Ku Klux Klan

            
             On Sunday, September 15, 1963, a white man was seen getting out of a white and .
             turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist .
             Church. Soon afterwards, at 10:22 a.m., the box exploded, killing four girls attending .
             Sunday school classes at the church. Twenty-three other people were also hurt by the .
             explosion. A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the KKK, as the man who .
             placed the bomb under the steps. Sadly, this and various other violent acts were .
             performed by the Ku Klux Klan, a White supremacy organization in the United States. The .
             Klan used terrorist tactics to oppose civil rights for Blacks, Jews, and other ethnic, racial, .
             social or religious groups. These tactics brought about a new and ongoing era of racism.
             This new era began in 1865, just after the Civil War. President Lincoln .
             had abolished slavery, but some whites, who saw Negroes as nothing more than animals, .
             feared that the free Negroes would take revenge, and possibly take their jobs (Evolution). .
             This fear and bitterness increased and caused racism to rise to a whole new level.
             The first chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was established in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six former .
             Confederate army officers. In April of 1867 the extent and purpose of the plan .
             materialized, when "Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General, was elected the first .
             Grand Wizard of the Klan" (Freise). Forrest helped organize the KKK into a unit that .
             stood in direct opposition to the Republican Congress. Under Forrester's leadership, the .
             Klan immediately spread throughout the South. .
             In the beginning, most Klansmen were hand picked by existing members. The .
             members were forced to take oaths against liquor, sensuality, and gambling. The oath also .
             prohibited them from revealing their identity of being a member. In addition to this moral .
             code, they had to follow the Christian "flag" and maintain the dignity of the South .