Racism will always be a stain on American history with the hooded Klansman personifying this ugly part of our past. Slavery as an institution can be found in almost any worldwide culture with its roots going into prehistory. It played a vital role in the establishment and expansion of the British colonies that
Would become the United States of America. As the ideas of the European Enlightenment spread into British America, many began to question the morality of slavery with the Pennsylvania legislature taking steps to abolish it before the Revolutionary War was even won.
In the years following Independence, the Northern States took steps to outlaw it in their borders while in the South, economic conditions caused the institution to become a permanent way of life. Tensions between free states and slave states would rise during the first one hundred years
Of America, culminating in a brutal and bloody Civil War where over 600,000 young American men were killed and many more wounded for life. The outcome was that slavery was abolished in our Constitution and African Americans were given full rights as free citizens.
In theory, this was supposed to create a new society that would be reconstructed in the south based on the ideals of American Liberty. In practice, many whites who fought bitterly against the north were completely opposed to this new society while many former slaves were also left unprepared for what their new
Way of life would entail. Chaos erupted and through the fog of it the Ku Klux Klan was born. With much of the local law enforcement in the south controlled by Klan sympathizers, they essentially had free reign to terrorize black citizens into submission while also
Eliminating anyone vulnerable who tried to change the way of things, regardless of their skin color. The federal government under then President Grant expanded its powers and created the Department of Justice for the purpose of enforcing Federal Civil Rights in an area where no one was willing to do so.
Through an unprecedented crack down and a series of high profile trials, they thought they won. But they were far from right. In this series we will explore how the Klan formed, how the government responded, and how they went underground and appeared in various forms to take the reconstructed south
From a place of hope for the formally enslaved into the segregated society that existed until 1964. We hope you learn something about our dark past and if you do please like the video and subscribe. Nathan Bedford Forrest is considered to be one of the best military minds of the Civil War.
As a general in the Confederate Army, he was an innovative calvary commander who had no military training or education, and he would be a constant thorn in the side of the Union army full of West Point graduates.
But the thing he is most remembered for during the Civil War is the Fort Pillow Massacre. It was here in April 1864, where hundreds of black union soldiers were murdered by troops under Forrest’s command when they tried to surrender.
But Forrest is even better remembered today for what he did after the Civil War. He was an early member of the Ku Klux Klan who was critical in spreading the secret society across the south. The Klan itself was said to have been founded on Christmas Eve 1865, by six former Confederate
Officers: Frank McCord, Richard reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe. It began as a secret fraternity, similar to the freemasons and defunct Sons of Malta with secret handshakes and an elaborate initiation ceremony. It was basically a private social club.
A place where white Southern men could get together and relax with likeminded people. But less than two years later, when Bedford Forrest was already, a high profile member, their purpose had changed. With the abolishment of slavery and destruction from the war, the society these men now lived
In was completely changed from the one they grew up in. Many of the men lost loved ones and friends in the conflict while the personal wealth for many was wiped out, leaving many destitute. At the same time many resented the former slaves who were now voting and taking on government positions.
These angers became channeled into the promotion of white supremacy. In 1867 the organization changed drastically from a disgruntled secret society into an armed resistance movement against the federal government’s implementation of Reconstruction. The first Ku Klux Klan, as they were later known, was highly decentralized without a leadership structure that went beyond local chapters.
The white hoods that have become associated with the group were not in use then either. Members wore masks to hide their identities while they masqueraded at night using violence, intimidation, and terror against those they opposed, their customs were make shift and not uniform, constructed by whatever materials the individual member could obtain.
The Ku Klux Klan quickly spread throughout the south in 1867 and 1868. The targets for their rage were white northern leaders known as carpet baggers, white southern sympathizers, and politically active blacks. Violence and intimidation were their primary tools to intimidate their opponents into submission
And if that didn’t work then they resorted to murder. Despite being a white supremacist organization, skin color did not matter when carrying out a vigilante death sentence. At the time, the South was under military occupation and the Klan was careful to avoid areas where they knew federal troops to be active.
But stories began to trickle up through the ranks of the army and all the way to Washington that a resistance army of masked men was going around at night committing terrorizing and murdering anyone they deemed to be against them.
