The Ku Klux Klan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ku Klux Klan - Essay ExampleMuch of their activities included horse riding during the night while corrosion costumes such as masks. As these innocent night expeditions continued, the society, specially reason slaves, begun exhibiting fear since they did not endure the real intentions of the group, which they thought was out to cause trouble for them (Parsons 814). Young people enjoy being in tick off and this has been noted as sensation of the major motivation factors behind gang formation and membership. It is indeed not a wonder to find that after realizing the effects they were having on the surrounding comm iodine, the group begun recruiting more people and expanding their territories to the neighboring towns thereby leading to the emergence of numerous factions, which did not have an agenda or whatever formal leadership to promote a unified course. The lack of leadership and direction particularly after the expansion of the group necessitated the group members to c ome up with a strategy to exercise control over the operations of the group so as to facilitate harmony, which was necessary in strengthening the organization. As a result, a meeting was called in 1867, in which General Nathan Bedford Forrest was appointed as the commander (Parsons 817). Bedford was a former confederate soldier, who had a lot of experience owing to his involvement in the American civilian War from 1861 to 1865. Although he never had formal military training, Bedford had natural talent in war formulation and this impressed his superiors as well as his colleagues, and soon he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was given the social occasion of training and recruiting new soldiers into the army. This means that with him on the helm, KKK was bound to reach great heights to become one of the most influential in the American society. Other members were elected as leaders of smaller groups in order to establish a chain of command similar to that of the ar my and which was to facilitate discipline and unity among the different factions (Artoletti 22). The American Civil War ended in 1865 and paved way for the reconstruction era. Among the policies, which were to be adopted in order to facilitate reconstruction of the country was to promote the rights of black people and former slaves by allowing them to vote and vie for various political offices (McVeigh 16). They were also to be allowed to compete with the white Americans in the job market. In general, all Americans were to be accorded equal rights and privileges irrespective of their color, ethnicity or religion. However, majority of the whites did not government issue this positively as they felt that this would have created a lot of competition for resources and job opportunities, which were scarce especially within localities where the Ku Klux Klan operated. KKK members were not happy with this and as a result, members started becoming suspicious towards the non-whites, whom the y perceived as inferior. Indeed, KKK started attack the blacks trying to convince them to give up their quest for political offices because they were better off living as second class citizens and that they stood to benefit more if they agreed to remain as slaves, which did not bear any fruits (McVeigh 21). Instead, the blacks continued to demand their rights through activism. A widespread hatred towards the blacks and former slaves especially in the siemens boosted the membership of KKK as it provided an informal avenue for the