Post on 12-Nov-2014
description
Creation• The second Klan rose
in response to the migration of European immigrants and The Great Migration of African Americans in 1915.
• Modeled after the first Ku Klux Klan (1866).
William Joseph Simmons
• Founded the 2nd Ku Klux Klan in 1915.
• Under his lead, the KKK promoted a new program called Americanism.
• Was said to have introduced cross burning.
Members
Most Klansmen were:
• Lower-middle class• White• Male• Trying to protect their
jobs and housing from newcomers and immigrants and foreigners.
Activities
• Cross burning- which symbolized white supremacy.
• Lynched and murdered black soldiers returning from world war 1.
• 416 African Americans were killed.• In Ocoee, Orange County in 1921 the Klan
attacked killing 8 residents and burning 25 black homes, two churches and a fraternal lodge.
Activities… cont.
• Torched an African American school in Rhode Island.
• Klan Leaders urged members to disrupted the CIO, which was open to African Americans.
• Bombed black houses in College Hills, Alabama
• Engaged in violent opposition to the civil rights movement.
Political Influence
• Klan took secretly over the City Council in Anaheim, CA
• In New York City, defeated a Democratic Party platform plank which would have hurt the Klan at the 1924 Democratic Convention
• By 1925, the Klansmen worked for political and social reform in Alabama
Extra Info
• The second KKK had over 4 million members at its peak.
• They supported prohibition, members of the Klan and prohibition groups over lapped and coordinated activities.
• Klan membership compromised members 20% of the adult white male population in many broad geographic areas (40% in some areas).