131-516: The Silver Dollar Group was an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan white nationalist terrorist group, composed of cells that took up violent actions to support Klan goals. The group was largely found in Mississippi and Louisiana, and was named for their practice of identifying themselves by carrying a silver dollar . The group is believed to have had only some twenty members. The group formed in 1964 at
262-537: A natural gas processing plant. In 1999, the city council of Charleston, South Carolina , passed a resolution declaring the Klan a terrorist organization. The existence of modern Klan groups has been in a state of consistent decline, due to a variety of factors: from the American public's negative distaste of the group's image, platform, and history, infiltration and prosecution by law enforcement, civil lawsuit forfeitures, and
393-546: A 1933 interview, William Sellers, born enslaved in Virginia, recalled the post-war "raids of the Ku Klux, young white men of Rockingham County who would go into the huts of the recently freed negroes or catch some negro who had been working for thirty cents a day on his way home from work...and cruelly whip him, leaving him to live or die." Seemingly random whipping attacks, meant to be suggestive of previous condition of servitude, were
524-491: A Nation , which mythologized the founding of the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure . Rooted in local Protestant communities, it sought to maintain white supremacy , often took a pro- Prohibition stance, and it opposed Jews , while also stressing its opposition to the alleged political power of the pope and the Catholic Church . This second Klan flourished both in
655-532: A chance to participate in the process. Hundreds of Klan members were fined or imprisoned during the crackdown, "once the national government became set upon a policy of military intervention whole populations which had scouted the authority of the weak 'Radical' government of the State became meek." Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest boasted that the Klan was a nationwide organization of 550,000 men and that he could muster 40,000 Klansmen within five days' notice. However,
786-690: A congressional committee which took testimony from 52 witnesses about Klan atrocities, accumulating 12 volumes. In February, former Union general and congressman Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (Ku Klux Klan Act). This added to the enmity that Southern white Democrats bore toward him. While the bill was being considered, further violence in the South swung support for its passage. The governor of South Carolina appealed for federal troops to assist his efforts in keeping control of
917-668: A detailed recounting of Klansmen's beatings and murders of freedmen and their white allies. Milder encounters, including some against white teachers, also occurred. In Mississippi , according to the Congressional inquiry: One of these teachers (Miss Allen of Illinois), whose school was at Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County , was visited ... between one and two o'clock in the morning in March 1871, by about fifty men mounted and disguised. Each man wore
1048-565: A few freedmen and white Republicans who allied with Democratic whites or had criminal agendas of their own. Indeed, all they had in common, besides being overwhelmingly white, southern, and Democratic , was that they called themselves, or were called, Klansmen. Historian Eric Foner observed: "In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class , and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in
1179-492: A few weeks prior to the Presidential election of November 1868. Although St. Landry Parish had a registered Republican majority of 1,071, after the murders, no Republicans voted in the fall elections. White Democrats cast the full vote of the parish for President Grant's opponent. The KKK killed and wounded more than 200 Black Republicans, hunting and chasing them through the woods. Thirteen captives were taken from jail and shot;
1310-440: A formal and decisive disbandment". A Georgia-based reporter wrote in 1870: "A true statement of the case is not that the Ku Klux are an organized band of licensed criminals, but that men who commit crimes call themselves Ku Klux". In many states, officials were reluctant to use Black militia against the Klan out of fear that racial tensions would be raised. Republican governor of North Carolina William Woods Holden called out
1441-823: A half-buried pile of 25 bodies was found in the woods. The KKK made people vote Democratic and gave them certificates of the fact. In the April 1868 Georgia gubernatorial election, Columbia County cast 1,222 votes for Republican Rufus Bullock . By the November presidential election , Klan intimidation led to suppression of the Republican vote and only one person voted for Ulysses S. Grant . Klansmen killed more than 150 African Americans in Jackson County, Florida , and hundreds more in other counties including Madison, Alachua, Columbia, and Hamilton. Florida Freedmen's Bureau records provided
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#17328917601311572-480: A hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to "Black Republicans." ... But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be
1703-489: A huge national debt , homestead laws , railroads and aid to education and agriculture . The Republicans denounced the peace-oriented Democrats as disloyal Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862. In 1864, they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as the National Union Party . Lincoln chose Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate and was easily re-elected. During
1834-402: A long white robe and his face was covered by a loose mask with scarlet stripes. She was ordered to get up and dress which she did at once and then admitted to her room the captain and lieutenant who in addition to the usual disguise had long horns on their heads and a sort of device in front. The lieutenant had a pistol in his hand and he and the captain sat down while eight or ten men stood inside
1965-566: A major issue between the wet Democrats and the dry GOP. The election of William McKinley in 1896 marked a resurgence of Republican dominance and was a realigning election . The GOP now had a decisive advantage nationwide and in the industrial states; the Democrats were left with the Solid South and mixed opportunities elsewhere. The large cities had Republican or Democratic machines. With fewer competitive states, turnout fell steadily. Blacks in
2096-458: A modern business system of using full-time, paid recruiters and it appealed to new members as a fraternal organization, of which many examples were flourishing at the time. The national headquarters made its profit through a monopoly on costume sales, while the organizers were paid through initiation fees. It grew rapidly nationwide at a time of prosperity. Reflecting the social tensions pitting urban versus rural America, it spread to every state and
