English project - Ku Klux Klan.

Kaitlin Kazelis
English 3-4

In the beginning, the purpose of this Ku Klux Klan was never political or even racist at all; it was meant to play pranks on the people living in the county and just have fun with it. However, the pranks had a negative effect on people. For example, the members liked to wear the spooky clothes and appear in the middle of the night to frighten the liberated slaves and the representatives of the Union.
The Ku Klux Klan consisted of white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism, homophobia, and anti-Communism. The Klan believed in violence, terrorism, lynching and cross burning to oppress African Americans. Many independent groups opposing the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation have used the name, Ku Klux Klan as well.
As more members join the Klan, the organization had moved to many southern states such as Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. It is said that the Klan threatened, shot, stabbed and hanged. The Klan also ‘took care’ of Negroes who had gained land and prospered. Even those who made inflammatory speeches or talked about equal rights.
In the 1920’s, the Ku Klux Klan had more than two million members, and was at the peak of its power and influence. The city of Chicago had the largest number of members, but then the Klan was starting to fade as it got late in the 1920’s. This shows that there probably weren’t a lot of Ku Klux Klan members in Chicago at the time of Bigger and his story. To close this up, we should all know that the Klan never started out as a racist/political organization, it really was meant for the Klansmen to just play pranks on people and scare the daylight out of them.