White Terror and Racial Violence

The reading dealt with a positive reconstruction act as well a counter productive act in the southern states.  This deals with the right for African-Americans to vote, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in response to these new African-American rights.  African-Americans not only began voting, but started running for political office in some states.  The Ku Klux Klan used terror and violence to force the African-Americans to do what they wanted.  The Klan believed that if the African-Americans were going to vote, then they were going to vote in the direction that the Ku Klux Klan wanted them to vote.

The reading goes on to tell stories of the Klan terrorizing African-Americans.  These stories include reports from the Nashville Union and Dispatch, as well as the testimonies of several African-American citizens.  One story from the dispatch writes about the phenomena of “Ku Klux Fever” whereas people had the opportunity to purchase Ku Klux music, Ku Klux hats, and even genuine Ku Klux Klan Knives.  The testimony of Isham Buckhalter explains that the Ku Klux came to his house and terrorized his family while demanding Isham give them his republican political tickets.  Isham goes on to admit that he was fearful for his life, and that he believed that the Ku Klux Klan were going around scaring people in order to make them vote a certain way.

These events are another example of American hypocrisy.  It is disgusting to think that people used the Ku Klux Klan in terms of marketing for business.  This proved that not only were the people of the United States singled minded, but they were also supporting the objectification of the African-Americans just as the British had done to use only a short time before. One of the great outcries if the American Revolution was about not having any representation, but now we are doing the same thing to our American brothers and sisters.  This impacted the country in different ways.  Some people saw the hypocrisy and believed that what they were doing was wrong on every level.  Other people supported the Ku Klux Klan, not truly understanding the severity of crimes that they were committing.

It is unfortunate how much impact these events had in the past because of the fact that we still continue to fight a battle of racism and discrimination in the world we live in today.  It is mind-boggling to try to comprehend how single-minded some people can be.  Not only in the past when these events happened, but today as well.  People were, and to a certain extent, still are, not willing to accept the idea that all people should have the same freedom and liberty that we demanded from the British during the American Revolution.

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