2227-418: A murderer!" New England Yankees, who dominated that region and much of upstate New York and the upper Midwest , were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and, during the war, many Methodists and Scandinavian Lutherans . The Quakers were a small, tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. By contrast,
2358-560: A new income tax, a national banking system, paper money ("Greenbacks") and enough taxes and loans to pay for the war. Many conservative Democrats became War Democrats who had a deep belief in American nationalism and supported the war. When Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal, the Peace Democrats were energized and carried numerous state races, especially in Connecticut, Indiana and Illinois. Democrat Horatio Seymour
2489-656: A presidential election. The final nail in the Whig coffin was the Kansas–Nebraska Act , passed by Democrats in 1854. It was also the spark that began the Republican Party, which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers and create an anti-slavery party that the Whigs had always resisted becoming. The Act opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states , thus implicitly repealing
2620-433: A reformer, won two states. Through the primaries, Senator La Follette won a total of 36 delegates; President Taft won 48 delegates; and Roosevelt won 278 delegates. However 36 more conservative states did not hold primaries, but instead selected delegates via state conventions. For years Roosevelt had tried to attract Southern white Democrats to the Republican Party, and he tried to win delegates there in 1912. However Taft had
2751-456: A role but it was less important at first. The Know-Nothing party embodied the social forces at work, but its weak leadership was unable to solidify its organization, and the Republicans picked it apart. Nativism was so powerful that the Republicans could not avoid it, but they did minimize it and turn voter wrath against the threat that slave owners would buy up the good farm lands wherever slavery
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#17328917601312882-486: A strong anti- Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century. In 2016, businessman and media personality Donald Trump became the party's nominee for president, won the presidency, and shifted the party further to the right. Since Trump's nomination in 2016, the party is seen to be split between the Trumpist faction, which ranges from far-right nationalists to populists , and
3013-475: A success in terms of "restoring order, reinvigorating the morale of Southern Republicans, and enabling Blacks to exercise their rights as citizens". Historian George C. Rable argues that the Klan was a political failure and therefore was discarded by the Democratic Party leaders of the South. He says: The Klan declined in strength in part because of internal weaknesses; its lack of central organization and
3144-544: A third term, but he was outmaneuvered by Taft and lost the nomination. The 1912 Republican National Convention turned a personal feud into an ideological split in the GOP. Politically liberal states for the first time were holding Republican primaries . Roosevelt overwhelmingly won the primaries—winning 9 out of 12 states (8 by landslide margins). Taft won only the state of Massachusetts (by a small margin); he even lost his home state of Ohio to Roosevelt. Senator Robert M. La Follette ,
3275-478: A third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms . After 1912, many Roosevelt supporters left the Republican Party, and the party underwent an ideological shift to the right. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940); under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964. After
3406-561: A widespread aspect of the early Klan; for example in 1870–71 in Limestone Township (now Cherokee County ), South Carolina, of 77 documented attacks, "four were shot, sixty-seven whipped and six had had their ears cropped ." Klan members adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and added to the drama of their night rides, their chosen time for attacks. Many of them operated in small towns and rural areas where people otherwise knew each other's faces, and sometimes still recognized
3537-730: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , and the Southern strategy , the party's core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade ,
3668-581: The Civil War also of former black slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South , and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system ,
3799-808: The Civil War , during the Reconstruction of the South. The group was known for a short time as the "Kuklux Clan". The Ku Klux Klan was one of a number of secret, oath-bound organizations using violence, which included the Southern Cross in New Orleans (1865) and the Knights of the White Camelia (1867) in Louisiana . Historians generally classify the KKK as part of the post-Civil War insurgent violence related not only to
3930-502: The Confederate army : Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe. It started as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta . It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from that group, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were
4061-503: The KKK or the Klan , is the name of an American white supremacist , far-right terrorist organization and hate group . Various historians, including Fergus Bordewich , have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. There have been three distinct iterations with various targets relative to time and place, including African Americans , Jews , and Catholics . Each iteration of
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4192-544: The Prescript , which espoused white supremacist belief. For instance, an applicant should be asked if he was in favor of "a white man's government", "the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights". The latter is a reference to the Ironclad Oath , which stripped the vote from white persons who refused to swear that they had not borne arms against
4323-618: The Red Shirts , which started in Mississippi and developed chapters in the Carolinas. For instance, the Red Shirts are credited with helping elect Wade Hampton as governor in South Carolina. They were described as acting as the military arm of the Democratic Party and are attributed with helping white Democrats regain control of state legislatures throughout the South. In 1915, the second Klan
4454-961: The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution —which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; it was ratified in December 1865. In 1865, the Confederacy surrendered, ending the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 ; following his death, Andrew Johnson took office as President of the United States. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction era , there were major disagreements on
