Masaryk university in brno faculty of education

2.2 New Klan and 2^nd period

In the year 1915, in Stone Mountains, Georgia, a Methodist Preacher William J. Simmons organized a new Klan. It focused its activity against not just Blacks but Jews, Roman Catholics and immigrants. KKK spread very quickly and had over two million members in 20’s. As a recruiting tool, the film The Birth of Nation by D. W. Griffith was used.

Another important thing in the history of the Ku Klux Klan happened in the year 1915. Local government of Georgia legalized KKK in that state and proclaimed it a patriotic organization. But Georgia was not the only place, where KKK had a big influence, as many members in other southern regions joined political parties or lot of government members sympathized with the Klan and did not punish it for crimes.

Later, a women branch of the Ku Klux Klan was established. The Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) was founded in the fall of 1921, and was officially chartered in 1923. As Maurine Elgersman Lee, a faculty scholar says in Griot, magazine of University in Maine:
“The WKKK headquarters were established in Little Rock, Arkansas. Using the platform of 100% American women, those eligible for WKKK membership had to be female, white, Anglo, American-born, gentile citizens who were at least 18 years of age and who had no loyalty to foreign governments or sects.”⁵
The leader of WKKK was Elizabeth Tyler, she declared WKKK for an independent organization, at the same level as the Ku Klux Klan, with the same rights and options that cooperated with KKK and followed their rules and rituals. During the World Wars, mostly mothers afraid of their sons fighting in the battles became members of WKKK. They were focused on enemies of USA, which were African- Americans, Jews, Roman Catholics and immigrants.

“WKKK women have been characterized as a ‘poison squad of whispering women’ who spread gossip about Jews, Catholics, and Blacks, with economic and political results that were “enormously and disastrously successful.”⁶

During both World Wars, the Klan organized protests against American soldiers fighting in Europe. It proclaimed that Americans are not interested in foreigners and that they do not want to send their soldiers to die in strange countries. After this War, the Klan lost its influence but as the Second World War came, it became strong again.

After the Second World War, USA was weakened and people did not have work and money. That was one of the reasons, why many people entered the Ku Klux Klan- they wanted to get some money, because each member, who wanted to join the Ku Klux Klan, had to pay a fee. This money was given to a local leadership and to leaders and other distinguished members. As new members were concentrated more on money and not on the former priorities of KKK as lynching and killing African- Americans. The Klan started to have problem inside of the organization, such as financial scandals and more and more brutal crimes. A lot of members left the Klan and it slowly lost its influence.⁷

2.3 Civil Right Movement and 3^rd era of KKK

In 1950’s African- Americans started to fight for their rights and against the segregation. They had separate schools, restaurants, cinemas and libraries until this time. The case of Rosa Parks, a mid- aged Black woman who refused to give up her seat in a bus for a white man, was among the first. This was illegal and she was arrested. Her act led to the rise of the movement fighting for equal rights of whites and Blacks and African- Americans initiated protests and demonstrations. Their leader was Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist pastor, who insisted on non- violent ways of protest and persuaded people that this is the only right way.

The Ku Klux Klan could not let these attempts of African- Americans without an answer and new Grand Wizard, Robert Shelton revived old traditions. The ways of torturing and killing were especially cruel. The most known case of violence caused by the Ku Klux Klan is bomb attack on Birmingham, Alabama Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963. The fact that Ku Klux Klan had support from government although secretly, was shown in the case of bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were killed and twenty three people were hurt. As one online educational source about history of Ku Klux Klan features:

“A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On 8th October, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite.”⁸
But Civil Right Movement had a strong motivation to fight further. They slowly achieved the desegregation in schools, restaurants and some other public facilities. But some of the white inhabitants were not willing to accept it. In the process of time, the leaders of Ku Klux Klan became more and more powerless as African- American movements were more and more successful. The Ku Klux Klan and its fight became senseless and its attacks slowly stopped.

2.4 Forth Era of Ku Klux Klan

At the beginning of 1980’s Ku Klux Klan was no more one organization. It has split up into several groups, which were connected with neo- Nazi American parties and joined their beliefs. They still protested against African- Americans, Jews, Catholics, who sympathized with Blacks and immigrants. David Duke, a new leader brought a new picture about Ku Klux Klan into media. As official Ku Klux Klan web sources say:
“As forced desegregation programs give way to “Affirmative Action” and the advancement of minorities over whites, David Duke emerges from Louisiana to create a new and positive image for the Klan. He presents the argument of equal rights for whites that the Ku Klux are an organization to promote the interests, ideals and culture of white native Americans. The media is livid, and does everything in its power to destroy this image of respectability, repeating its shibboleth that the Ku Klux is nothing but bigots and terrorists.”⁹
David Duke is a very important person in history of the Ku Klux Klan and US racism at all. According to the Jewish Anti Defamation League online source: “Shortly after graduating in 1974, Duke covered his swastika with a Klan robe and founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”¹⁰ The Knights of Ku Klux Klan is a pro white- supremacist organization, founded on the ground of the original Ku Klux Klan and taking some nazi ideas.