It was during this era, regardless of the source, that the record of cross burning began. The sources that tout the philanthropic nature of the Klan state that the burning of the cross was not an act of violence, but a ceremonial prop used in worship and based on various incidences of burning crosses in the Bible (Horn, 1969)
An investigation of the Klan in Alabama revealed the depths to which the Klan had penetrated the political system. Bibb Graves, a former Klan chapter head became Governor of Alabama and it was in such capacity that he blocked an investigation into the membership of the Luverne branch of the organization (Feldman, 1999, p
According to popular mythology, the Ku Klux Klan began harmlessly enough in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866 as little more than a fraternal order of young men. As was the case with other secret societies, the Klansmen wore special costumes, practiced secret rituals, and in effect, took on secret identities (Harcourt, 2005)
Liberalism is today charged in the mind of most Americans with nothing less than national, racial and spiritual treason." (McGee, 1998) To achieve its aims the Klan launched a campaign of lynchings and burnings
To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws and to protect the people from all unlawful seizure and from trial except by their peers in conformity with the laws of the land. (Mecklin, 1963, p
Whites from virtually every background swelled its membership. Studies have shown that the "typical" Indiana Klansman of the 1920s might come from virtually nay socio-economic background, might have any native-born American protestant origin -- Klansmen were not only transplanted Southerners -- and could be an adherent of virtually any Protestant denomination, not merely the Evangelical (Moore, 1991, p
Whites from virtually every background swelled its membership. Studies have shown that the "typical" Indiana Klansman of the 1920s might come from virtually nay socio-economic background, might have any native-born American protestant origin -- Klansmen were not only transplanted Southerners -- and could be an adherent of virtually any Protestant denomination, not merely the Evangelical (Moore, 1991, p
The mystique of the Klan was the mystique of the freedom fighter. Until felled by its own excesses, the early Klan, worked as a paramilitary arm of White supremacist theory, actively undermining the Republic Party in the Post-Civil War South and sabotaging any and all attempts at accommodation, or real transformation (Ross, 2003)
Today, groups like these recruit their members online, spreading their messages of hatred and prejudice around the world. One author notes, "According to the Anti- Defamation League (2001), hate groups have successfully used the Internet to organize hate rock concerts and to bring militia members together in real time for 'Patriot confrontations' with government officials or banks foreclosing on property" (Bostdorff, 2004)
For example, another author notes that the Klan targeted government officials they thought were their enemies. She writes, "If government elites were considered unresponsive to the needs and fears of the community, the Klan targeted politicians, either by trying to vote them out of office, or by running a slate of Klan friendly candidates, or both" (Erickson, 2005)
Since (in their view) God's law supersedes any man-made law that sanctions murder in the form of abortion, they believe that their actions are justified by higher authority than fallible man-made laws. According to their beliefs, future generations will applaud their efforts much the same as contemporary society regards the unlawful actions of northerners who established the underground railroad throughout the American South prior to the emancipation of American slaves in 1865 and the Christians who risked life and limb during World War II in Europe by sheltering Jews from Nazi extermination squads (Horsley, 2009)
S. cities was highly counterproductive, putting pressure on the federal government to intervene" (Martin, 2004, p
Membership is secret, and the Klan still exists throughout the American South and around the world. One writer says of the Klan's origins, "To perhaps a majority of southerners, the Negro and white out of their places and - worse yet - reversed, was social disorder and lawlessness" (Rapoport, 2006, p
Three members were recently arrested in San Francisco, and charged with the murder and attempted murder of police officers in 1971. The group "carried out a 'terror and chaos' campaign aimed at 'assassinating law enforcement officers' that began in 1968 and ended in 1973, Deputy Police Chief Morris Tabak said" (Van Derbeken, and Lagos, 2007)
Writes Jackson, "the Invisible Empire remained confined to Alabama and Georgia and as late as 1920 could best be described as just another indolent southern fraternal group" (7-8). At that time, there were less than 2000 members in the Klan, and no real "indication that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, from among hundreds of secret societies and patriotic fraternities, would vault to national prominence" (Jackson, 8)