4585-525: The U.S. House of Representatives before 1935 and all of the African Americans who served in the Senate before 1979, were Republicans. Frederick Douglass after the Civil War and Booker T. Washington in the early 20th century were prominent Republican spokesmen. Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and, starting in
4716-616: The anti-Trump faction , which consists of center-right conservatives, moderate centrists , as well as some traditional conservatives . Since the 1990s, the party's support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains , the Mountain States , and rural areas in the North. As of 2016, it supports free market economics , cultural conservatism , and originalism in constitutional jurisprudence . There have been 19 Republican presidents,
4847-414: The economy . McKinley relied heavily on industry officials and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business. This emphasis on business was in part reversed by Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential successor after McKinley's assassination in 1901, who engaged in trust-busting . Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, had the most dynamic personality of
4978-666: The gold standard , railroads , and high tariffs . The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States , where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state. With
5109-405: The severe economic depression 1893–1897 and the violent coal and railroad strikes of 1894. From 1860 to 1912, the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". Rum stood for the liquor interests and the tavernkeepers, in contrast to the GOP, which had a strong dry element. "Romanism" meant Roman Catholics , especially Irish Americans, who ran
5240-541: The 1870s, formed the "tan" half of the "Black and Tan" Republican Party , a minority in every Southern state after 1877. This divided the party into two factions: the lily-white faction , which was practically all-white; and the biracial black-and-tan faction. In several Southern states, the "Lily Whites", who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party, attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence. Among such "Lily White" leaders in
5371-507: The 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in 1884 and 1892 ). Religious lines were sharply drawn. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Scandinavian Lutherans and other pietists in the North were tightly linked to the GOP. In sharp contrast, liturgical groups , especially the Catholics, Episcopalians and German Lutherans, looked to
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5502-763: The 1940s. Klan organizers also operated in Canada , especially in Saskatchewan in 1926–1928, where Klansmen denounced immigrants from Eastern Europe as a threat to Canada's "Anglo-Saxon" heritage. The "Ku Klux Klan" name was used by numerous independent local groups opposing the civil rights movement and desegregation , especially in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, they often forged alliances with Southern police departments, as in Birmingham, Alabama ; or with governor's offices, as with George Wallace of Alabama . Several members of Klan groups were convicted of murder in
5633-492: The Democratic Party for protection from pietistic moralism, especially prohibition. Both parties cut across the class structure, with the Democrats more bottom-heavy. Cultural issues, especially prohibition and foreign language schools became important because of the sharp religious divisions in the electorate. In the North, about 50% of the voters were pietistic Protestants (Methodists, Scandinavian Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Disciples of Christ ) who believed
5764-597: The Democratic Party in every big city and whom the Republicans denounced for political corruption. "Rebellion" stood for the Democrats of the Confederacy , who tried to break the Union in 1861; and the Democrats in the North, called " Copperheads ", who sympathized with them. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During
5895-451: The Democrats, who had nominated reformer Grover Cleveland . Young Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge , leading reformers, refused to bolt—an action that preserved their leadership role in the GOP. As the Northern post-war economy boomed with industry, railroads, mines and fast-growing cities as well as prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to keep
6026-412: The Democrats. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were mostly Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s, elections were remarkably close. The Democrats usually lost, but won in 1884 and 1892 . In the 1894 Congressional elections , the GOP scored the biggest landslide in its history as Democrats were blamed for
6157-425: The Democrats. They won control of the House and formed " Redeemer " coalitions which recaptured control of each southern state, in some cases using threats and violence. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded by a special electoral commission to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes , who promised through the unofficial Compromise of 1877 to withdraw federal troops from control of
6288-501: The GOP (Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the United States . It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, the Democratic Party . In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act . The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after
6419-576: The Klan had no membership rosters, no chapters, and no local officers, so it was difficult for observers to judge its membership. It had created a sensation by the dramatic nature of its masked forays and because of its many murders. In 1870, a federal grand jury determined that the Klan was a " terrorist organization" and issued hundreds of indictments for crimes of violence and terrorism. Klan members were prosecuted, and many fled from areas that were under federal government jurisdiction, particularly in South Carolina. Many people not formally inducted into
6550-454: The Klan had used the Klan's costume to hide their identities when carrying out independent acts of violence. Forrest called for the Klan to disband in 1869, arguing that it was "being perverted from its original honorable and patriotic purposes, becoming injurious instead of subservient to the public peace". Historian Stanley Horn argues that "generally speaking, the Klan's end was more in the form of spotty, slow, and gradual disintegration than
6681-463: The Klan has an "unknown number of associates and supporters". The name was probably formed by combining the Greek kyklos ( κύκλος , which means circle) with clan . The word had previously been used for other fraternal organizations in the South such as Kuklos Adelphon . Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee , created the original Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, shortly after
