XII THE KU KLUX MOVEMENT INTRODUCTION THE Ku Klux Movement is the term applied to that mode of opposition to Reconstruction that took the form of secret revolutionary societies. The causes of this movement lay in the disordered conditions, political, social and industrial, that prevailed in the South from the surrender of the Confederate armies until the whites were again in control of the state and local governments. There were scores, perhaps hundreds, of secret protective and revolutionary societies in the South, ranging from small bodies of neighborhood police which were common in 1865 and 1866, to great federated orders like the White Camelia covering the entire South and even extending into the North and West. All of these orders, regardless of their original purposes, were finally found opposing the Reconstructionists. The largest and best known of them were the Ku Klux Klan or the Invisible Empire, the Knights of the White Camelia, the Constitutional Union Guards, the Pale Faces, the White Brotherhood, the Council of Safety, and the '76 Association. After about 1872 most of these orders threw off disguise and appeared openly as the armed whites fighting for control of society. The White League of Louisiana, the White Line of Mississippi, and the Rifle Clubs of South Carolina were of this later manifestation of the Ku Klux Movement. Some of the purposes of the secret organizations can be ascertained from their constitutional documents, but the real purposes varied with the locality. Some local sub divisions were purely protective and were intended only to check the excesses of the blacks; others sought to drive out ignorant, corrupt or violent officials; others acted as regulators of the morals of the public; while in white communities the object was sometimes to keep the negroes from coming in or to drive from the fertile lands the blacks whom slavery had placed there. The most effective work was done in the early period, 1868-1870, by playing upon the superstitious fears of the negroes, thus paralyzing at its source the power of the Radicals. It was in this period that the orders made use of the fantastic disguises and ludicrous methods that later lost their effectiveness and were discarded. The Reconstruction governments naturally sought to crush the orders and stringent statutes were enacted which were seldom enforced because the states were too weak. In 1871 and 1872 the Enforcement laws passed by Congress were directed at the Ku Klux Movement, and while they checked it somewhat and changed its direction, they probably assisted it by causing all disguise to be thrown off and by crushing the outlaws who through use of Ku Klux methods had brought the orders into discredit. The first results of the movement were good; the later ones were both good and bad. The early work of the secret orders quieted the negroes, made life and property safer, gave protection to women, stopped burnings, forced the Radical leaders to be more moderate, made the negroes work better, drove the worst of the Radical leaders from the country and started the whites on the way to regain political supremacy. The evil results were those that always follow such movements: the lawless element inside and outside made use of the organizations as a cloak to cover their misdeeds, until former members united to crush the remnants of the orders; since the law was bad and the people went outside of it for means of protection and regulation the result was the weakening of respect for law and a disposition to settle affairs without recourse to legal methods. The movement lasted under one form or another until the close of Reconstruction, and the lynching habits of today are due largely to conditions, social and legal, growing out of Reconstruction. REFERENCES CAUSES OF THE KU KLUX MOVEMENT: Avary, Dixie after the War, ch. 24; Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution, pp. 250, 252, 259; Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, p. 653; Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi, p. 338; Herbert, Solid South, pp. 193-203; Lester and Wilson, Ku Klux Klan, pp. 23, 27, 30; Phelps, Louisiana, p. 366; Reed, The Brothers' War, pp. xiii, 369, 423; Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 182, 188. EARLY SECRET SOCIETIES: Fleming, p. 657; Lester and Wilson, p. 24. KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE CAMELIA: p. 669; Phelps, p. 367. Avary, ch. 24; Brown, ch. 4; Fleming, CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTS OF THE ORDERS: Fleming, pp. 663, 669; Lester and Wilson, pp. 135-198; Reynolds, p. 179. THE METHODS AND WORK OF THE ORDERS: Avary, ch. 24; Brown; Burgess, p. 251; Fleming, p. 674; Garner, p. 339; Lester and Wilson, pp. 73, 92, 97; Phelps, pp. 367, 376, 379; Reynolds, pp. 184, 189. ANTI-KUKLUX LEGISLATION: Burgess, pp. 255, 257; Fleming, pp. 693, 701; Garner, pp. 342, 343; Herbert, p. 203; Lester and Wilson, p. 114; Reynolds, pp. 191, 196, 202. LATER ORGANIZATIONS: Avary, ch. 24; Fleming, p. 708; Phelps, p. 376; RESULTS OF THE KU KLUX MOVEMENT: Brown, ch. 4; Fleming, p. 689; Garner, p. 353; Lester and Wilson, p. 128; Phelps, pp. 367, 390, 392; Reed, pp. xiii, 369, 423; Reynolds, p. 190. |