Skylar Mullikin College Preparatory English Dr. Watkins Research Paper February 28, 2017
Circle Circle
Fear and intimidation are effective forms of social control when the threat of death is imminent. Circle circle and Ku Klux Klan both mean the same thing: this came with the sound of rattling of bones, the murders of blacks, and the blaming of innocent people, a problem that started in 1866 but continues as a problem in 2017. Intentions were not murderous, but weeks later, the murdering of blacks and the deceiving of law enforcement was fueling the need of the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan was a radical racist cult formed in 1866 by six white men in Pulaski, Tennessee. The Klansmen would play pranks on people who were walking down the lone and dark road, pretending to be a ghost who had died in the battle in Chickmauga, Georgia (a place where one of the nastiest wars took place) which frightened the people (Bartoletti 29-30). Soon realizing the fear, they began covering up in white sheets and riding horses in the middle of the night to terrorize members of the black community while returning to an abandoned house after every “mission” that they considered as a hideout (Bartoletti 6). These men realized that the fear they created through violence against blacks made them powerful. Due tothe prevailing racist attitudes in the south, law enforcement officials often refused to enforce laws that would protect members of the black community. When the Klan realized that law enforcement officials were not willing to protect blacks, their acts escalated from torture to murder (Engelbert 66). The failure of law enforcement to protect black citizens made the Ku Klux Klan a credible threat to the health and personal safety of black citizens. The Klu Klux Klan capitalized on this fear to form a powerful organization. The Klan used social control to keep the black community powerless through its tactics of fear and intimidation (Bartoletti 6). Wrong, but the Klan used violence and murder in order to get their points across to the black community. At first, those were not the intentions of the Klan but those standards soon escalated. Violence, secretes, and ruining of family morals is controversial to say that the klan has anything to do with religion, however, the klan insisted on mainstream Protestantism, claiming that American institutions were ruining morals, families, and threatening democracy (Baker 250). The Klan started out as a group of six men riding around and crashing parties, soon that turned into the realization of the fear they were putting into those around them after dark. During the process and failure of the law enforcement, the klan then began to take advantage of their abilities and fed off of the fear they were putting into those around them.
Fear of slaves taking control over the white men. Fear of losing valuable property. Fear, threats, violence, war, and loss, are all factors affecting the movement of the KKK. The history of the Klan can be traced back to the Civil War. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, some white southerners held the irrational fear that former slaves would seek retribution against their former masters (Bartoletti 5; Dixon 4).In order for the government to get an effect out of the southerners, they sent out threats stating that they would allow the slaves to own their masters. There were widespread rumors that former slaves would be given a mule and 40 acres of land carved out of their former master’s property as compensation for years of unpaid labor (Bartoletti 5; Englebert 14). Although the government did warn the south that their slaves would soon become in control of them, these were false accusations made to get a reaction. Many former slave owners felt angry about their loss of equity (Bartoletti 7; Dixon 9; Engelbert 14). Slaves were valuable in price which caused more dispute among slave owners due to their loss of property (often costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars).Slaves were valuable property. Slave owners often spent thousands of dollars on the purchase of each individual slave (Bartoletti 7). The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves without any financial compensation given to the slave owners.The continuous threat of violence was a powerful toolof social control used to subdue blacks from exercising their new rights. “"I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing something right, than I do in signing this paper," said Lincoln about the Emancipation Proclamation. "If any name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it” (Bartoletti 4). Abraham Lincoln had an entire goal of freeing the slaves and leading them back into reconstruction. The property cost of slaves, the opinions and anger of southerners did not phase Lincoln as long as every person was seen as equal.
Secrecy was a major factor among slaves and was also deceived with the messages passed along.When forced to keep quiet, slaves still found ways to get the word around about what was going on. During the freeing of slaves, Abraham Lincoln would not continue carrying the country through reconstruction. In 1863, the grapevine telegraph was how the slaves passed word on to the other plantations in order to find out that the Emancipation Proclamation had come into effect. One year later, it took the Yankees to physically free the slaves in order for them to get it (Baker 3). Abraham Lincoln once said, “"Let us strive... to bind up the nation's wounds [and to achieve] a just, and a lasting peace." But Lincoln would not live to guide the country through Reconstruction and a just and lasting peace. Just five days after Lee's surrender, a Southern sympathizer gunned down the president. Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning. That day, Vice President Andrew Johnson took the oath as president” (qtd. in Bartoletti 11). Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves and had a plan to bring the nation back up until he was shot before having the chance to do so. This leftthe slaves to deal with Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was not only a democrat, but who was also originally from the south and proceeded to side with the southerners wants.
