Analysis Of Backfire By David Chalmers

In the time period of 1860 to 1877, the social and constitutional developments caused a revolutionary change to the social structure of the South, but more so to the constitution. The fight for constitutional amendments became very important to the federal government after the civil war and during the reconstruction era. This caused major backlash from many people in the South, and state governments passed laws such as the Black Codes, which restricted black people’s freedom. As the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed, terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were created to scare african americans away from voting, among other activities. The federal government responded to these retaliations by placing armed forces in the

Nicholas Lemann begins his book “Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War” with the 1873 Colfax, Louisiana massacre where a White League militia comprised of former Confederate soldiers killed black Republican voters. The Colfax massacre was perhaps the bloodiest event of Reconstruction. Lemann views this event as a startup of what would happen later in Mississippi if Federal troops did not defend black voters. Lemann blames Ulysses S. Grant’s Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, for not stopping the White Line activity in Louisiana and Mississippi. Grant had worked hard to stop the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1870s with Congress passing legislation and Federal troops putting down Klan activity.

On Sunday, September 15, 1963, there was an explosion that killed 4 girls and injured 22 others at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama (“Vigilance and Victory”). In spite of the deaths, this act of white supremacy was the one that united the nation to combat segregation and discrimination. The 4 KKK members who had induced such pain and sorrow in many Americans were Thomas Edwin Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry. (“16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, Wikipedia”). These four men intended to slow down the progression of the Civil Rights Movement, but rather sprung it ahead into the creation of the Civil Rights Act which desegregated many public areas.

Black communities in the south changed the status quo through the construction of black churches and schoolhouses that would be the center of communal activities. The black community repressed their enslaved past and self-empowered their communities in the post-emancipated world. White vigilantes saw these actions as a threat, thus created violence by “…burned down black churches and schoolhouses and drove off repugnant teachers and minsters.” These black community centers were a threat of the Ku Klux Klan even though it was in the beginning stages of growing in power. The assembly of the black communal centers became a crucial tactic of the Klan members that took advantage to implement violent methods of torture to a large group of African Americans.

Examining the specific case of Maria Carter, and the violence she experienced with the Ku Klux Klan, gave more justification towards the need of a government-issued change that the Klan, and other hate groups, would not like to disobey. Carter witnessed one of the most violent instances with the Klan, in which she testified that “they struck her [neighbor] over the head with a pistol. The house looked next morning as if somebody had been killing hogs there. Some of them said ‘Fetch a light here, quick;’ and some of them said to her, ‘Hold a light.’ They said she held it, and they put their guns down on him and shot him” (United States, “Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee”).

White supremascists Shawn Berry Lawrence Russell Brewer and John King started a major racial controversy by murdering James Byrd Jr. It came as a shock to people when, for the first time in history, the press bothered to notice the lynching of a black man in Texas, society was astonished that they cared with such passion and vigor. Many American citizens found this appalling considering the country’s indifference to racial violence. Had it not been for the lynching of James Byrd Jr., the Hate Crimes Prevention Act would not exist, therefore countless acts of brutality would take place because there would not be any rules or resistance impeding them from committing the crime.

The Klan came to power with the aid of their secret nature that involved handshakes, code words, etc. Most people knew little about the Klan until Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the society and revealed many secrets to try to dismantle the Klan. Kennedy saw that his local chapter was comprised of poorly educated, low earning men who needed to vent their frustrations to someone. Kennedy revealed their secrets to a radio show, where children learned the Klan’s secrets and turned the seriousness of the Klan into a child’s game. Many men stopped attending meetings after this.

Former slaves who “tried to vote or participate in politics [were] likely to be singled out for “punishment”” by a terrorist organization named as the Ku Klux Klan, until the Congress passed the Force Bill in 1871 that gave the federal authorities the right to arrest and pursue active members of the KKK. But, the bill appeared to be only figurative as not really much of the Klan’s members were prosecuted (Hazen

The clan spread fear and terror towards the blacks in a systematic way. Their reign of terror was felt throughout the south. It spread fear using guerilla tactics, whipping, beating, and lynching. The Klan’s purpose

In 1926 American society was changing rapidly through immigration and many races of people were bringing their cultures with them. A man named Hiram W. Evans was the imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Evans made the argument that these new immigrants were destroying the racial definition of what an American should be. He felt that true Americans were part of the Nordic race because the early pioneers fit into this category. The Klan’s point of view was that America should stay American and maintain this Nordic race of Caucasian people.

Julia Modine Ms. Hoag U.S. History I 12 December 2017 Hiram Wesley Evans effect on America Much of mainstream white, protestant America was ripe for the emergence of a persuasive and unifying cultural ideology in the 1920s that catered to its fears, prejudices and misguided beliefs. The Ku Klux Klan had been around for decades and had always held up the ideal of the original American pioneer stock and their descendents as the true recipients of the American promise. In the mid-20s, the Ku Klux Klan underwent a resurgence in popularity amid growing alarm within a large percentage of middle and working class white men due to increased volume of immigrants competing in the workplace, growing religious sects and racial integration.

Frederickson argues African Americans simply did not have the time or preparation to oppose racist forces. Using paramilitary forces, southern redeemers easily made threats to reconstruction forces as seen through the emergence of the violent Ku Klux Klan during the election of 1866. The opportunity for African Americans to gain a stance in society was short lived by the racist efforts of democrats in the south and impartial ideals from

The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.

How far has the West come in the last decade? Before the current decade, the smartphone simply did not exist. The item which a vast number, if not the majority, of the population use all day, every day, did not exist prior to ten years ago. What a profound change. And yet, the science and reason that brought us this invention are not enough to force humanity to accept it in all facets of life.

In the reading from We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century, Dorothy Sterling explores the many experiences of mainly African American women during the period of the Reconstruction era. Sterling states “whites put aside random acts of violence in favor of organized terror.” She focuses a lot on those experiences that involves the Ku Klux Klan (who were the organization responsible for these organized terror) and in a way, it seems fair because they were the main perpetrators of hate crimes against the African American community. The first few examples provided in the reading offer accounts of African American women whose husbands are often targets of the Ku Klux Klan because they were politicians or high-profile radicals in the South.