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#17328917601316812-432: The Klan is defined by non-overlapping time periods, comprising local chapters with little or no central direction. Each has advocated reactionary positions such as white nationalism , anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations— Nordicism , antisemitism , anti-Catholicism , right-wing populism , anti-communism , homophobia , anti-atheism , and Islamophobia . The first Klan, founded by Confederate veterans in
6943-504: The Ku Klux Klan , on which the film was based. When the film was shown in Atlanta in December of that year, Simmons and his new klansmen paraded to the theater in robes and pointed hoods – many on robed horses – just like in the film. These mass parades became another hallmark of the new Klan that had not existed in the original Reconstruction-era organization. Beginning in 1921, it adopted
7074-484: The Progressive Era, North Carolina journalist William Garrott Brown tried to convince upscale white southerners of the wisdom of a strong early white Republican Party. He warned that a one party solid South system would negate democracy, encourage corruption, because the lack of prestige of the national level. Roosevelt was following his advice. However, in 1912, incumbent president Taft needed black Republican support in
7205-473: The Republican Party (it lost the presidency only in 1884 and 1892). Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting the factions of his party to fight for the Union in the Civil War. However, he usually fought the Radical Republicans who demanded harsher measures. Led by Senator William P. Fessenden and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens , Congress took the lead in economic policy, bringing in high tariffs,
7336-544: The Republican Party because they were being hoodwinked by the Loyal Leagues. One Alabama newspaper editor declared "The League is nothing more than a nigger Ku Klux Klan." Despite Gordon's and Forrest's work, local Klan units never accepted the Prescript and continued to operate autonomously. There were never hierarchical levels or state headquarters. Klan members used violence to settle old personal feuds and local grudges, as they worked to restore general white dominance in
7467-434: The Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals . The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan , who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation , increased military spending, lower taxes , and
7598-617: The Senate . With the election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, the Radicals had control of Congress and the party attempted to build a solid Republican base in the South using the votes of Freedmen, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers , supported directly by United States Army detachments. Republicans all across the South formed local clubs called Union Leagues that effectively mobilized the voters, discussed issues, and when necessary, fought off Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attacks. Thousands died on both sides. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in
7729-710: The Shamrock Motor Hotel in Vidalia, Louisiana by Raleigh Jackson "Red" Glover, amidst dissatisfaction at the lack of forceful action by Klan groups in the region. The group killed a black man, Frank Morris, by arson in Ferriday, Louisiana , and is suspected in two car bombings of NAACP leaders in Natchez, Mississippi , George Metcalfe and Wharlest Jackson . Morris had a shoe repair shop in Ferriday, and died after his shoe repair shop
7860-406: The South lost the vote in general elections, but still had a voice in the Republican National Convention. New immigrants were pouring in from Eastern and Southern Europe. The Progressive Era (or " Fourth Party System ") was dominated by Republican presidents, with the sole exception of Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). The Republican Party had a progressive element, which supported unions and
7991-528: The South that adopted similar goals. Klan chapters promoted white supremacy and spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement in resistance to Reconstruction. Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a KKK chapter in Nashville, Tennessee . As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder. "They targeted white Northern leaders, Southern sympathizers and politically active Blacks." In 1870 and 1871,
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#17328917601318122-453: The South, the Fourteenth Amendment and equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen. Most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high levels of corruption typified by the Whiskey Ring . In 1869, the Republican-controlled legislature in Wyoming Territory and its Republican governor John Allen Campbell made it
8253-499: The South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856–1860 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The Republican Party absorbed many of the previous traditions of its members, who had come from an array of political factions, including Working Men , Locofoco Democrats , Free Soil Democrats, Free Soil Whigs, anti-slavery Know Nothings , Conscience Whigs , and Temperance Reformers of both parties. Many Democrats who joined were rewarded with governorships, or seats in
8384-480: The Southern Poverty Law Center puts it at 6,000 members total. The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to a false mythologized perception of America's " Anglo-Saxon " blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism . Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality , Christian denominations widely denounce them. The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee , on December 24, 1865, by six former officers of
8515-404: The U.S. Senate, or House of Representatives. During the presidential campaign in 1860, at a time of escalating tension between the North and South, Abraham Lincoln addressed the harsh treatment of Republicans in the South in his famous Cooper Union speech : [W]hen you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant
8646-471: The Union. Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was elected the first grand wizard , and claimed to be the Klan's national leader. In an 1868 newspaper interview, Forrest stated that the Klan's primary opposition was to the Loyal Leagues , Republican state governments, people such as Tennessee governor William Gannaway Brownlow , and other " carpetbaggers " and " scalawags ". He argued that many Southerners believed that Black people were voting for
8777-555: The attackers by voice and mannerisms. "The kind of thing that men are afraid or ashamed to do openly, and by day, they accomplish secretly, masked, and at night." The KKK night riders "sometimes claimed to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers so, as they claimed, to frighten superstitious Blacks. Few freedmen took such nonsense seriously." The Klan attacked Black members of the Loyal Leagues and intimidated Southern Republicans and Freedmen's Bureau workers. When they killed Black political leaders, they also took heads of families, along with