The Union might have won the Civil War but they were now facing an insurgency that was growing in power every day. And 1868 would go on to become one of the most violent years in American history. The costumes that the Klan wore had the primary purpose to hide the identities of the men
Perpetrating their evil deeds, but it also served a secondary purpose as a tool of psychological warfare. The costumes took on a form of symbolism, with the intent to represent the ghosts of the Confederate dead, who have returned from the grave to restore the previous order of white supremacy to their homelands.
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, many Confederate veterans were banned from voting or holding public office, and so the candidates bringing hope for a New South were swept into power because their opposition could not oppose them at the ballot box.
This new government was dominated by white republicans and recently freed slaves. With their legal means taken away as punishment for the Civil War that killed over 700,000 Americans and federal troops occupying the South, the majority of white Southerners either
Joined or supported the Klan because they saw it as the best way to resist. Another armed and open rebellion would be instantly crushed if they tried, so they resorted to sneaking around at night, hanging flyers in secrecy threatening violence against any
Black official that dared to assume the government office they were elected to. At the same time, they also used actual violence and murder against any black American trying to exercise their recently acquired rights. Local law enforcement in the South was dominated by Whites and they had no intention to give
Up their positions or enforce any laws against the people committing crimes under the banner of the Klan. During 1866 white riots broke out in New Orleans and Memphis with the results being hundreds of black Americans murdered in the streets while the police stood by and watched with approval.
These slaughters only ended with the arrival of Federal Troops. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his successor Andrew Johnson, himself a democrat and white southerner from Tennessee who stayed loyal to the Union, did not seem to be in
Any hurry to use the power of the federal government to enforce the law in areas that were being overtaken with chaos. There were accusations that his lack of a response to the riots was evidence of silent approval of them.
This put him at odds with the Republican Party and in November of that year, they won landslide congressional elections and formed a super-majority, which meant that the new laws they would pass became veto-proof. In 1867, the first Reconstruction Acts were passed, giving the government more control
Over the South and dividing it formally into military districts. But while this crackdown did help end widespread riots, underground activity by the Klan increased. Before the Reconstruction Acts were passed, violence was more randomized and emotionally driven. It was an epidemic with the Freedman’s Bureau of Texas having over 1000 murders recorded
Between 1865 and 66. But in 1867, the violence became more political and organized, with the goal of restoring white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan became the means for achieving this. Black Americans and White Americans deemed to be traitors to their race for trying to
Help create an equal society were all targets of the Klan. Anyone against the old order of things was in danger. For example, if a black employee objected to his white employer paying him less than previously agreed, then he would be paid a visit in the middle of the night where he
Would be ripped away from his terrified family, taken out to the woods, whipped, tortured, and sometimes killed. Even non-political white people were the victims of this violence, for example, school teachers were targets for the vengeance of the Klan because they committed the crime of spreading education to the former slaves.
And while the Klan was largely decentralized with chapters working independent of each other, the larger group shared a common goal through their mutual southern culture. Likewise, these groups were not an unruly mob. They were war veterans who operated as a military unit, with members assuming their old ranks as the hierarchy.
As a result, the leaders of the Klan chapters were more often than not the most prominent men in their towns in terms of status and wealth. 1867 turned into 1868 and it was one of the most consequential years in American history.
It started with the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in the winter for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. In response to the Republican Super-Majority in Congress, Johnson started to remove government officials from the executive branch who were appointed by President Lincoln and in place when he assumed the office after the latter’s assassination.
Congress responded by passing the Tenure Act which prohibited him from removing anyone else. With the military being the enforcer of the law in the South, Johnson removed radical republican Edwin Stanton from office as Secretary of War in August 1867, which violated the tenure Act.
In the months that followed he was impeached by the House and almost removed from office during his Senate trial. He was saved by one vote from Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas and allowed to remain in office. However, 1868 was an election year and Johnson declined to run which made him a lame duck.
