My topic is the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klan is a symbol for brutality, violence and hate. It is the most famous and oldest terror organisation of the USA and in some states they even have a political influence and power.
First I talk about the Klan's history because I think it is very interesting how and why the Klan was founded.
Before I start, you have to know some background informations:
In 1865 the civil war had end, and the southern people, which had loosed, had quiet a lot problems to live. Many towns were burned down.
In the North there was a law, that forbid slavery and after the war it was also law for the South. Because of this, many fields couldn't be cultivated because too many had been killed in war and now they weren't even allowed to use slaves.
At this time, the Ku Klux Klan was founded. It all began with 6 young college students who wanted to manufacture their friendship in a club, for them this had something mysterious and exclusive. I think that was just a attempt not to be bored, because at this times there weren't neither jobs nor money. So at the beginning the Klan wasn't there to attack blacks, it was just a club of 6 young men. They thought about a name for the club, and remembered the word kuklux which is a Greek word and means circle. Because all of them were Scottish, they also took the word Clan. And so the name of the club became Ku Klux Klan.
They thought that it would be more mysterious if they wore costumes and they began to rode on stolen horses with sheets and pieces of cloth without saying anything.
They learn that their nightly appearances were causing fear, particularly among former slaves in the area. So the Klan got a new meaning, because maybe they could frighten the blacks so much, that they begin to work for them again. The group quickly began to grow.
In this time, they just had the aim to frighten the slaves and they doings seem very funny today. But the slaves, who often didn't have any education, were very frightened of this.
For example they were horsemen without a head with the help of a pumpkin.
But then there was a new government and there were some new laws, so that the "black codes" doesn't work anymore. The Klansmen were angry and didn't understand that blacks, who can't even read or write, should have the same rights as white persons. The Klan became known as the Invisible Empire of the South and its first leader, whose title was the Grand Wizard, was Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The Klan, which once just wanted to frighten the Afro-Americans, now started to attack them, especially those blacks who wanted to be political active. They terrorized them to prevent them from voting in elections or practising any other right.
The most actions took place at night and in most cases they were very cruel. For example, they took black persons away from home and do terrible thinks with him. They beat them, whipped them ..and at the end they killed them and brought them back to their houses. To show who had done that, they wrote the letters KKK over the door.
They also murdered white sympathizers of the blacks.
They also castrate people, slit open pregnant women, hang people, rip person in four parts with help of their horses, or lit them on and so on.
The Klan wore white robes and hoods to hide their identity.
It reached its peak between 1868 and 1870. But then the Klan got more and more cruelty and Nathan B. Forrest couldn't stop them anymore, so he resolved it. Of course, not all groups disappeared. But the congress passed the Force Act in 1870 and the Ku Klux Act in 1871. These laws were the end of the first Klan, because they allowed the President to use federal troops against the Klan. Hundreds of Klan members were imprisoned.
But in 1915, William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher, organized a new Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Simmons had been inspired by his father which was a Klansman and so he heard many stories about it. Also a revival for the Klan was a book called "The Clansman", a film called "the Birth of a Nation" and of course the fact that more that 14 mio. People had immigrated from 1898 till 1914.
Every white, protestant people who were older than 16 could join the Klan.
The second Klan peaked in the 1920's when its membership was about 4 mio. People; they drew members from all ranks of the white society, but mainly from the lower middle class people. In order to get new members, the Klan made the people fear of the immigrants, communists and other minorities and fed their frustration. So you see the second clan had a wider program as the first one, they didn't anymore only attack blacks.
They also attack Jews and even Roman Catholics.
A burning cross became the symbol of the new organization and the members participated in marches, parades, and nighttime cross burnings all over the country.
The original Ku Klux Klan didn't make cross burnings, this is one of the ideas of the book.
In contrary to the first Klan, only a small part of the second Klan was use violence to reach their aims.
They only marched in theses parades, cote for the political candidates of the Klan and so on.
The Klan got more and more power and it also had its own newspaper and factory for the clothes. It also controlled a whole university.
But disagreements among the leadership, every one wanted to be the most powerful leader, and at least the 2nd world war quickly reduced its influence and by 1944 the Ku Klux Klan had disappeared again.
The Klan was revived again after the war in 1946 by an Atlanta physician, Samuel Green.
Green died and the Klan split into many smaller groups. There are for example the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, The New Order Kings or the Invisible Empire.
During the 1960's the Civil Rights movement began and a new wave of violence by the Ku Klux Klan was brought about. Some splinter groups began to get guns and terrorized supporters of civil rights movements. At this time they had the highest murder rate they ever had.
Because of new civil rights laws and special programs helping blacks, they got new members.
Ku Klux Klan
Symbols
First there is the Bible and it remembers the Klansman that there is a God and that they should follow him. The 12 chapters of the Römerbrief are laws for the Klansman.
Then there is the sword which stands for the courage the Klansman need in the fight against the tyrannies and that they maybe have to pay with their lives.
And the water stands for the transparency of their ghost and for their lives.
