How did anti-rights groups hinder the progress of Civil Rights for African Americans from 1865 to 1992?

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How did anti-rights groups hinder the progress of Civil Rights for African Americans from 1865 to 1992?

Throughout this period, The Civil Rights movement faced opposition from a number of sources. Anti-rights groups played an important role, as they did a lot to publicly oppose the development of civil rights, and often used extreme tactics, such as violence, against African Americans in order to prevent them gaining equal rights. Although these groups were eventually overcome, they did a great deal to hinder or slow down the progress of the Civil Rights movement, particularly at the start of the period, in the second half of the 19th century.

The most prominent anti-rights group during this period was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacist group who were active in the South from 1866. Formed in Tennessee, the Klan rapidly spread across the Southern states, showing how widespread the opposition to Civil Rights was at the start of the period. In 1867, one in every nine white voters in Alabama belonged to the Klan, which shows how influential the Klan could be, as if all these voters had voted for the slightly more racist Democrat party, there would be less chance of Civil Rights legislation being passed.  The KKK began their terrorist activities in 1867, under the leadership of Nathan Bedford Forrest. The way in which the KKK quickly developed into such a radical group shows how greatly they opposed the idea of equal rights. The main aim of the KKK was to stop black people voting and holding public office, and relied on intimidation to frighten to frighten African Americans and Republicans who were sympathetic to their cause. However, this approach wasn’t successful, as it didn’t stop black people from voting, so the Klan turned to using violence, which had a huge impact on the black community across the southern states. If black people became too successful or influential, the Klan would often intervene, beating or murdering hundreds of black people. For example, the KKK was responsible for burning down successful farms in Louisiana, and Richard Burke, a black Alabama lawyer, was murdered for becoming too influential among black people. The KKK used violence, often ending with murder, to suppress African Americans, making it more difficult for them to gain the rights they wanted. If African Americans were to be successful in gaining equal Civil Rights, they needed to make progress for themselves. The KKK tried to stop them making the progress that was essential to the development of equal Civil Rights, which could have hindered the movement itself.

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Although the KKK weren’t active as an organisation for the final part of the 19th century, there was a revival around the time of the First World War. This revival could have been due to the impact of the war, as it increased tensions on the home front, but it was also partly due to the film “Birth of a Nation”, which depicted hundreds of KKK members “saving” white civilisation. The films racist message was greeted with enthusiasm from white supremacist groups, particularly the KKK. The revived Klan had a huge impact, as membership rose, not only in the South but ...

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