The presidential race for that year came down to General Ulysses S. Grant, the victor of the Civil War versus Horatio Seymor for the Democrats. Seymour was a northern Democrat and the former governor of New York. The 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race had not yet been
Passed but the Republicans used the military to force the Southern states under occupation to allow African Americans to vote. Outrage spread among the white Southerners and Klan violence increased as a result to intimidate any black man thinking of voting into believing that he would be later killed for doing so.
It’s difficult to know the full scale of the Klan’s activities as many crimes went unreported out of fear that if the victims spoke up, there would be no one to protect them. However, estimating the number of people victimized to be in the tens of thousands would be a conservative guess.
As the election got closer, riots began to break out again for the first time since 1866. In July 1868, 150 black Americans were murdered by a white mob. In Camilla, Georgia that September, Black residents peacefully protested against political disenfranchisement and were attacked with 7 people killed.
In Louisiana about 500 black people were killed by mobs trying to suppress their votes during September and October. Also in October of that year, America experienced its first assassination of a sitting member of congress when the Ku Klux Klan murdered Republican James M. Hinds in Arkansas.
This large scale outbreak of violence had the effect of making anyone who was not a white Southern Democrat more supportive of the Republican candidate, despite his lack of political experienced. In November Ulysses S. Grant was elected president in a landslide election.
His vice president was house speaker Schulyer Colfax, an experienced politician that could navigate the bureaucracy of D.C.. Their campaign slogan was “let us have peace” but the immediate aftermath of their victory only led to an increase of violence.
Perry Jeffreys was a black man in McDuffie County who exercised his right to vote that November despite the threats. One night shortly after grant’s victory, the Klan paid his family a visit in the middle of the night and their anger was not just limited to Mr. Jeffreys.
He was lynched along with his wife and four sons. Their bodies were left where they hung to serve as a reminder to any other black people that this is what happens to those who wish to bring change. Ulysses S. Grant became the 18th President of the United State on March 4, 1869.
Nine years earlier, before the Civil War, he was considered a failure in life. An ex-military officer who washed out of the army because of alcoholism that was near destitute and working for his father because he could not hold down any other job to support his family with.
During the War, Grant offered his services to the Union army and being a West Point graduate guaranteed him a high ranking position. He reentered the army as a colonel but he was quickily promoted to brigadier general in July of that year. By September he was given command of the Southeast District of Missouri.
He proved himself to be the best general in the western theater of the Civil War. In 1864, President Lincoln promoted him to Lieutenant General, a rank that no officer since George Washington held. That promotion came with the responsibility of direct command of the Union’s entire
Military operations and he oversaw it through being on the front lines. Through Grant’s leadership, the Union launched a multi-front war offense on the Confederacy and one year later General Robert E. Lee surrendered to him at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively ending the war.
Lee urged his men to accept defeat and pursue national reconciliation, but the majority of Southerners refused this and widespread violence combined with insurrection raged across the South. Now Americans looked to the victor of the Civil War to uphold the peace and bring the nation back together.
As he swore the oath of office he intended to do just that. Grant’s military experience gave him the ability to analyze problems, create objectives to achieve solutions, and facilitate the logistics needed to produce success. For the Republicans, the goal was to reconstruct Southern society into a place where equal
Rights existed for all both in the law and politically. They had fought and lost many men to free the slaves, so to let the South just relapse into what it was would put all of the sacrifices that everyone made into nothing.
Furthermore, local law enforcement in the South could not be relied upon because it was full of White supremacists looking the other way from all the violence and murder occurring around them. Military occupation was the only thing keeping the situation from spiraling out of control but it was not a practical long term solution.
Self-governance would need to be returned to the rebellious states. Despite the military occupation, all but four former Confederate States had been readmitted into the Union with the exceptions being Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia. The idea was that once a state accepted the new reality of the South and the United States,
Then it can be allowed to come back. One of Grant’s primary steps to achieving his ultimate goal of national reconciliation was to readmit the final four states. By the end of his first year three out of four were back with Georgia being the last hold out.
The Congressional Republican super majority was already in action to try and solve the problems of black Americans being denied their right to vote with the passage of the 15th Amendment which guaranteed voting rights for all male citizens regardless of race into the Constitution, making it the supreme law of the land.