Revenge to the Republican party and the start of a new organization of six men who resented the Union had begun. In 1866, in Pulaski, Tennessee, six white, male former Confederate officers, John Lester, Calvin Jones, Richards Reed, James Crowe, Frank McCord, and John Kennedy felt despair over losing the war, the loss of family and friends, and the financial repercussions of the outcome of the war (Bartoletti 18; Dixon 20). They resented the Union government and the ruling Republican Party (Bartoletti 17). After the war continued with more outcomes, six Confederate soldiers got together with their hatred towards the republican party and they were determined to do something about it. This was the very beginning to the KKK. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 further fueled fears in the white community by granting black citizens the same rights as white citizens (Bartoletti 22; Englebert 16). Once the Civil Rights Act was put into place, blacks began experimenting with their new freedoms soon leading to a bigger uprise in the white community. Blacks began to openly challenge the authority of whites in the south by refusing to give up their seats, tip their hats, yield the sidewalk, or address their former owners as “master” (Bartoletti 22). As the black community gained more power, they began to change their ways which then led to the start of the KKK and their ideas to seek revenge by putting the blacks “back in their place.” John Lester proposed, “Boys, let us get up a club or society” (Bartoletti 25). Six Confederate officers got together in a meeting to discuss the problems that they were having with the nation, in order for them to get their revenge, John Lester suggested to start up an organization.
The rattling of bones and the death of blacks; a mysterious name that meant “circle circle” was the organization name agreed upon.Making their own positions and hazing new members was the way to go about the problems in the new society. The men wanted a unique and mysterious name for their new group (Bertoletti 25). Jones and Reed proposed the name Kuklos (Greek for Circle), but Crowe wanted something more mysterious and suggested “Ku Klux” (Bartoletti 25). The men agreed to “Ku Klux Klan.” (Bartoletti 25). Lester felt that the mysterious name added to the power of the group. Members were sworn to secrecy and taught secret rites, rituals, handshakes, codes, and methods of hazing new recruits (Bartoletti 25). The six men succeeded in creating a society; hazing new members, creating their own positions, codes, rituals, and new ways of religion. McCord was elected “Grand Cyclops;” Kennedy was elected “Grand Magi;” Crowe was elected “Grand Turk;” Jones, Lester, and Hawks were elected messengers (Bartoletti 26). The Ku Klux Klan was officially born and in order to make themselves more of an organization, the group decided to give themselves positions. To make the group seem more threatening, they wanted their group name to remind them of the rattling of bones. The Klan found an abandoned house in the countryside and claimed it as their gathering place. The men cut eye holes in white sheets and rode their horses through town, across the countryside, crashing parties and get togethers while whooping, yelling, and moaning like ghosts as part of their rituals (Bartoletti 26). The Klan would publish ambiguous notices of their strange assemblies in the Pulaski Citizen, using their own fabricated language (Bartoletti 28). They would refer to their meeting place as “the den,“ and announce their secret meeting times which were held in the middle of the night (Bartoletti 28). The Klan managed to find an old abandoned house that had been destroyed by a cyclone and then decided to claim it as their metting place, soon advising new members to join them. The general public found their meeting time, places, and rituals bizarre (Bartoletti 28). There is too much violence, secretes, and ruining of family morals, it is controversial to say that the klan has anything to do with religion, however, the klan insisted on mainstream Protestantism, claiming that American institutions were ruining morals, families, and threatening democracy (Baker 250). The Ku Klux Klan members managed to find an abandoned house that they had claimed as their hideout. Dressing in sheets that they had found in closets, cutting holes out for eyes, and galloping around on horses. People began to find humor in the grown men and thought they were pretending to act as ghosts. Once the Klan realized the power they had after dark, is when the terrorizing of blacks came into effect. The men attempted to post signs in their language in order to bring in new members, however, people found the men bizarre.
