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The Ku Klux Klan (also known as America's first terrorist group) formed in 1865. Their terrorism of all African Americans, Homosexuals, and immigrants began after
the confederate states lost to the North in the Civil War. They would raid houses at night when blacks were sleeping and lynch the family. They would do this while wearing white sheets around their bodies
and sometimes they would dress their horses in white sheets as well. They did this to hide their identity. Lynching was not the only thing that this group would do. They would terrify white civil rights
workers and Blacks with cross burning, bombings, beatings, death threats, and murder. They would drive Blacks out of their communities by burning houses and barns and destroying crops. These hate crimes
stopped happening daily after Congress passed the Force Act in 1870 and the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871. These documents authorize the president to impose heavy penalties on terrorist organizations if the
crimes keep on occurring. From 1870 to 1915 the Klan was not so popular, but in 1916 in Atlanta, Georgia the Klan was reorganized. The new group then started to discriminate all Roman Catholics, Jews,
foreigners, Communists, and organized labor. Today, this group has been discriminating the same religions ever since the end of the Civil War. |
