research paper?

Question

im doing a research paper on the ku klux klan and i dont know who started it so i would like to know who started the ku klux klan?

Answer 1

It was started by some confederate soldiers who were bored and unemployed as a gag, crashing parties, then they became more organized making freed slaves scapegoats, at least that's what I've been taught

Answer 2

The history of the Klan can be divided into three different periods of time, starting from the 1860s and still continuing today. During these times the Klan took different types of action and the definition of the "enemy" changed considerably.

As Alan Axelrod states in his encyclopedia, the name of The Ku Klux Klan was probably derived from the Greek kuklos or kyklos, which means "a circle". However, it has been also assumed that "Ku Klux" comes from "the sound of an old-fashioned rifle being ******". The word "Klan" was added to complete alliteration, originating from the Scottish name of family, "a clan".

The First Klan
It is very hard to state the exact moment of the birth of the Klan, as various sources seem to suggest different dates. However, as Wade explains in his research, it is fairly certain that the Ku Klux Klan started in the small town of Pulaski, in the state of Tennessee, where the citizens "were especially proud of the purity of their Scottish ancestry, which in many cases was so revered and ran so deep that images of Rob Roy and Blind Harry were never far away". Six confederate veterans, all in their twenties, founded The Klan some time between Christmas 1865 and June 1866. They also instigated the typical Klan clothing: a white robe and white "witches" hats with eyeholes. However, the purpose of this original form of the Ku Klux Klan was not political or even racist. The main aim of the Klan at the beginning was to play pranks on the people living in the county and have fun.

The beginnings of the Klan were modest. To attract the interest of the public they added a hint of mystery into their rituals. They asked their members to pledge that they would keep the secrecy of the Klan. A public declaration of belonging to the Klan was also denied, as well as exposing other Klansmen. All of the Klan members, clothed in the white costumes, had to attend the weekly gatherings, which "were held in the cellar of a deserted brick house standing on a hill near the town". As a result of these events, the Klansmen were sometimes considered, especially among the black community, to be the ghosts of the dead Confederate soldiers.

This secret society of bored young men started gradually enlarging and gaining more members. New "dens" bearing the name of the Klan were born quickly. The movement spread all through Tennessee to Alabama and Mississippi and then to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and parts of Arkansas. As the movement grew, it had to be organized, and the proper division was done. "The region in which the Klan operated was to be known as the 'The Invisible Empire,' divided into 'Realms,' corresponding with states; each 'Realm' was divided into 'Dominions,' corresponding with congressional districts; each 'Dominion' into 'provinces,' corresponding with counties, and each 'Province' into 'Dens'." After the organizing had been done, the position of the leader, or "The Grand Wizard", was conferred on a veteran Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was not the gentlest of men, having earned the nickname among the Union soldiers of "a foul fiend in human shape".

Soon the pranks of the original Klan, which were mainly sudden appearances of the Klansmen in the middle of the night dressed in spooky clothes (Wade 34), were designated mainly towards the liberated slaves and the representatives of the Union. As Chalmers notes: "It threatened, exiled, flogged, mutilate, shot, stabbed and hanged. -- It drove out Northern schoolteachers and Yankee storekeepers and politicians, and 'took care of' Negroes who had gained land and prospered, or made inflammatory speeches or talked about equal rights." The original, fairly innocent secret society turned into a blood-thirsty group of unhappy men, holding particularly the black population in terror.

By 1870 The Ku Klux Klan and their operation had been made known all through the States, mostly in a negative way. However, the Klan avoided open violence, preferring to do their dirty work mostly in secrecy. Most of the public incidents in which the Klan took action were race riots where the blacks usually had to retreat. The Klan also controlled politics in the states where it was functioning, and this way passed laws favorable to their interests. Nevertheless, in the end General Nathan Forrest was forced to disband the organized Klan by the mid-1870s due to the crimes committed by different "Klaverns"; the action the government had taken earlier had not succeeded. Alan Axelrod writes: "Congressional Acts of 1871 and 1873 failed to destroy the Klan completely, despite the use of federal troops against the Klansmen." Axelrod also states that Southern historians record the conclusive breakdown of the original Klan in 1876-1877, while the Northern historians would rather think it happened already in 1873.

Answer 3

Nathan Bedford Forrest is the man most say is the founder of the KKK. He was a confederate general. He, I've read, dropped out when it became too violent. It was a terrorist organization charged to discourage the former slaves from going to the poles.

Answer 4

Robert Shelton.

Answer 5

It was founded by veterans of the Confederate Army in 1866. You can find more information here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_klux_klan

Answer 6

one angry and twisted individual.