8908-424: The best properties. It vigorously argued that free market labor was superior to slavery and was the very foundation of civic virtue and true republicanism ; this was the "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" ideology. Without using the term " containment ", the Republican Party in the mid-1850s proposed a system of containing slavery. Historian James Oakes explains the strategy: The federal government would surround
9039-438: The broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the Black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life. To that end they worked to curb
9170-681: The civil rights provisions for individuals under the constitution. The Klan refused to voluntarily dissolve after the 1871 Klan Act, so President Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus and stationed federal troops in nine South Carolina counties by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 . The Klansmen were apprehended and prosecuted in federal court. Judges Hugh Lennox Bond and George S. Bryan presided over South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials in Columbia, S.C., during December 1871. The defendants were given from three months to five years of incarceration with fines. More Black people served on juries in federal court than on local or state juries, so they had
9301-449: The civil service . Upscale reformers who opposed the spoils system altogether were called " Mugwumps ". In 1884, Mugwumps rejected James G. Blaine as corrupt and helped elect Democrat Grover Cleveland , though most returned to the party by 1888. In the run-up to the 1884 Republican National Convention , Mugwumps organized their forces in the swing states, especially New York and Massachusetts. After failing to block Blaine, many bolted to
9432-572: The deaths of civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 and of children in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. The United States government still considers the Klan to be a "subversive terrorist organization". In April 1997, FBI agents arrested four members of the True Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Dallas for conspiracy to commit robbery and for conspiring to blow up
9563-493: The disrupted postwar society. The historian Elaine Frantz Parsons describes the membership: Lifting the Klan mask revealed a chaotic multitude of anti-Black vigilante groups, disgruntled poor white farmers, wartime guerrilla bands, displaced Democratic politicians, illegal whiskey distillers, coercive moral reformers, sadists, rapists, white workmen fearful of Black competition, employers trying to enforce labor discipline, common thieves, neighbors with decades-old grudges, and even
9694-531: The door and the porch was full. They treated her "gentlemanly and quietly" but complained of the heavy school-tax, said she must stop teaching and go away and warned her that they never gave a second notice. She heeded the warning and left the county. By 1868, two years after the Klan's creation, its activity was beginning to decrease. Members were hiding behind Klan masks and robes as a way to avoid prosecution for freelance violence. Many influential Southern Democrats feared that Klan lawlessness provided an excuse for
9825-503: The early 20th century, Arkansas ' Wallace Townsend was the party's gubernatorial nominee in 1916 and 1920 and its veteran national GOP committeeman. The factionalism flared up in 1928 and 1952. The final victory of its opponent the lily-white faction came in 1964. The party split into factions in the late 1870s. The Stalwarts , followers of Senator Roscoe Conkling , defended the spoils system . The Half-Breeds , who followed Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, pushed for reform of
9956-456: The education, economic advancement, voting rights , and right to keep and bear arms of Black people. The Klan soon spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a reign of terror against Republican leaders both Black and white. Those political leaders assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds , three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who served in constitutional conventions." In
10087-520: The election of its first president, Abraham Lincoln , in 1860, the party's success in guiding the Union to victory in the Civil War, and the party's role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as
10218-464: The era. Roosevelt had to contend with men like Senator Mark Hanna , whom he outmaneuvered to gain control of the convention in 1904 that renominated him and he won after promising to continue McKinley's policies. More difficult to handle was conservative House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon , who blocked most of Roosevelt's legislative goals in 1906–1908. Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws . He
10349-524: The example of Mark Hanna, were active in the National Civic Federation , which promoted urban reforms and sought to avoid wasteful strikes. Protectionism was the ideological cement holding the Republican coalition together. High tariffs were used by Republicans to promise higher sales to business, higher wages to industrial workers, and higher demand for their crops to farmers. Progressive insurgents said it promoted monopoly. Democrats said it
10480-560: The failure of its leaders to control criminal elements and sadists. More fundamentally, it declined because it failed to achieve its central objective – the overthrow of Republican state governments in the South. After the Klan was suppressed, similar insurgent paramilitary groups arose that were explicitly directed at suppressing Republican voting and turning Republicans out of office: the White League , which started in Louisiana in 1874; and
10611-598: The fast growth going. The Democratic Party was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The GOP supported big business generally, the gold standard , high tariffs and generous pensions for Union veterans. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. The high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt
10742-512: The federal government passed the Enforcement Acts , which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes. The first Klan had mixed results in terms of achieving its objectives. It seriously weakened the Black political leadership through its use of assassinations and threats of violence, and it drove some people out of politics. On the other hand, it caused a sharp backlash, with passage of federal laws that historian Eric Foner says were
10873-659: The federal government to retain its power over the South, and they began to turn against it. There were outlandish claims made, such as Georgian B. H. Hill stating "that some of these outrages were actually perpetrated by the political friends of the parties slain." Union Army veterans in mountainous Blount County, Alabama , organized "the anti-Ku Klux". They put an end to violence by threatening Klansmen with reprisals unless they stopped whipping Unionists and burning Black churches and schools. Armed Black people formed their own defense in Bennettsville, South Carolina , and patrolled
