US History

U.S. History Study Guide

©2018 of 194 14.14 The Rise of the KKK Working to overturn the Fifteenth Amendment was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), founded in 1866 in Tennessee and operating in all Southern states by 1868. Originally founded as a social club for former Confederate soldiers, the Klan evolved into a terrorist organization. It would be responsible for thousands of deaths, the violence in the South targeted African Americans and Republicans, weakening the reconstructive reform. One of the first Klan leaders, or "Grand Wizard," was Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been a Confederate general during the Civil War. Leading up to the 1868 presidential election, the Klan's ruthlessly attacked Republicans and African Americans in the South. They used violence and intimidation to try and put a Democrat in office, but their plan backfired. Northerners flocked to the ballot boxes and Grant won. Northerners realized that harsher laws would have to be passed in order to stop the violence against Southern African Americans. 14.15 Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 and the Klu Klux Klan Act 1871 In 1870, to protect Black suffrage and to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress passed the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871, which protected African American voters. Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 to authorize the president to use federal troops and emergencymeasures to overthrow the Klan. With the immense support of the Klan in the South, arrests were near impossible. The financial panic of 1873 would then divert the North's attention from issues in the South to the Economy. In 1882 the United States Supreme Court would declare the Ku Klux Klan Act unconstitutional, and the Klan would build power, eventually dominating politics in the 1920s. 14.16 Reconstructed Governments in the New South The Republican Party dominated Reconstruction governments in the South, all Southern Reconstruction constitutions guaranteed universal male suffrage, and Louisiana and South Carolina even opened public schools to African Americans. To fund these new schools and other social programs, state governments raised state taxes and accumulated steep debt. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers People opposing Reconstruction accused these new Southern governments of being corrupt. Many of them were, and did take bribes and exchanged favors for votes. Democrats called the Southern moderates who cooperated with Republicans scalawags, and labeled the Northern opportunists carpetbaggers (a derogatory title meant to suggest that the Northerners came to the South just to gain easy political power and wealth through bribes). Led by Democratic politicians, the Ku Klux Klan attacked and even murdered many of these “scalawags,” “carpetbaggers,” and other political leaders. Achieve Page 185