Rise and decline of the KKK
Uploaded by lokodios on Feb 06, 2002
The white were taking the law into their own hands by killing any black that should be said guilty of any crime. They called this being lynched. They went to the jail that the black had been accused of and with the security being so lax took them and dragged him/her to the place that they probably hang him/her. A famous lynching was where a black went to a white women’s house to ask for food. The women screamed because she was so scared and the man was taken to jail. A lynching mob then took him and hung him. The president at the time did nothing about this.
The Ku Klux Klan was a clan of important people who did this to stir up trouble for the blacks. In 1923 Hiram Wesley Evans became a member and then leader of the KKK (a.k.a."Imperial Wizard”). The following is a quote from the “Imperial Wizard” to show you what he believed in. “There are three great racial instincts which must be used to build a great America: loyalty to the white race, to the traditions of America and to the spirit of Protestants”. All across America white people were joining and it was spreading desperately. Imagine the Nazis and the Jews living together and you can understand the chaos at the time. D.C Stephenson, chief of the KKK, called himself “the Grandest Dragon of the Empire” and through bribes and blackmail became high up in the presidential area. He ran for U.S senate but he got involved in a kidnapping and when found guilty of this went to jail for life. Millions of people left the KKK after this news spread. After this Millions of Americans also started to stand up for what they believed in and for the first time newspapers started spreading bad news about the KKK. After this their “Kingdom” collapsed but did not die out completely as many remain members of the KKK.