11004-419: The first jurisdiction to grant voting rights to women . In 1875, California swore in the first Hispanic governor, Republican Romualdo Pacheco . Many of the founders of the GOP joined the liberal movement , as did many powerful newspaper editors. They nominated Horace Greeley for president, who also gained the Democratic nomination, but the ticket was defeated in a landslide. The depression of 1873 energized
11135-488: The first six months of the Association's national recruitment campaign, Klan membership had increased by 85,000. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization's membership ranged from three to eight million members. In 1923, Simmons was ousted as leader of the KKK by Hiram Wesley Evans . From September 1923 there were two Ku Klux Klan organizations: the one founded by Simmons and led by Evans with its strength primarily in
11266-602: The form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK name. They have focused on opposition to the civil rights movement , often using violence and murder to suppress activists. This manifestation is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center . As of 2016 , the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership nationwide at around 3,000, while
11397-431: The government should be used to reduce social sins, such as drinking. Liturgical churches ( Roman Catholics , German Lutherans , and Episcopalians ) comprised over a quarter of the vote and wanted the government to stay out of the morality business. Prohibition debates and referendums heated up politics in most states over a period of decade as national prohibition was finally passed in 1919 (repealed in 1933), serving as
11528-541: The high number of veterans in the population, but also to their effort to control the dramatically changed social situation by using extrajudicial means to restore white supremacy. In 1866, Mississippi governor William L. Sharkey reported that disorder, lack of control, and lawlessness were widespread; in some states armed bands of Confederate soldiers roamed at will. The Klan used public violence against Black people and their allies as intimidation. They burned houses and attacked and killed Black people , leaving their bodies on
11659-446: The last three southern states. The region then became the Solid South , giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats through 1964. Back in the late 19th century, when Senate Republicans pushed hard for civil rights, the GOP had a reputation for supporting minorities such as black people. Black people generally identified with the GOP until the 1930s. Every African American who served in
11790-470: The late 1860s, assaulted and murdered politically active Black people and their allies in the South . The second iteration of the Klan originated in the late 1910s, and was the first to use cross burnings and white-hooded robes. The KKK of the 1920s had a nationwide membership in the millions and reflected a cross-section of the native-born white English-speaking and Protestant population. The third Klan formed in
11921-626: The lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from St. Louis and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize the Party in the southern states. On September 20, 1854 a "People's Convention" was held in Aurora, IL at the First Congregational Church to discuss slavery. L.D. Brady was elected chairman of that first Republican convention. It was a representative gathering of 208 delegates who had been selected for
12052-517: The leaders of churches and community groups, because these people had many roles in society. Agents of the Freedmen's Bureau reported weekly assaults and murders of Black people. "Armed guerrilla warfare killed thousands of Negroes; political riots were staged; their causes or occasions were always obscure, their results always certain: ten to one hundred times as many Negroes were killed as whites." Masked men shot into houses and burned them, sometimes with
12183-508: The left-center of the Republican Party. He explained his balancing act: Disagreements on tariffs were pulling the party apart. Roosevelt tried to postpone the issue, but Taft had to meet it head on in 1909 with the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act . Eastern conservatives led by Nelson W. Aldrich wanted high tariffs on manufactured goods (especially woolens), while Midwesterners called for low tariffs. Aldrich outmaneuvered them by lowering
12314-567: The liturgical churches ( Roman Catholic , Episcopal and German Lutheran ) largely rejected the moralism of the Republican Party; most of their adherents voted Democratic. William Gienapp argues that the great realignment of the 1850s began before the Whig party collapse, and was caused not by politicians but by voters at the local level. The central forces were ethno-cultural, involving tensions between pietistic Protestants versus liturgical Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians regarding Catholicism, prohibition, and nativism. Anti-slavery did play
12445-415: The mid 20th century, largely as a reaction to the growing civil rights movement . It used murder and bombings to achieve its aims. All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society, and are all considered far-right extremist organizations. In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both allies and enemies. The first Klan, established in
12576-460: The militia against the Klan in 1870, adding to his unpopularity. This and extensive violence and fraud at the polls caused the Republicans to lose their majority in the state legislature. Disaffection with Holden's actions contributed to white Democratic legislators impeaching him and removing him from office, but their reasons for doing so were numerous. History of the Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party , also known as
12707-455: The most from any one political party. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery Southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the 1852 election , where Whig candidate Winfield Scott
12838-458: The occupants still inside. They drove successful Black farmers off their land. "Generally, it can be reported that in North and South Carolina, in 18 months ending in June 1867, there were 197 murders and 548 cases of aggravated assault." Klan violence worked to suppress Black voting, and campaign seasons were deadly. More than 2,000 people were killed, wounded, or otherwise injured in Louisiana within
12969-453: The only objects of the Klan", according to Albert Stevens in 1907. The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski. The origins of the hood are uncertain; it may have been appropriated from the Spanish capirote hood, or it may be traced to the uniform of Southern Mardi Gras celebrations. According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there