Torture, death, and the bringing in of new members and sending them through hazing processes were ways that the Klan managed to keep everybody quiet. To initiate new members, the Klan would whisk them away from their homes in the middle of the night, blindfolded, and subject them to an initiation process which included hazing (Bartoletti 29). In order to keep the organization private, the Klan would meet up with new found members, blindfold them, and then carry them away on their horses so that the members would not know where the meetings were being held. The Klan would the proceed to haze the new members and make them do rituals in order to make sure that the organization remained quiet.The hazing and initiation rituals would take place while Klan members were in their costumes so that new initiates could not recognize them (Bartoletti 29). Another way for the organization to keep private was to dress up in costumes so that new members would not be able to recognize the leaders. New initiates were selected based on their race and known beliefs; the majority of the members were well known church going members of the community, and most were of Scottish-Irish heritage, which is known for its belief in ghosts and spirits (Bartoletti 29). The Klan members wanted to keep their group private and in order to do so, they had to blindfold new members and bring them to their den. New members were hazed and required to do certain rituals to ensure the privacy.
The Klan targeted blacks who sought to exercise their newfound rights granted to them, particularly, their right to vote and hold property. The Klan’s racist perception was that blacks were not capable of self-government and needed oversight from the white community (Bartoletti 65). Any black citizen with the promise of power was targeted by the Klan. Threats ranged from intimidation, to violence against family members, to public lynching (Bartoletti 65). In 1892, there were 161 deaths due to lynchings. In 1899, the rate of lynching deaths went up to 104 deaths per year in the south while there were 23 deaths in the north. A total of 4,742 blacks were lynched (Engelbert 22). The Klan targeted blacks in order to govern them; they believed that blacks were not capable of governing themselves.
The Klan also targeted white citizens who supported equal rights for blacks. These sympatists were labeled, scalawags (Bartoletti 66). Scalawags were considered to be traitors of the white race, and were subject to the same attacks and intimidation tactics used on blacks (Bartoletti 66).White men who supports the equal rights of blacks were ostracized by the community and the Klan. Blacks and whites both who lived in states along the North\South border and fought for the Union were targeted with whippings, and murderous threats (Bartoletti 67). Blacks and whites were both targeted with the negativity of the Ku Klux Klan. The klan would abuse and intimidate those who supported equal rights or the freeing of slaves.
The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 was adopted to protect blacks from white terrorist groups that formed in the south following the civil war. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 further outlawed discrimination in all public and private accommodations, including hotels, transportation, theatres, and other public places (Engelbert 18). Soon after the Act was put into place, discrimination was put to an end in public, private, and transportation stations. The government used federal troops to protect citizens and ensure blacks were able to exercise their new rights, but the Compromise of 1877 called for the withdraw of these federal troops in exchange for southern lawmakers allowing for the inauguration of new republican president, Rutherford B. Hayes (Engelbert 18). The withdrawal of federal troops increased racial tension in the south because blacks were no longer afforded protection. The Civil Rights Act was put in place in order to end the discrimination in all accommodations whether they are private or public. The government later used federal troops to protect the people. However, withdrawal of those troops began when souther lawmakers allowed inauguration of a republican president.
In 2017, the Ku Klux Klan is found in over half of the United States. The Klan have between 5,000-8,000 members. Instead of having to get blindfolded, found, and carried in, the klan now has applications and agreements that are required to be signed in order to join. Today, there are multiple groups and no two groups are the exact same or even affiliate with each other. Rallies all across the nation still occur. In order for the klan to stay low and to keep their connections, they keep in close touch with a congressman who remains unnamed.Although the group continues to run, they “do not believe in hate” of other groups (KKK para. 1). As a way to cover up the racist activities, the group refers to the ways of how God built a white nation. According the group, using the bible as a reference (Lev.20:24-25), the Klan says that they are not wanting to hate “darker groups” but that the darker groups are trying to join in with the white people and to the Klan, that is not how God intended it (KKK para 2). The Klan refers to themselves as Christians in the working of God, trying to bring the white-hood closer as a family (KKK para. 1-2). Claiming that the joining with darker people as a couple, ruins the whites blood and causes a downfall in the government system (KKK para. 4). The KKK in 2017 now finds excuses for their actions; blaming their actions on the misunderstanding of bible quotes and switching up the word of God in order to cover up their hateful actions. The Klan has been in the United States for 151 years; through the partying through picnics and parties, to the lynching of black people and breaking into their homes, to 2017 and now trying to persuade the white communities into believing the actions, seeing the corruption of the government only to then blame them. The Klan has been through many processes in the past years, however, today is somewhat a progress for both the good and bad.