WHO THEY WERE AND THEIR TARGETS
The Ku Klux Klan, or the KKK, was a hate group first formed in Tennessee after the Civil War. Originating in the white South, it didn't begin as a terrorist organization. It began as a brotherhood of sorts. It was made up of all whites, and as it grew, it became a terrorist organization. They became terrorists for a number of reasons. After the war, there was a plethora of African-Americans who were former slaves now freed into normal society. These former slaves didn't have jobs, so therefore they didn't have any money, which meant they didn't have homes or own land, and on top of that they didn't have an education. But they still had to survive by themselves. So obviously, many turned to crime in order to sustain themselves. Poor white people viewed the African-Americans as threats to their general welfare, as some had a tendency to take anything that wasn't nailed down. Blacks were getting educations and getting jobs, and many whites viewed them warily, because they thought that they would lose their jobs to the blacks. Also, after gaining the right to vote, African-Americans voted for Republicans, as they were for racial equality. There were a tremendous amount of blacks in the South, so white Southerners felt that the Republican votes would dominate the Democratic votes. The Southerners didn't want that because they sided strongly with the Democrats. Even though the KKK started as a brotherhood, they wore scary costumes and went out during the night to scare people for fun, not really intending any harm. African-Americans thought they were ghosts or something, and therefore were intimidated. The people in the KKK saw this as a way to keep crime rates down and maintain white supremacy by intimidating African-Americans into doing what those in the KKK wanted.
Since this was working to keep the African-Americans "in check", the KKK thought that it might work to terrorize white Republicans in the South, or Scalawags, as they were colloquially known. Scalawags, since they were Republican, supported the laws and regulations put in place by Reconstruction, and obviously those included all the rights given to African-Americans, which promoted racial equality. But Southerners supported Democrats, who weren't for racial equality and didn't support Reconstruction. This was because obviously, the war itself, which had been fought over slavery, had cost them so much, and making all these new laws to free and make African-Americans equal to everyone else was basically rubbing salt in the wound. And since the Scalawags were politicians, after all, they did have a considerable amount of power, so they had the power to reinforce Reconstruction policies. The KKK also targeted carpetbaggers, people who moved from the North to the South after the Civil war, so that they could make a surplus of profits, using the South's weak economical state to their advantage. They were often manipulative and cunning. Carpetbaggers often purchased or leased land so that they could grow cotton and get rich quick, which was considered an immoral way to make money by Southerners. So in addition to freed African-Americans, they also targeted scalawags and carpetbaggers.
The Ku Klux Klan, or the KKK, was a hate group first formed in Tennessee after the Civil War. Originating in the white South, it didn't begin as a terrorist organization. It began as a brotherhood of sorts. It was made up of all whites, and as it grew, it became a terrorist organization. They became terrorists for a number of reasons. After the war, there was a plethora of African-Americans who were former slaves now freed into normal society. These former slaves didn't have jobs, so therefore they didn't have any money, which meant they didn't have homes or own land, and on top of that they didn't have an education. But they still had to survive by themselves. So obviously, many turned to crime in order to sustain themselves. Poor white people viewed the African-Americans as threats to their general welfare, as some had a tendency to take anything that wasn't nailed down. Blacks were getting educations and getting jobs, and many whites viewed them warily, because they thought that they would lose their jobs to the blacks. Also, after gaining the right to vote, African-Americans voted for Republicans, as they were for racial equality. There were a tremendous amount of blacks in the South, so white Southerners felt that the Republican votes would dominate the Democratic votes. The Southerners didn't want that because they sided strongly with the Democrats. Even though the KKK started as a brotherhood, they wore scary costumes and went out during the night to scare people for fun, not really intending any harm. African-Americans thought they were ghosts or something, and therefore were intimidated. The people in the KKK saw this as a way to keep crime rates down and maintain white supremacy by intimidating African-Americans into doing what those in the KKK wanted.