But without proper enforcement, these laws would continue to be ignored and Republican voters would be prevented from exercising their right through intimidation and violence. With local law enforcement being part of the problem and untrustworthy, Grant and his government needed to find a solution other than indefinite military occupation.
In 1870, the president and Congress collaporated to create the Department of Justice to enforce the civil rights of all citizens. Attorney General Amos Akerman and Solicitor General Benjamin Brostow were given the task to head this new department and go after the secretive Ku Klux Klan.
President Grant wanted the entire country to know that that Washington would protect the rights of all citizens even if the individual state would not. This expansion of power of the Federal government was unprecedented and Attorney General Akerman was concerned that any convictions that were bitterly fought for might be overturned by
An upper court. The Grant Administration worked with Congress to create and pass the Enforcement Acts. This was three separate civil rights bills that protected black American’s rights to vote, serve on juries, hold office, and enjoy equal protection under the law.
Most importantly, it gave the federal government the power to intervene when the states would not. The Third Bill became known as the Ku Klux Klan Act and it granted the government the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the KKK and other insidious organizations
That terrorized and murdered innocent African Americans, public officials, and white sympathizers in the former Confederate states. The goal was to finaaly bring the members who have been committing these atrocities for years to justice. President Grant now had a plan and the means to take down the Klan.
But first he would need to find them. And that would be an entirely different challenge. York, South Carolina today looks like a picturesque peaceful small American town but in 1871, it was one of the hottest spots of terror and violence during reconstruction.
It was a common nightly occurrence for Klansmen to raid the homes of freed African Americans and drag them out of bed into the woods where they would be made to take an oath never to vote for Republicans or else face their wrath.
This was not just a few men going out on their own to make trouble. In York County, the klansmen usually traveled in groups of fifty on horseback. At the same time, many black men were not willing to let these bitter white folks who lost the war ruin their lives either.
Many of the men who were former slaves were also war veterans in the Union army. They had relentlessly fought to be free and now when times were supposed to be peaceful, they were not about to let themselves be put back into chains.
Many of these freedmen formed organized militias and in York, the leader of this black group of men was James Williams. The black militias were sanctioned by the Republican installed state government and Washington DC. But they were not content to assume a passive ceremonial role.
Instead they decided to be a counterforce to the Klan. On March 6, the KKK attacked the home of black American Andy Timmons and pulled him out of bed. Knowing that he was a member of the militia, they beat and tortured him into giving up his leader’s whereabouts.
The leader of this particular local Klan group had it out for Jim Williams especially because it was his planation that this man ran away from during the war in order to join the Union army. He was considered a radical among his people and that made him too dangerous to live.
They found Mr. Williams’ small cabin in the woods and burst in. But Jim was no where to be seen and his wife Rose claimed he was not home. But they found a trap door and knew he was hiding under the house.
After threatening to murder his children, Jim Williams climbed out and was taken away into the night Andy Timmons escaped the Klan that night and called on the militia to rescue their friend but it was too late. Jim Williams was discovered hanging in a tree.
His fingers had been chopped off, punishment for trying to grab the branch he was hanging from to relieve the pressure around his neck. The Black Militia tried to find his killers, but just like every night, the Klan had disappeared without a trace.
This incident was just one example of the violence ranging across York County. In fact, human remains would be sporadically discovered throughout the countryside over the next twenty years, revealing the victims of this highly violent time. With local authorities unable to stop the Klan and its terror, President Grant’s only
Recourse was to send in the army to restore law and order. The assignment of taking back control of York County fell onto Major Lewis Merrill, leader of Troop K from the 7th Calvary. He was considered well suited for this difficult task because his Civil War experience included
Hunting guerilla fighters in Missouri and then plains Indians in the Midwest. While his superiors had confidence that he would succeed in his objective, Merrill would recall later in life that he had doubts when he started. Not in his abilities per se, but instead he questioned if the Ku Klux Klan really existed.
He did not believe that an unorganized group of civilians without a central leader could actually be doing what people said they were doing on such a large scale. He thought instead that the invisible empire of the south was just the creation of a hysteria
And that the reality would be just a few isolated incidents. As K Troop made the journey from Kansas to South Carolina, they passed many former battlefields. With the end of the war just six years behind, many ruins of its devastation still existed while economic and social challenges were creating new monuments of decline.
