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==First KKK==

==First KKK==

[[Image:Artoon.jpg|right|200px|thumb|A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democrat Party as continuations of the Confederacy]]

[[File:Lynch.jpg|thumb|450px|right|The first victims (yellow line) were Republican [[carpetbagger]]s; once they were driven out the Democrats turned on Blacks (blue line).<br>Source: Historical Statistics of the U.S., and is based on the 1952 Negro year Book.]]

The first KKK was an movement of white Southerners who opposed [[Reconstruction]].  It was founded in 1866 by members of the [[Democrat Party]] to inflicting violence against black leaders and white Republicans.<ref>http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan</ref>  One of the founders, and the first "Grand Wizard," was former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  The Klan was broken up by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the U.S. Army using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).  It had disappeared by 1872, although similar violent groups persisted in some localities around the South.

The first KKK was an movement of white Southerners who opposed [[Reconstruction]].  It was founded in 1866 by members of the [[Democrat Party]] to inflicting violence against black leaders and white Republicans.<ref>http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan</ref>  One of the founders, and the first "Grand Wizard," was former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Attempts were made to break up the Klan by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the U.S. Army using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).

 

Republicans stripped [[white]] [[male]]s who engaged in rebellion against the [[United States]] of the [[vote]], and gave it to Blacks. Newly freed Blacks held local, state and federal elected and non-elected positions as Republicans. The white males who were deprived of the vote were also barred from holding any civil service position and were universally Democrats.  This disenfranchisement created enormous resentment among Democrats, so they formed the [[Ku Klux Klan]] to engage in voter intimidation and suppression.

By 1876, the situation had become ungovernable for Republicans.<ref><small>"the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876 by awarding the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (who had lost the popular vote) in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South after the Civil War (which benefited Democrats, who wished to end Reconstruction and return white supremacy to southern state governments)."</small> [https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/gilded-age/a/gilded-age-politics-patronage Gilded Age politics: patronage]. khanacademy.org</ref> The Republicans had been able to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments which guaranteed Blacks basic equality and civil rights, but eventually had to declare an amnesty for whites who engaged in rebellion. Reconstruction ended, and Republicans withdrew from [[social engineering]] which had divided the country so deeply and stirred up such bitterness and hatred among Democrats toward both Blacks and Republicans. Reconstruction earned Republicans the undying [[hatred]] of Democrats.<ref>See for example [https://youtu.be/-yY7g2jOquM James O'Keefe debate with Hairy Hillbilly Hippie] for an example of a partisan Democrat who votes against his own economic interests.</ref><ref>See excerpt from [[Dinesh D'Souza]]'s, ''[https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dinesh-dsouza-the-secret-history-of-the-democratic-party Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party]'', Regnery Publishing, July 18, 2016.</ref>

 

[[African American]]s in the South were left to the mercy of increasingly hostile state governments dominated by white Democratic legislatures; neither the legislatures, law enforcement or the courts worked to protect freedmen.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties|author=Finkelman, Paul|year=2006}}</ref> As [[Democrats]] regained power in the late 1870s, they struggled to suppress black voting through intimidation and fraud at the polls. [[Paramilitary]] groups such as the [[Red Shirts]] acted on behalf of the Democrats to suppress black voting. From 1890 to 1908, 10 of the 11 former Confederate states passed disfranchising constitutions or amendments,<ref>{{cite book|title=Democracy's Privileged Few|author=Chafetz, Joshua Aaron|year=2007}}</ref> with provisions for [[poll tax]]es,<ref name="Klarman, Michael J. 2004">{{cite book|title=From Jim Crow to Civil Rights|author=Klarman, Michael J.|year=2004}}</ref> residency requirements, [[literacy test]]s,<ref name="Klarman, Michael J. 2004"/> and [[grandfather clause]]s that effectively disfranchised most black voters and many poor white people. The disfranchisement also meant that black people could not serve on juries or hold any political office, which were restricted to voters; those who could not vote were excluded from the political system.

==Second KKK: The 1920s==

==Second KKK: The 1920s==