Referat The Ku Klux Klan - Historical Overview

"My mom named my after the great civil-war hero General Nathan Bedford Forrest..

The Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes well do well.. Things that just make no sense."

The Ku Klux Klan claims to stand for a non-violent Christian movement, but in fact they are very violent. Over the history of the KKK it has been involved in lynching of black people. It was characteristic for them to wear hoods, so that nobody can see their faces.

Historical Overview

The name Ku Klux Klan comes from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle. The circle is considered to be on of the oldest symbols of unity. The circle is also a  reference to the wheel, a symbol of creativity. The circle also represents the special creativity, according to white supremacists, of the White Race. The KKK represents itself as the oldest American White civil rights group. While its self-characterisation as a civil rights group is doubtful, its stature as the oldest white nationalist group is firm. The KKK has gone through 5 eras since its founding.

The KKK was founded in 1866 by former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee. It was only one year after General Lee had surrendered to Grant. Their first activities were night rides, they intimate black people and lynched those people they found to be the greatest threats to the white supremacy in the Southern States. When they did their night rides they wore white clothes and they covered their horses with white bed sheets. In 1871 the activities of the KKK were stamped out by president Grant, but the ideas of the KKK still existed.

The second era was in the years before the Second World War, because there were more nationalists in the United states. The ideas of the KKK resurfaced first in literature and film. A very important film of this era was "The birth of a nation" by Griffith. The Klan declared, that it was a whites-only organisation, which insists on the separation of the races, the Klan opposes any form of communism or socialism. They think, that the Jews must be blamed for the murder of Jesus. Estimated 4 million people were members of the KKK. But the number of members dropped because of anti-klan action by the American Federation of Labour and the American Legion.

The third era: The KKK resurfaced the fight against integration of black students in public schools. They did not only lynch black people like they did before, they burned down churches filled with children, in 1964 they murdered 3 civil right workers, who wanted to register black voters. The most significant man of this period was Robert Shelton, who tried to unit different faction of the KKK in the United States.

The fourth era: The membership dropped to an all time lowest number. David Duke rose to the head of the KKK, he presented them as a new organisation different from what they were before. He appeared at talk shows and he explained that he was for the white pride in white people - the pride has gone in the years of integration.

Robert Miles of Michigan is the important leader of the KKK today. Now the KKK is a paramilitary organisation. A former member of the KKK Louis Beam has his own computer  hit list of enemies of the KKK. Now the time of the Internet offers the KKK a big chance to publish their enemy lists and doctrines. They can publish their propaganda, organising and recruitment via Internet

Words[J1] :

dissolve          verschwinden(der Ku Klux Klan verschwindet)

supremacy      Überlegenheit

hoods              Kapuzen

era                   Ara