LUSANE 1

Rocky Lusane
Buchanan Watson
EH.102-151
April 27, y

THE KKK
Home grown terrorism
The Ku Klux Klan is a hate group that has terrorized anyone who looks or feels different

from them for many years. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee and

spread like a wildfire into most southern states by 1870. It was founded by a group of

Confederate veterans to stop the federal governments progressive Reconstruction in the South,

especially the ones centering around the lives of African-Americans and their newfound freedom

from being slaves. The Klansmen platform was and still is white superiority. The South was their

“invisible empire,” and the “realms,” was the southern states. A “grand dragon” headed each of

the realms and the entire “empire” was led by the Grand Wizard. The Klan wore white pointed

hooded robes because they thought African Americans were very superstitious and would

become intimidated by them. The hooded robes also maintained the Klansmen’s identities while

they went on “raids.” Raids were the whippings, house burnings, kidnappings, lynching, and etc

that the Ku Klux Klan did(Andryszewski p8). Today although the Klansmen still wear the white

robes it is more for tradition than into hiding their identities. This was the first rise of the

Klansmen.

The Ku Klux Klan had many other rising but the biggest one was in the 1960s during the

Civil Rights movements. In 1963, the Klan bombed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in

Birmingham, Alabama, they killed four young girls. Less than a year later, three civil right

workers were killed in Mississippi. (Greenhaw)

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Today, the Ku Klux Klan is still relevant and active in modern society. They recently had a

rally in Charlottesville,Virginia on August 12, 2017 that went terribly wrong and resulted in the

death of a woman named Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. This shows that the Klan is still

an active organization that needs to be stopped.

In this proposal I will discuss why the Ku Klux Klan should be deemed a terrorist

origination and therefore should be nonexistent. I will show their violence and how they induce

terror, compare them to other terrorist organizations, show examples of terrorist organizations

that have been disbanded and the steps used to disband them. Terrorism is the use of violence, or

the threat of violence, to frighten or intimidate and to move people to take actions that further the

terrorists' goals. I will give examples of the Ku Klux Klan using their power to harm and

terrorize people who look or think differently from them. As I stated before terrorism is the use

of violence to frighten or intimidate people into looking at you way of things. The Ku Klux Klan

has on many occasions threatened and did violence on many people to get them to leave or to

show their supposed superiority over people who are different than them

In this paper I will use personal experiences. One example is my grandma’s experience

with the Ku Klux Klan. My family tells stories of what they went through to educate us on how

to act and what we went through to get this far. I will tell a few of our stories. Another example I

will use is Charlottesville. I will talk about how the KKK is still relevant today. I plan to use

imagery and facts to support my proposal on why the Ku Klux Klan should be disbanded. I have

on several occasions been called the n word but one stuck out at me it was at night I was going to

Walmart to pick up a new things. This white man looked at me, spit in my face and said watch

out ni*** were out tonight watch yourself. This scared the life out of me I know who “WE” is. I

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ran to my car drove off and when I was sure I wasn’t followed I pulled over and I cried. No one

should live in fear because of who they are.

Another example is my grandma she marched in downtown Montgomery,Al on one side of

the street and on the other was the KKK in their robes and pointed hoods spewing hate throwing

things and shouting derogatory names. This is an example of them abusing their first

amendment. There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate. People have gone to jail

for saying things that were not as bad as what the Ku Klux Klan has spewed in their rallies and

just on the streets.

Freedom of speech is protected in the first amendment of the American Constitution but

there is a certain line that one must know not to cross. Take hate speech for example. Hate

speech is when someone verbally attacks someone based on their gender, race, sexuality, etc.

The KKK does this on numerous occasions. They also threaten people which is also against the

law.

In this paper I also want to elaborate on how I am to get the Ku Klux Klan disbanded. I

would take legal action or through a petition to get people involved in disbanding the KKK. The

Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups are causing a lot of discourse in America right now it would

not be difficult to get a lot of signatures. This will show the government that the American

citizens do not want this group to be active and running. In the legal action angle I will look into

a lot of examples and evidence to show this group is hurting and not helping America and how

this would make America look to other countries. Like in the 60’s with Bloody Sunday everyone

saw how the nonviolent protesters were beat back local, nationally, even internationally. So the

Government had to do something to not make themselves look so bad in front of the other world

leaders because America was supposed to be the land of opportunity and dreams but on

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television people saw “Americans” being beaten almost to death for the right to vote and

equality.

In this proposal I will use different resources to back up my claim on why the Ku Klux

Klan should be disbanded. I will use articles that are peer reviewed, websites that are trust

worthy, the KKK’s own website, personal experiences, interviews, etc. I will use anything to get

my point across on why this hate group is a hinderance and needs to be stopped.

The Ku Klux Klan from the beginning started off as a hate group who's only purpose was

to bring fear into the lives of people who were different than them. From 1865 to today the KKK

has only resulted in death an hate. My proposal will take you through the history, stories, and

ways to get rid of the blotch on American history.

Works Cited

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Andryszewski, Tricia. "Chapter 1: Terrorism in America's Past." Terrorism in America, Lerner

Publishing Group, Jan. 2002, p. 8. EBSCOhost, libproxy.usouthal.edu/login?
url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=9149836&site=eds-live

Ku Klux Klan." Salem Press Encyclopedia, January. EBSCOhost, libproxy.usouthal.edu/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89402990&site=eds-live.

Greenhaw, Wayne. Fighting the Devil in Dixie : How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux
Klan in Alabama. Lawrence Hill Books, 2011. EBSCOhost, libproxy.usouthal.edu/login?
url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=347472&site=eds-live.