Ku Klux Klan: Difference between revisions

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The first Klan was active roughly from 1865 until 1874. Although there was little organizational structure above the local level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name and methods Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance and white supremacy during the Reconstruction Era. For example, Confederate veteran [[John W. Morton]] founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against blacks and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes.

===The second Klan (1915 - 1944)===

The second Klan (which introduced much of what we traditionally associate with the organization, most notably the full body white robes and the practice of cross burning) was founded by [[William Joseph Simmons]] in 1915 during the height of [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow system]] and was largely inspired by the film ''The Birth of a Nation'', which chronicled the exploits of the first Klan. This new incarnation of the KKK was the first to adopt [[Anti-Semitism]] and Anti-Catholicism. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] was known to be an ardent supporter of the Klan during his presidency.

The second Klan (which introduced much of what we traditionally associate with the organization, most notably the full body white robes and the practice of cross burning) was founded by [[William Joseph Simmons]] in 1915 during the height of the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow system]] and was largely inspired by the film ''The Birth of a Nation'', which chronicled the exploits of the first Klan. This new incarnation of the KKK was the first to adopt [[Anti-Semitism]] and Anti-Catholicism. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] was known to be an ardent supporter of the Klan during his presidency.

It was also during this time that the Klan became a fraternal organization with a national and state structure.

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 The first Klan was active roughly from 1865 until 1874. Although there was little organizational structure above the local level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name and methods Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance and white supremacy during the Reconstruction Era. For example, Confederate veteran [[John W. Morton]] founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against blacks and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes.
 ===The second Klan (1915 - 1944)===
-The second Klan (which introduced much of what we traditionally associate with the organization, most notably the full body white robes and the practice of cross burning) was founded by [[William Joseph Simmons]] in 1915 during the height of [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow system]] and was largely inspired by the film ''The Birth of a Nation'', which chronicled the exploits of the first Klan. This new incarnation of the KKK was the first to adopt [[Anti-Semitism]] and Anti-Catholicism. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] was known to be an ardent supporter of the Klan during his presidency.
+The second Klan (which introduced much of what we traditionally associate with the organization, most notably the full body white robes and the practice of cross burning) was founded by [[William Joseph Simmons]] in 1915 during the height of the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow system]] and was largely inspired by the film ''The Birth of a Nation'', which chronicled the exploits of the first Klan. This new incarnation of the KKK was the first to adopt [[Anti-Semitism]] and Anti-Catholicism. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] was known to be an ardent supporter of the Klan during his presidency.
 It was also during this time that the Klan became a fraternal organization with a national and state structure.