Agriculture was the main industry and many white men were killed during the Civil War which created a labor shortage on small family farms. Likewise, for generations the business models of many industries was dependent of slaves, so when slave labor suddenly became wage labor, many operations could not keep up with the
Costs and they folded. K Troop arrived at York during the night of March 26,1871 with about ninety men and 60 horses. They were given a warm welcome by the white residents with the leading ones acting as emissaries for Merrill, publicly asking the Klan to stop their activities.
Dr. Rufus Bratton, one of the most prominent citizens, was extremely vocal in his support of the Union soldiers’ mission. Merrill believed that this assignment would be quick and his bias that there was no real Klan appeared to be confirmed during his first few days.
But one thing did bother him about the white people in York. All though they always friendly and disavowed the Klan, they would usually follow up with a variation of, but you have to admit that they have done some good. Merrill made efforts to speak with black residents.
Many were reluctant to meet with him out of fear but a few did. Merrill brought his accounts to the towns lead policeman, Sheriff Glenn and he quickly realized that he could not trust the man. Many crimes were reported to Glenn but none were investigated unless the victim was white.
Merrill soon became convinced of two things. The Klan did in fact exist with the stories about them not being exaggerations and almost all of the white people in town were either members or sympathizers. There would be no good faith alliances coming from those people.
Merrill was a fighter in his heart and as he learned about how large and elusive the Klan’s network was, the more determined he became to take them down and stop their horrific crimes. Merrill worked in secret with the local black freedmen and developed an intelligence network within this community.
He began to learn a little about the Klan’s culture from the people who were on the receiving end of their brutality. There were secret oaths, secret initiation ceremonies, and secret membership rosters where only the local leader truly knew who was part of it because all members wore masks whenever they met.
The local Klan leaders initial strategy to deal with Merrill and K Troop was to keep their activities low key and be polite. The sooner Merrill thought nothing was happening here then the sooner he would leave. But this did not happen.
Merrill and his soldiers settled into the Rose Hotel and made it clear that they were here to stay until their mission was completed. While the leaders wanted to remain dormant, the rank and file members found it hard to stay still.
On their own, they restarted the night time raids and attacked black citizens that they deemed to be collaborators with the Northerner invaders. One particular outlet for their wrath was the 52-year-old Elias Hill. Hill was a deformed preacher and on May 5, the Klan paid him a night time visit where
They beat and tortured him but he came out of it alive. And instead of being intimidated into silence, Hill found Merrill and wrote a letter detailing his account. Then more black victims came forward to Merrill with their stories. When the spring of 1871 began, Merrill thought his assignment in York would be short.
Now as the Summer rolled in, he started to worry that there would be no end. And the longer he stayed, the less friendly the Southern whites became. When Private George Whittimore died of sickness, Merrill had difficulty finding a cemetery that would accept him.
He realized then that these people still thought of them as hostile outsiders. Merrill had an impressive group of soldiers with him that included Captain Owen Hale, a descendent of the revolutionary war hero Nathan Hale. Owen Hale started the Civil War as a private and was such an outstanding soldier that he
Was promoted on the battlefield into an officer. Another prominent officer in the group was Lieutenant Edward S. Godfrey. He served as a private during the war and his impressive record guaranteed him a place at West Point after the Confederacy was defeated.
When Merrill arrived he thought it would be suicide for the Klan to attack federal troops, but the longer he stayed, the more concerned he became that this could happen. His men were becoming injured in accidents and suspicions ran rampant that these were caused by sabotage instead of clumsiness.
At the same time, Merrill was also starting to believe that people were sneaking into his office and reading his notes. Merrill soon learned from an informant that the Klan was going to make a move against his troops.
A small group of men were to fire at the federals who were then expected to make an overwhelming response which would turn public opinion completely against them. Knowing not to take the bait, Merrill kept his troops in town and had them drill in the open as an intimidation tactic.
