1. The Rebirth of the KU KLUX KLAN

3. First KKK –
Set up by former Confederate soldiers opposed to the ‘Reconstruction’ of the South by the victorious Republicans.
Opposed to freedmen’s voting rights.
Opposed to Northerners coming South to make money – carpetbaggers and scalawags – out of the Reconstruction governments.
Destroyed by the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (aka the Ku Klux Klan Act) of President Ulysses S. Grant.
A warning leaflet from Alabama in Ohio is a Republican state in the North.

4. Pro-Union whites were horse-whipped in public.
The First KKK –
Hundreds of blacks were murdered. Black churches and schools were attacked and burned.
Pro-Union whites were horse-whipped in public.
Threats of violence were made against Northern school teachers and government officials.
Black voters were intimidated from taking part in elections.
Mississippi Ku-Klux members in the disguises in which they were captured.
Harper's Weekly January 27, 1872

5. Second Ku Klux Klan
1915 – Fuelled by two key events

6. ‘Birth of a Nation’ (1915) took American cinemas by storm – many call it the first feature film. The film was based on two books – The Clansman and The Leopard’s Spots by Thomas Dixon – who said he wanted his books to ‘transform every man in my audience into a good Democrat’.
The film’s publicity campaign featured men dressed in white robes who rode their horses into the cinemas.

7. The film is about two families – the Stonemans from the North and the Camerons from the South.
The Camerons find their life in ruins as the Northern army brings in black militias who attempt to rape the white women.

8. The Klansmen rescue young Flora Cameron from the clutches of Gus, who is then lynched. The Reconstructionists are driven from the South and the Klan restores the Southern whites’ rights.

9. The second key event in the formation of the second Ku Klux Klan was the murder of Mary Phagan, aged 13, in Atlanta, Georgia.

10. In the early hours of April 27, 1913, the body of Mary Phagan was found in the basement toilets of the pencil factory in which she worked. She had been raped, beaten and strangled to death.

11. Several people were suspected – black factory workers Newt Lee and Jim Conley were the main suspects.
Then, attention focussed upon the factory manager Leo Frank. Frank was a Northern Jew who was a prominent member of a Jewish organization.
Frank was charged and the resultant trial fuelled an orgy of press speculation which turned hearsay into truth.
The trial started on July 28 and closed on October 10, Frank was sentenced to hang.

12. Georgia Governor John Slaton commuted the death sentence to life in 1915 – to the disgust of the local population.

13. On August 16, 1915 25 men stormed the jail and took the law into their own hands.

15. William J. Simmons , 35, a former Methodist preacher, invited the lynch mob (aka The Knights of Mary Phagan) and some of the aging original Klan members to launch the new Ku Klux Klan, inspired by his viewing of ‘Birth of a Nation’.

16. They met on top of Stone Mountain where a cross was burned – as seen in the film, but not in the first KKK – and the new Klan was formed, with Simmons its leader, or Grand Wizard.

17. Anti-African American
The Ku Klux Klan
Great increase
In power
Anti-immigrant
Anti-black
Anti-Semitic
Anti-Catholic
Anti-women’s suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
Anti-African American

18. The Two Klans “Kompared””
The First Ku Klux Klan
The Second Ku Klux Klan
Time Period
Reconstruction
1920s
Regional Prevalence
South
Midwest, South
Purpose
Oppose carpetbagger governments
Blacks voting
Oppose
immigration, Catholicism,
black migration
Methods
Intimidation & Violence

21. Ku Klux Klan
1920 The Klan hires 2 sales agents to help expand their power base beyond the south.
KKK members were paid to recruit new members.
They directed their hatred against anyone who was not white and Protestant.
They now targeted Catholics, Jews, Asians, and immigrants as well as African Americans.
By 1925, The Klan had over 5 million members.

23. Lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916
Lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, on May 15, He was repeatedly lowered and raised onto a fire for about two hours. A professional photographer took pictures of the lynching as it unfolded.
'This is the Barbecue we had last night my picture is to the left with a cross over it your son Joe."

24. Look at the picture of “Josh
Look at the picture of “Josh.” Josh is the little boy who is playing with the shield of a police officer during a Klan March in Gainesville, Georgia. Examine the picture closely, then write answers to each of the following questions.

25. What is the first thing that you notice about this picture?
2. What kinds of feelings does it prompt in you?
3. What meaning do you attach to the situation describe in the photo?
4. Would you feel differently about this picture if the officer that “Josh” is interacting with was not African-American? For example, what if the officer was white? Latino? Asian-American?
5. What do you think is going on in the officer’s head at this moment? What are his facial expressions saying?

26. 6. What kinds of things would you say to “Josh” if you were the officer?
7. Do you think that this experience would have an impact on the “Josh’s” future prejudices if the officer were to speak to him?
8. Do you think “Josh” has any idea on what is going on?
9. If you were a bystander and observed “Josh” and the officer, what would you feel, think, and do?
10. If you could change anything about this picture, what would it be?