13100-615: The party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself. Foreign affairs seldom became partisan issues (except for the annexation of Hawaii , which Republicans favored and Democrats opposed). Much more salient were cultural issues. The GOP supported the pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists , Congregationalists , Presbyterians , and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded prohibition . That angered wet Republicans, especially German Americans , who broke ranks in 1890–1892, handing power to
13231-625: The prohibition on slavery in territory north of 36° 30′ latitude that had been part of the Missouri Compromise . This change was viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. Chase . The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican"
13362-461: The purpose of forming an anti-slavery party. The name "Republican" was adopted at this convention together with a platform that formed the basis of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The new Republican Party envisioned modernizing the United States, emphasizing expanded banking, more railroads and factories, and giving free western land to farmers ("free soil") as opposed to letting slave owners buy up
13493-512: The radical right-wing's perception of the Klan as outdated and unfashionable. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that between 2016 and 2019, the number of Klan groups in America dropped from 130 to just 51. A 2016 report by the Anti-Defamation League claims an estimate of just over 30 active Klan groups existing in the United States. Estimates of total collective membership range from about 3,000 to 8,000. In addition to its active membership,
13624-581: The repeal of laws enabling slaveholding in free territories and "resistance by Constitutional means of Slavery in any Territory", defense of anti-slavery individuals in Kansas who were coming under physical attack, and a call to "resist and overthrow the present National Administration" of Franklin Pierce , "as it is identified with the progress of the Slave power to national supremacy". Its first national nominating convention
13755-515: The roads. At an 1867 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee , Klan members gathered to try to create a hierarchical organization with local chapters eventually reporting to a national headquarters. Since most of the Klan's members were veterans, they were used to such military hierarchy, but the Klan never operated under this centralized structure. Local chapters and bands were highly independent. Former Confederate brigadier general George Gordon developed
13886-659: The scapegoat and the heretic." It preached "One Hundred Percent Americanism" and demanded the purification of politics, calling for strict morality and better enforcement of Prohibition . Its official rhetoric focused on the threat of the Catholic Church , using anti-Catholicism and nativism . Its appeal was directed exclusively toward white Protestants; it opposed Jews, Black people, Catholics, and newly arriving Southern and Eastern European immigrants such as Italians , Russians , and Lithuanians , many of whom were Jewish or Catholic. Some local groups threatened violence against rum runners and those they deemed "notorious sinners";
14017-407: The south and northern states; it was funded by initiation fees and selling its members a standard white costume. The chapters did not have dues. It used K-words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others. It rapidly declined in the latter half of the 1920s. The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after 1950, in
14148-516: The south with free states, free territories, and free waters, building what they called a 'cordon of freedom' around slavery, hemming it in until the system's own internal weaknesses forced the slave states one by one to abandon slavery. The Republican Party launched its first national organizing convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1856. This gathering elected a governing National Executive Committee and passed resolutions calling for
14279-565: The southern United States, and a breakaway group led by Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson based in Evansville, Indiana with its membership primarily in the midwestern United States. Internal divisions, criminal behavior by leaders – especially Stephenson's conviction for the abduction, rape, and murder of Madge Oberholtzer – and external opposition brought about a collapse in the membership of both groups. The main group's membership had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930. It finally faded away in
14410-464: The state. A riot and massacre occurred in a Meridian, Mississippi , courthouse, from which a Black state representative escaped by fleeing to the woods. The 1871 Civil Rights Act allowed the president to suspend habeas corpus . In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed Butler's legislation. The Ku Klux Klan Act and the Enforcement Act of 1870 were used by the federal government to enforce
14541-399: The streets to protect their homes. National sentiment gathered to crack down on the Klan, even though some Democrats at the national level questioned whether the Klan really existed, or believed that it was a creation of nervous Southern Republican governors. Many southern states began to pass anti-Klan legislation. In January 1871, Pennsylvania Republican senator John Scott convened
14672-469: The support of black Republicans in the South, and defeated Roosevelt there. Roosevelt led many (but not most) of his delegates to bolt out of the convention and created a new party (the Progressive , or "Bull Moose" ticket), in the election of 1912 . Few party leaders followed him except Hiram Johnson of California. Roosevelt had the support of many notable women reformers, including Jane Addams. During
14803-507: The tariff on farm products, which outraged the farmers. The great battle over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 ripped the Republicans apart and set up the realignment in favor of the Democrats. Insurgent Midwesterners led by George Norris revolted against the conservatives led by Speaker Cannon. The Democrats won control of the House in 1910 as the GOP rift between insurgents and conservatives widened. In 1912, Roosevelt broke with Taft, rejected Robert M. La Follette , and tried for
14934-530: The treatment of ex-Confederates and of former slaves, or freedmen . Johnson broke with the Radical Republicans and formed a loose alliance with moderate Republicans and Democrats. A showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866 , in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto. Johnson was impeached by the House , but acquitted by