The leading citizens of York met with him to see what the commotion was and he told them that the Klan planned an attacked. When pressed by Dr. Rufus Bratton about what he exactly knew and who told him, Merrill
Believed these men were phishing him for information because they were part of the Klan which got them added to his list of suspects. Prominent men like Dr. Rufus Bratton, businessman James Avery, merchant Thomas Graham, and Judge Beatty were all suspected members and leaders.
Their fake offers of help were declined but Major Merrill did promise that the guilt men would get their punishments. Merrill’s men, like the Klan’s foot soldiers, were eager for a fight. Their attitude was that if you shoot a white man in this town then there is a hundred percent
Chance you killed a Klansman. As time went on, Merrill believed more and more that he and his troops were isolated in this back country which made them outnumbered. He needed approval from Washington before he could make any moves.
He assigned spies to watch the men he suspected of being the KKK’s leaders while he and his troops were also being spied on. The men in the railroad office working the telegraph machine were also part of the Klan which made them aware of Merrill’s communications and orders.
Tensions were also getting higher between York’s white and black residents with the local police becoming more aggressive and Major Merrill being the only force between peace and a riot. Despite the wide range of powers the Enforcement Acts gave the government, they were reluctant
To use it out of fear of public backlash unless it was the last resort. That summer a congressional delegation visited York themselves to see the situation. When they visit was complete, they agreed with Merrill about the Klan’s strength and presented their findings to President Grant. Grant then gave K troop their next orders.
Bring in all of the insurgents. The Klan was given five days to turn in their disguises and weapons in exchange for amnesty. No one took up the offer and the government took up the next escalation. Habeus Corpuus, the right of a judicial process for the detention of citizens was suspended
For the first and last time when the country was not at war. The gloves were now off. The strategy was to arrest anyone who was remotely suspected of being a member now and investigate them later. General Alfred Terry assigned more calavary troops to York to assist K Troop and bolster their numbers.
In October the army split into posses and they went on the hunt. It was now the Klan’s turn to have men burst into their houses and dragged them out. Hundreds of men were arrested during that first week.
A sugar mill needed to be converted into a jail because the existing one in town was far too small. In the wake of the mass arrests, more men traveled into York and turned themselves in. But others escaped, like Dr. Bratton escaped.
Despite Klan members taking an oath pledging to die rather than betray their brotherhood, many started to talk and name names. Soon Merrill Learned that the local chapter’s leaders were Dr. Bratton and James Avery, both of whom were now fugitives. They also gathered evidence against Sheriff Glenn and arrested him too.
James Avery would later be captured but Bratton managed to be more elusive by escaping into Canada where the demand for his extradition and an illegal attempt to bring him back to the states sparked an international incident. But for now, the government had the majority of the local Ku Klux Klan in custody along
With most its leaders. The next step was to figure out what to do with them legally and in the following month, the Ku Klux Klan trials started which spark the beginning of the end for the first incarnation of this infamously violent white supremacist organization.
Major Merrill’s experiences in York County were similar to other places in the South. In fact, in October of 1871, President Grant declared eight more counties in South Carolina to be in open rebellion. And just like in York, Habeus Corpus was suspended and mass arrests followed.
With the Klan members now all off the streets and in custody, the government now needed to make a case in court to prosecute them. What followed next was a series of unprecedented trials that broke the original Ku Klux Klan.
Before we get into this section of this topic for our Klan Trials Series, just a quick reminder that if you are enjoying this video please give us a like, subscribe, and leave a comment. Your viewership and engagement supports us to keep making more videos. Thank you always for watching.
Klan activity in South Carolina was an epidemic with no end in sight when 1871 began, but as the year moved towards its end, these acts of terrorism stopped overnight thanks to the mass arrests that were made possible through the Enforcement acts.
The Klan was formed as a paramilitary wing for the Democrat party in the South to intimidate black voters and drive away Republicans. They had failed at achieving this goal because the Northern response was overwhelming. But after the initial feelings of anger subsided, many Northern and Southern leaders recognized
That there would not be lasting American peace until the two regions found a way to reconcile. Sentencing hundreds of men to long prison sentences would be counterproductive to that goal. Likewise, even if some wanted to hold every single man accountable, there weren’t the time or resources to do so.
