The Ku Klux Klan

America

1919 to 1939

Aims of the lesson

By the end of this lesson you will

• Describe the main features of the Ku Klux Klan

• Describe the history of the Klan and understand the reasons why it grew in the mid 1920s and declined afterwards

• Evaluate the importance of the Klan in understanding America in the 1920s

Background

• After World War One America followed a policy of isolationism

• She withdrew from world affairs

• Foreign goods had tariffs charged on them

• The US government started to restrict the number of people coming into the country

• As a result immigrants began to be blamed for all Americas troubles

The Ku Klux Klan

• A racist group• Argued that the only true

Americans were White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs)

• Any others – Jews, Catholics, blacks and immigrants were not proper Americans

• 100 000 members in 1920• 5 000 000 members in 1925

Who joined the KKK?

• A secret society – members dressed in white robes and wore masks

• Spoke in secret codes – Klonversations

• Poor whites – blamed blacks for taking jobs

• Wealthy politicians• People in the south with a

history of hatred towards black people – even the police

What did the KKK do?

• Tortured and killed non WASPs• Burned down homes and churches even

with people in them• Beat up or lynched anyone who annoyed

them – 1882 to 1968 there were 3400 lynching of black people

• Set up burning crosses as their symbol in order to intimidate people or to say “we did this”

Was the Klan punished?

• Many policemen, politicians, lawyers and Judges were members of the Klan

• Most crimes were not even reported let alone punished

• Some people were punished in areas that the Klan did not control

• After 1925 its numbers fell but it still exists today