KKK
The Ku Klux Klan also known as the KKK. Were a group that basically had an extreme hate for black people. They didn’t believe that black people had the right to vote or even share the same bus as white people. Their thought was that they belonged on farms as slaves.
The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan was established in Pulaski, Tennessee, in May 1866. A year later a general organization of local Klans was established in Nashville in April, 1867. Most of the leaders were former members of the Confederate Army. During the next two years Klansmen wearing masks, white cardboard hats and draped in white sheets, tortured and killed black Americans and sympathetic whites. Immigrants, who they blamed for the election of Radical Republican were also targets of their hatred. Between 1868 and 1870 the Ku Klux Klan played an important role in restoring white rule in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. At first the main objective of white supremacy organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan was to stop black people voting. After white governments had been established in the South the Ku Klux Klan continued to undermine the power of blacks. Successful black businessmen were attacked and any attempt to form black protection groups such as trade unions was quickly dealt with. Radical Republicans in Congress such as Benjamin Butler urged President Ulysses S. Grant to take action against the Ku Klux Klan. In 1870 he instigated an investigation into the organization and the following year a Grand Jury reported that: "They has existed since 1868 in many counties of the state, an organization known as the Ku Klux Klan. which embraces in its membership a large proportion of the white population of every profession and class. Congress passed the Ku Klux Act and it became law on 20th April 1871. However, because its objective of white supremacy in the South had been achieved, the organization practically disappeared.