The jails were overcrowded and while some Klan members were vile racists that gleefully committed murder, there were others who joined out of peer pressure and fear that if they did not go along with what was happening then they would find themselves also becoming victims.
White people were also fair targets to the Ku Klux Klan if those people were trying to disrupt the social race-based order. The newly formed Justice Department was going to need to form a strategy that would hold the vilest Klan members accountable for their deeds while also sending a strong message
To discourage anyone else from putting on the costume and spreading terror again. The stakes were high. Any not guilty verdict would put the legitimacy of President’s Grant’s efforts to destroy the Klan in jeopardy. And any mistakes that could lead to a trial’s verdict being thrown out on appeal would be disastrous.
The responsibility for the persecution of the Klan was given to United States District Attorney for South Carolina David Corbin. Corbin, and the Grant administration, understood that the government was also walking a fine line regarding the constitutionality of the Enforcement Acts.
If the courts ruled the acts to be unconstitutional then the Klan would be given free reign without any fear of being stopped. Corbin, assisted by future South Carolina governor Daniel Chamberlain, developed a strategy that would be later copied by the government in future trials against criminal organizations.
They dropped the charges against the poorer, lower ranking Klan members and focused on the Klan’s leadership. With dropped and reduced charges on some members, the government was able to flip them into becoming witnesses and the upcoming trials. The trials were to be presided over by two federal judges.
Hugh Bond of Maryland, appointed to his position by Grant and George Seabrook Bryan of South Carolina who was appointed by Andrew Johnson. They coordinated with Judge Bond to create an airtight case that was undeniably legally sound. In the end their argument was that the Ku Klux Klan was violating the constitution through
A conspiracy to deprive black Americans of their right to vote under the new passed fifteenth amendment. There would be a total of ten trials between 1871 and 72 with 140 convictions. Each trial had the same legal formula. Corbin entered the Klan’s oath and constitution into evidence which claimed in writing that
They were enemies of the Radical Republican government and Republican supporters were their targets. This proved that the Klan was operating a conspiracy and that by becoming a member one became part of the conspiracy. Black witnesses testified about the Klan’s costumes and actions.
In many cases, the costumes were recovered by police searches and this hard evidence connected those on trial to the KKK. This was then capped off with former Klan members testifying against their leaders to prove their involvement in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
It was a simple process with overwhelming evidence that went beyond reasonable doubt. By the end of 1872, there were 1,188 pending cases against more Klan members. But in 1873, the Grant administration was rocked with a scandal and Amos Akerman resigned. George H. Williams became his replacement.
While the nation was first shocked by the violence leading up to 1871, the public mood in the North was not turning away from Reconstruction. Many were beginning to turn against what seemed to be the never ending military occupation
Of the South and so, Williams, with Grant’s blessing, decided it would be best to drop the remaining charges and move on with trying to reunite the South to the North. In their minds, the government responded forcefully to the Klan and many of its leaders were sent to prison.
An example was made and the Ku Klux Klan had been defeated. But Corbin and Major Merrill were deeply against this. Their time in South Carolina showed them that the Southerners were only biding their time because they knew that eventually one day, the military would go home.
The North had made some progress but a lasting social change would take time. They feared that if federal support withdrew, then things would return to what they were and white supremacy would become dominant again. Federal troops would continue to remain in the south during the elections of 1874.
But after that support for Reconstruction dwindled and after the election of 1876, it was abandoned. The future of the South and especially Black Americans became uncertain to those living at this time. The people in the north were optimistic while those who were on the ground in the South
The mood was far from hopeful about what the future was about to bring. The Ku Klux Klan committed a reign of terror through murder and violence throughout the South after the Civil War. And while the Grant Administration did break the organization through their series of trials,
It’s important to remember that the longest prison sentence given was ten years, and many of the other sentences were far shorter than that. The federal government only held the power to prosecute federal crimes, and for the Ku
Klux Klan, that meant being a member of an organization that was in a conspiracy to deprive other Americans of their rights to vote. Murder was a state level crime, and because the local governments of white, democratic leaning Southerners were sympathetic to the Klan and restoring the old way of society,
No one would be held accountable for these crimes. While the Grant administration could rightfully claim that they took om the Ku Klux Klan and won, white supremacy in the south continued to carry on while keeping a lower profile. Reconstruction aimed to create a new society in the south were former black slaves and
Whites would be politically and legally equal under the law. But by the end of 1876, after ten years of this policy, the situation had less hope for success than it did in 1866. In the late 1860s, the Republicans held super majorities at the national levels and they
Were determined to reconstruct the South into a new society that fit into the ideals of liberty upon which America was founded. But the White Southerners fiercely resisted this and as time dragged on, many in the North were not willing to pay the needed price to continue this policy.
