like in Tennessee, The Klan's growth was ignited by
the enforcement of reconstruction, which extended legal
rights, especially the vote, to blacks. Newspapers
sympathetic to the democratic party, spread the word about
this new antiblack and anti-republic organization along
within Klan officials. (Ingalls, Hoods 23) Huge numbers
of people of both races in the south, now, for the first time,
held political power. And that was the signal for the Klan
and several other secret organizations to combine their
terror in an attempt to destroy Radical Reconstruction.
Blacks at some point held political offices but gradually the
black people lost what little power they had to defend
themselves. They saw most of their white allies drop out of
the Republican Party. (Meltzer, 36)
In Georgia, a mob of masked men murdered George
W. Ashburn who was a white Republican. He was active in
state politics. The Klan's campaign of terror peaked during
the election campaign of 1868, when the purpose of the
violence was clearly to defeat Republicans and elect
democrats. Thousands of black and white Republicans fell
victim not only to beating but also to murder. (Cook, 45-46)
Although Democrats still denied that the Ku Klux
Klan was a problem, Republicans officials started
prosecuting Klansmen in federal court due to Ku Klux Klan
Act of 1871 that congress passed at the beginning in 1870.
This declined the Klan's terrorists acts, even though some
violent acts were still being practiced, it was only in
isolated areas. Long after its death, the Reconstruction
Klan lived on in southern legend. Its opposition to black
equality and Republican rule made the Ku Klux Klan
appear a heroic defender of "the southern way of life" in the
eyes of many law-abiding whites who never joined the Klan
but still despised Reconstruction. (Ingalls, Hoods 44)
In conclusion, the shift of power to the Republican
party after the civil war created a hostile environment for
the Confederates. Reconstruction, brought upon by the
Republicans, set fire to the racism of the people. This
statement thereby coincides with my theory which
Republicans' unfavorable acts caused the rise of the Ku
Klux Klan.