polygon
|
|
response 55 of 57:
| 
Sep 10 16:51 UTC 2003 |
Re 41 and others about the KKK: The name Ku Klux Klan has been used in
three separate waves, with no organizational continuity.
The original post-Civil-War KKK started as a social organization of
ex-Confederate soldiers, evolved into a para-military one, and was crushed
by federal troops.
In 1915, the movie "Birth of a Nation" romanticized the original KKK and
tremendously exaggerated its role in ending Reconstruction. As a direct
result of the movie, a "new" KKK was organized, and it had millions of
members all over the country, not just in the South, reaching a kind of
peak in 1924. The sculptor of Mount Rushmore was a member. Though
certainly racist, it was much less violent than the earlier and later
incarnations. The founders swindled the membership out of reportedly
millions of dollars. It died out by the 1930s.
In the 1950s and 1960s, another new, secretive, and violent KKK was
established, in response to the civil rights movement. However, there
were and are numerous schisms and competing organizations each of which
claim to be the "real" KKK.
|