As Grant’s second term came close to its end, it became clear that Reconstruction could not continue. As a way to ensure that the gains made during this time would not be fully lost, the Republicans passed the first Civil Rights Act in American history in 1875.
Though it’s understandable why this important legislation is not remembered today because it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883. Their argument was that banning discrimination was actually unconstitutional. Once the federal troops left, White democrats began to win elected offices. For the next thirty years, Southern society gradually transformed into the segregated
South of the Jim Crow era. They created a coalition within the Democratic party that called themselves the Redeemers. While the Klan was gone, other organizations like the White League and Red Shirts took its place, with many former Klan members becoming part of them.
And instead of being secret societies, these groups called themselves rifle clubs and were very public about their existence. While the Klan used widespread violence to intimidate their political opponents, these new organizations were much more focused and specialized. They successfully intimidated blacks and Republicans from voting and eroded their political power.
The redeemer governments then passed laws to create segregation and restrict voting rights. Southern states changed their constitutions to make grandfather clauses, literacy taxes, and poll taxes to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote. As white supremacists in the Democratic Party consolidated their control into unbeatable
Political majorities at the state levels, the ability to intimidate African Americans with violence intensified again and it seemed like the gains of the 1870s were wiped out. In 1900, Louisiana was a state with a black majority in the overall population, but after
The voter reforms were passed just 5320 black men remained on the rolls. Ten years later that number was only 730. Being denied the ability to vote also prevented blacks from serving on juries or holding public office. While there were still some elected black leaders in the 1880s and 1890s, there were
No more in the early 20th century. As a result, the growing black middle class of the late 19th century became stagnant. Blacks and Whites were prohibited from inter-racial marriage and public facilities were segregated based on race. They were supposed to be separate but equal in theory but in practice the services for
African Americans was subpar. As white democrats returned to power, they erected monuments to the fallen confederacy and the Lost Cause myth began to spread. Works of art that became popular were the novel The Klansmen and the movie The Birth of the Nation.
In these stories the Klan was reimagined as good guys fighting against northern oppressors. And in a complete act of fiction, the virtuous Klan directly attacked the oppressive Northern troops and forced their withdrawal. The Redeemer governments were in full control by the 1890s and they were now rewriting the past.
The success of these works ushered in the birth of the Second Ku Klux Klan and as times changed and America became more modern, they renewed their campaigns of violence to keep black Americans under their oppression. But eventually, the change became too much to resist.
Ever since the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was struct down by the Supreme Court, there were always Northern politicians that wanted to replace it with a new law to make justice and citizenship equal to all. In the era following World War Two, these demands intensified.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voters Rights Act of 1965 would be the nails in the coffin for Jim Crow laws. White Democrats in the south resisted the changes as much as they could but without a legal basis, they had to give in.
In a final act of defiance in the 1960s, many local southern governments changed the names of roads to honor the soldiers and leaders who fought for the south along with the white politicians who brought about and enforced race based segregation.
It took one hundred years for the freed slaves to actually enjoy the rights that white Americans had. The Redeemer governments created monuments and renamed roads to leave a physical impact on the land to preserve their views into history. But now we are starting to see that become erased.
More than fifty years after the Civil Rights Act, local governments across the south are removing statues made to honor racists while also renaming roads back to their original names. This isn’t being done because of a compulsion from the federal government, this is happening because the local people want it.
The social changes that Major Merrill, David Corbin, Jim Williams, and many others dreamed of when they fought the original Klan more than one hundred and fifty years ago are finally been achieved.
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