Klan groups may also use a variety of stripes in different colors and numbers , sashes, and emblems on their robes. Some Klan groups require that members wear robes at all Klan events, while other Klan groups mandate robes only at certain ceremonial functions. Some Klan groups may not use robes any more, preferring instead military-style uniforms or simple casual wear.
Skip Navigation. Expand search Search. General Hate Symbols. No documented cross burnings occurred during the first Klan wave in the 19th century. However, D. Dixon, Jr. The symbol was quickly appropriated by opportunistic KKK leaders to help spur the group's subsequent "rebirth. Through the s, Klan leaders regularly depicted the cross as embodying the KKK's Christian roots -- a means to spread the light of Jesus into the countryside.
A bestselling 45rpm record put out by United Klans of America included the Carolina Klan's Bob Jones reciting how the fiery cross served as a "symbol of sacrifice and service, and a sign of the Christian Religion sanctified and made holy nearly 19 centuries ago, by the suffering and blood of 50 million martyrs who died in the most holy faith.
Has the KKK always functioned as a violent terrorist group? The KKK's emphasis on violence and intimidation as a means to defend its white supremacist ends has been the primary constant across its various "waves. However, during the periods of peak KKK successes in both the s and s, when Klan organizations were often significant presences in many communities, their appeal was predicated on connecting the KKK to varied aspects of members' and supporters' lives.
Such efforts meant that, in the s, alongside the KKK's political campaigns, members also marched in parades with Klan floats, pursued civic campaigns to support temperance, public education, and child welfare, and hosted a range of social events alongside women's and youth Klan auxiliary groups. Similarly, during the civil rights era, many were drawn to the KKK's militance, but also to leaders' promises to offer members "racially pure" weekend fish frys, turkey shoots, dances, and life insurance plans.
In this sense, the Klan served as an "authentically white" social and civic outlet, seeking to insulate members from a changing broader world. The Klan's undoing in both of these eras related in part to Klan leaders' inability to maintain the delicate balancing act between such civic and social initiatives and the group's association with violence and racial terror. Indeed, in the absence of the latter, the Klan's emphasis on secrecy and ritual would have lost much of its nefarious mystique, but KKK-style lawlessness frequently went hand-in-hand with corruption among its own leaders.
More importantly, Klan violence also often resulted in a backlash against the group, both from authorities and among the broader public. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. I n the summer of , hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history. In August , the small town of Plymouth, North Carolina nearly became the site of what might have been one of the bloodiest events of the civil rights era. Filmmaker Callie Wiser reflects on the experience of making Klansville U.
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After review, selected comments will appear on this page along with the name you provide. Please note that we generally cannot answer questions about the history, rarity, or value of your personal artifacts. Wells-Barnett estimated that in the twenty-five years after the Civil War, lynchers murdered 10, black Americans. Starting in the s, spectacle lynchings attracted crowds of up to 15, white participant-witnesses, who booked special excursion trains to reach lynching sites. The lynchers of Leo Frank, in Marietta, Georgia in , included a former governor, judge, mayor and state legislator, sheriff, county prosecutor, lawyer and banker, business owner, U.
Neither did the first woman U. Jake Cebrose and an eight-year-old child named Parks, no excuse at all. Yet politicians still defended and abetted lynchers. In , Georgia governor Hugh M.
It was in this context of bald-faced violence and injustice that Thomas Dixon recirculated the myth of the black rapist, pursued by vengeful robed vigilantes, for his novel and play, The Clansman. For the first edition of the book, the president of the Society of Illustrators, Arthur I. Keller, depicted the Reconstruction-era Klansmen in an anachronistic uniform of white, shoulder-length, face-concealing hoods beneath spiked caps. Together they reintroduced pantomime, fantasy, and nostalgia to what had become a horribly commonplace spectacle for white crowds of murderers.
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