15065-495: The violent episodes generally took place in the South. The Red Knights were a militant group organized in opposition to the Klan and responded violently to Klan provocations on several occasions. The second Klan was a formal fraternal organization , with a national and state structure. During the resurgence of the second Klan in the 1920s, its publicity was handled by the Southern Publicity Association . Within
15196-497: The wake of the Civil War , was a defining organization of the Reconstruction era . Federal law enforcement began taking action against it around 1871. The Klan sought to overthrow Republican state governments in the South, especially by using voter intimidation and targeted violence against African-American leaders. The Klan was organized into numerous independent chapters across the Southern United States. Each chapter
15327-454: The war, upper-middle-class men in major cities formed Union Leagues to promote and help finance the war effort. Following the 1864 elections, Radical Republicans Led by Charles Sumner in the Senate and Thaddeus Stevens in the House set the agenda by demanding more aggressive action against slavery and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Under Republican congressional leadership,
15458-949: The women's suffrage movement. McKinley was the first President to promote pluralism , arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups. The new Jewish element of the party favored socialism. In 1898, the first Jewish U.S. Senator elected from outside of the former Confederacy was Republican Joseph Simon of Oregon . Progressive leaders included President Theodore Roosevelt , Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. , Senator Hiram Johnson in California, Senator George W. Norris in Nebraska, Senator Bronson M. Cutting in New Mexico, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin in Montana and Senator William Borah in Idaho. The first important reform mayor
15589-422: Was Hazen S. Pingree of Detroit (1890–1897), who was elected Governor of Michigan in 1896. In New York City , the Republicans joined nonpartisan reformers to battle Tammany Hall and elected Seth Low (1902–1903). Golden Rule Jones was first elected mayor of Toledo as a Republican in 1897, but was reelected as an independent when his party refused to renominate him. Many Republican civic leaders, following
15720-455: Was a gradual transformation. ... The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all—that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do." The KKK had no organizational structure above the chapter level. However, there were similar groups across
15851-507: Was a tax on the little man. It had greatest support in the Northeast, and greatest opposition in the South and West. The Midwest was the battle ground. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Panic of 1893 . He denounced William Jennings Bryan , the Democratic nominee, as a dangerous radical whose plans for "Free Silver" at 16–1 (or Bimetallism ) would bankrupt
15982-458: Was allowed. The realignment was powerful because it forced voters to switch parties, as typified by the rise and fall of the Know-Nothings, the rise of the Republican Party, and the splits in the Democratic Party. The election of Lincoln as president in 1860 opened a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial North and agricultural Midwest. The Third Party System was dominated by
16113-584: Was autonomous and highly secretive about membership and plans. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and pointed hats , designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities. The second Klan started in 1915 as a small group in Georgia . It suddenly started to grow after 1920 and flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West . Taking inspiration from D. W. Griffith 's 1915 silent film The Birth of
16244-865: Was burned. The group is also suspected in the disappearance and murder of a black employee of the Shamrock Motel, Joseph Edwards. Some members of local law enforcement, including Concordia Parish Sheriff Department deputies Frank DeLaughter and Bill Ogden, were members of the Silver Dollar Group. In 2007, Silver Dollar Group member James Ford Seale was charged and convicted for the May 1964 kidnapping of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore , two black young men in Meadville, Mississippi . Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan ( / ˌ k uː k l ʌ k s ˈ k l æ n , ˌ k j uː -/ ), commonly shortened to
16375-493: Was elected Governor of New York and immediately became a likely presidential candidate. Most of the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky . During the Civil War , the party passed major legislation in Congress to promote rapid modernization , including a national banking system , high tariffs , the first income tax , many excise taxes , paper money issued without backing (" greenbacks "),
16506-489: Was founded atop Stone Mountain , Georgia, by William Joseph Simmons . While Simmons relied on documents from the original Klan and memories of some surviving elders, the revived Klan was based significantly on the wildly popular film The Birth of a Nation . The earlier Klan had not worn the white costumes and had not burned crosses; these aspects were introduced in Thomas Dixon 's book The Clansman: A Historical Romance of
16637-518: Was held in June 1856 in Philadelphia . John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 behind the slogan "Free soil, free silver, free men, Frémont and victory!" Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in
16768-555: Was more successful in Court, bringing antitrust suits that broke up the Northern Securities Company trust and Standard Oil . Roosevelt moved to the left in his last two years in office, but was unable to pass major Square Deal proposals. He did succeed in naming his successor, Secretary of War William Howard Taft , who easily defeated Bryan again in the 1908 presidential election . By 1907, Roosevelt identified himself with
16899-482: Was prominent in many cities. Writer W. J. Cash , in his 1941 book The Mind of the South characterized the second Klan as "anti-Negro, anti-Alien, anti-Red, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-Darwin, anti-Modern, anti-Liberal, Fundamentalist, vastly Moral, [and] militantly Protestant. And summing up these fears, it brought them into focus with the tradition of the past, and above all with the ancient Southern pattern of high romantic histrionics, violence and mass coercion of
17030-426: Was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near Jackson, Michigan , on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took
17161-520: Was trounced by Franklin Pierce . Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president Zachary Taylor , had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slaveowner, had proved notably anti-slave after campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support, and the loss of votes in the North to the Free Soil Party , Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest
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