There is he Fiery Cross. It was used at first in the 1920's to fear the opponents of the Klan. It is a burning wooden cross which stands near the house of their enemies. While the cross burns the robe and hood wearing members make a procedure around it.
The Klan adopted the fiery cross from the traditions of old Scotland where the fiery cross was used as a symbol against tyranny and often the hills of Scotland would be lit aglow with the lighted cross -the symbol of freedom - freedom from sin - freedom from tyranny.
I found an explanation, why they light the cross:
This symbol represents the ideals of Christian civilization. The cross is a symbol of sacrifice, service and a sign of the religion. It is a reminder that Christ is the criterion of character and his teachings should be their rule of life.
By the fire they mean to cleanse and purify their virtues by burning out their vices from the fire of his word.
It doesn't represent a desecration of the cross, as it is believed from a few people.
A second symbol is the 'blood drop'. It stands for the Klan since the 1920's. In the center of it you can see a red drop. It shows a blood drop, which stand for the blood of Jesus he shed for the white race.
The cross displays the religious life of the Klan members and the circle is a symbol of the community of the Klansmen.
And of course, there are the specific clothes they wear:
The robe is white and goes from the shoulders to the knees and the hood is over the whole face. There are argumentations, that the robe is worn as a symbol of humility for the rituals (like monks) and the mask symbolize the anonymity and by that the selfless dedication to their God, their nation. and so on.
And of course they use them to fear the people and to be unknown when they do something illegal.
Arson Attacks
I chose the articles about burned churches because its a typical method of action of the Klan.
The last famous arson attack on a black church was in 1997, when five teenagers lighted the St. Joe Baptist Church. The FBI said that some of the suspects had been preset at a White Knight of Alabama rally.
Another arson attack was in 1995, when two men burned down the Macedonia Baptist Church In Bloomville by pouring gasoline and oil on the floor of the church.
This attack was organized a few weeks before, on a Klan rally.
Of course there where other attacks on minority groups to, not only church-burning.
In 2001 a Grand Dragon of a Klansgroup killed an unidentified man because he knew too much.
In April 22, 1997 Fort Worth, Texas: Three members of the Ku Klux Klan planned to blow up a natural gas refinery. This members also planned to kill hundreds of people including children as a diversion from a simultaneous robbery. All of them declared to be guilty and they will get up to 20 years in prison.
Conclusion
These articles showed that the Klan is active today. They pestered and killed people with another skin colour and held rallies to catch on their ideas of a right America. The Ku Klux Klan also burns down churches of black people. They really spread fear and terror only to expel people with other skin colours or another way of life. For example gay people. The politician didn't support the acts of the Klan. More and more states searched for ways to forbid the rallies and there are also more and more organisation which fought against the Klan and brought the members to Court but the result wasn't really great because of the many groups of the Klan.
Chain of command
The chain of command starts with the "Imperial Wizard" who leads the Klan and is assisted by then Genii.
In each State, where the Klan is active there is a Grand Dragon who is responsible for the special state. He has got 8 Hydras to help him.
Big states are divided into several parts, called "provinces" Several counties form a Dominion which is controlled by a Grand Titan and 6 furies. A county is a province which is ruled by a Grand Giant and 4 Night Hawks.
Every Klan has its own leader, who is called the Exalted Cyclops and he is assisted by 2 Night Hawks.
The normal Klan Members have no possibility to influence their leaders.
The Ku Klux Klan today
So, the Klan was reconstructed after the 2nd world war and it still exists. There are many underground organisations or Klan-like organisations which have the same opinion in most cases.
The most widely-spread groups are the "Imperial Klans of America" and the "American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" Today the members spread fear and terror just as exactly the former times: They burn down churches of black person, attack homosexuals, swear Jews and try to become a political party. The Klan accepts women as members and founded youth groups.
There are about 30000-70000 members who want to protect the US
The enemies of the Klan today are also Jews, who secretly operate the New World Order; African Americans, who survive on welfare; gays, who never work yet seem to have too much money; abortion providers, who profit from the murder of white children; and a corrupt government that does not recognize the rights of white citizens.
The new idea of the Klan is: They want to quarantine all AIDS carriers because they think that it's the only way to stop this illness.
But of course, the most important thing is that they fight against blacks in order to protect the Aryan race. So, they believe that Afro-Americans are stupid and have got a lower IQ. There was a study of the FBI, that most crime is committed by blacks. The Klan says, the reason for this is the character of the blacks and they don't even think about the possibility that the situation of the blacks is the reason for this.
This is typical I think. They use the useful facts and ignore the others which could destroy their argumentation.
At this picture they want to show that the brains of black people are more similar to a monkey brain.
There are more than 120 Klan groups today and because they are underground groups, nobody really knows how many members and supporters the Klan has.
In this map you can see how many Klan Organizations are in the US, but nobody knows if they have 10, 100 or maybe more members. But you can say, that in the last years, the Klan got new power again.
As you can see, the most Klan groups are found in the East today, most of them in Florida.
It is very important to know, that some groups cooperate with Neo-Nazi groups.
