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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.04.16 15:48l 48 Lines 2154 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 91317_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 20
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<F1OYP<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<7M3TJZ<CX2SA<GB7CIP<N0KFQ
Sent: 160420/1340Z 91317@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1871
Ku Klux Act passed by Congress
With passage of the Third Force Act, popularly known as the Ku
Klux Act, Congress authorizes President Ulysses S. Grant to
declare martial law, impose heavy penalties against terrorist
organizations, and use military force to suppress the Ku Klux
Klan (KKK).
Founded in 1865 by a group of Confederate veterans, the KKK
rapidly grew from a secret social fraternity to a paramilitary
force bent on reversing the federal government's progressive
Reconstruction Era-activities in the South, especially policies
that elevated the rights of the local African-American
population. The name of the Ku Klux Klan was derived from the
Greek word kyklos, meaning "circle," and the Scottish-Gaelic word
"clan," which was probably chosen for the sake of alliteration.
Under a platform of philosophized white racial superiority, the
group employed violence as a means of pushing back Reconstruction
and its enfranchisement of African-Americans. Former Confederate
General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the KKK's first grand wizard
and in 1869 unsuccessfully tried to disband it after he grew
critical of the Klan's excessive violence.
Most prominent in counties where the races were relatively
balanced, the KKK engaged in terrorist raids against
African-Americans and white Republicans at night, employing
intimidation, destruction of property, assault, and murder to
achieve its aims and influence upcoming elections. In a few
Southern states, Republicans organized militia units to break up
the Klan. In 1871, passage of the Ku Klux Act led to nine South
Carolina counties being placed under martial law and thousands of
arrests. In 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Ku Klux Act
unconstitutional, but by that time Reconstruction had ended, and
the KKK had faded away.
The 20th century would see two revivals of the KKK: one in
response to immigration in the 1910s and '20s, and another in
response to the African-American civil rights movement of the
1950s and '60s.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-Mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Message timed: 08:38 on Apr 20, 2016
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