Since this was working to keep the African-Americans "in check", the KKK thought that it might work to terrorize white Republicans in the South, or Scalawags, as they were colloquially known. Scalawags, since they were Republican, supported the laws and regulations put in place by Reconstruction, and obviously those included all the rights given to African-Americans, which promoted racial equality. But Southerners supported Democrats, who weren't for racial equality and didn't support Reconstruction. This was because obviously, the war itself, which had been fought over slavery, had cost them so much, and making all these new laws to free and make African-Americans equal to everyone else was basically rubbing salt in the wound. And since the Scalawags were politicians, after all, they did have a considerable amount of power, so they had the power to reinforce Reconstruction policies. The KKK also targeted carpetbaggers, people who moved from the North to the South after the Civil war, so that they could make a surplus of profits, using the South's weak economical state to their advantage. They were often manipulative and cunning. Carpetbaggers often purchased or leased land so that they could grow cotton and get rich quick, which was considered an immoral way to make money by Southerners. So in addition to freed African-Americans, they also targeted scalawags and carpetbaggers.
WHAT THEY DID
The KKK started out as a group of friends wearing silly, somewhat scary uniforms and scaring people just for the heck of it. But when they realized that doing this scared people, they took it more seriously, actually trying to intimidate people, showing them that they shouldn't mess with the KKK. But this didn't prove to be enough for the KKK. They wanted to do more. So they eventually turned to much more violent acts. For carpetbaggers and Scalawags, the most that the KKK did to them was lynch or riot against them. African-Americans had it much worse.
They were lynched in front of mobs that outnumbered hundreds of people. They were publicly whipped and beat, often in front of their own families. They murdered African-American politicians and educated ones, because they wanted to maintain the standard of white supremacy in the South by eliminating blacks who were intelligent and had gotten places in life that they hadn't. The KKK also committed arson by burning down the important buildings of African-American communities (e.g. schools, churches). African-Americans were forced out of their own homes and land if a white person wanted it. They also walked a thin line on what they could and couldn't do with whites. They had to cooperate with everything whites wanted, but they couldn't become too close to whites either. For example, they couldn't refuse to work with whites, but they couldn't have intimate relations with whites either. If they didn't follow these rules, the penalty was whipping. All this was done to make blacks not vote for Republicans, or not vote at all, because people in the KKK thought that only whites should vote. Sometimes they were the victims of Klan violence simply because they had books in their homes, or simply because they were black. One may ask why the KKK wasn't stopped. The reason is quite unbelievable...
The KKK started out as a group of friends wearing silly, somewhat scary uniforms and scaring people just for the heck of it. But when they realized that doing this scared people, they took it more seriously, actually trying to intimidate people, showing them that they shouldn't mess with the KKK. But this didn't prove to be enough for the KKK. They wanted to do more. So they eventually turned to much more violent acts. For carpetbaggers and Scalawags, the most that the KKK did to them was lynch or riot against them. African-Americans had it much worse.
They were lynched in front of mobs that outnumbered hundreds of people. They were publicly whipped and beat, often in front of their own families. They murdered African-American politicians and educated ones, because they wanted to maintain the standard of white supremacy in the South by eliminating blacks who were intelligent and had gotten places in life that they hadn't. The KKK also committed arson by burning down the important buildings of African-American communities (e.g. schools, churches). African-Americans were forced out of their own homes and land if a white person wanted it. They also walked a thin line on what they could and couldn't do with whites. They had to cooperate with everything whites wanted, but they couldn't become too close to whites either. For example, they couldn't refuse to work with whites, but they couldn't have intimate relations with whites either. If they didn't follow these rules, the penalty was whipping. All this was done to make blacks not vote for Republicans, or not vote at all, because people in the KKK thought that only whites should vote. Sometimes they were the victims of Klan violence simply because they had books in their homes, or simply because they were black. One may ask why the KKK wasn't stopped. The reason is quite unbelievable...