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A Brief History of the KKK
What is the history of the KKK? It all starts with the Civil War. On March 21, 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens declared in his Cornerstone Speech: “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea {of the United States’ Constitution declaring equality for everyone}; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition.”

This strong belief – strong enough to divide an entire country – did not just die when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. Instead, it birthed yet another movement intended to keep the white people in a place of superiority: the white-hooded, cross-burning, Ku Klux Klan.
The KKK’s popularity and influence ebb and flow, depending on the politics. The Equal Justice Initiative organization in Montgomery, Alabama, has done extensive research to determine the actual number of lynching murders in America. Between 1877-1950, they have determined the number to be almost 4,100. This does not count the many who were killed during the Civil Rights movement, when non-white Americans sought the right to vote.
You might recall that “Bloody Sunday” occurred on the Edmund Pettus bridge, which was named after a Klansman. This attack left future Congressman and peaceful CIvil Rights activist John Lewis with a skull fracture.
Since the Black Lives Matter movement gained strength, the KKK has returned. In June of 2020, a self-identified klansman leader drove his pickup through a Black Lives Matter protest in Virginia. He was charged with three counts of assault, one count of destruction of property, and one count of hit and run. He was sentenced to almost four years in prison. He was not charged with a hate crime after the courts decided there was “not enough evidence.”
The KKK is still only listed as an “extremist domestic group,” not a terrorist organization.
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A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
