general. This was a major downfall for the southern males who did not like the idea of.
African Americans being granted the right to vote. These happenings were what led to the.
creation of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1870 Benjamin Butler, a Radical Republican and a Congressman, and others,.
urged President Ulysses S. Grant to take some sort of governmental action against the.
KKK. Ulysses took action. He instigated an investigation on the Klan. The Grand Jury.
Reported one year later, "There has existed since 1868, in many counties of the state, an.
organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, or Invisible Empire of the South, which.
embraces in its membership a large proportion of the white population of every profession.
and class. The Klan has a constitution and bylaws, which provides, among other things,.
that each member shall furnish himself with a pistol, a Ku Klux gown and a signal instru ¬.
ment. The operations of the Klan are executed in the night and are invariably directed.
against members of the Republican Party. The Klan is inflicting summary vengeance on the.
colored citizens of these citizens by breaking into their houses at the dead of night,.
dragging them from their beds, torturing them in the most inhuman matter, and in many.
instances murdering.""2.
After this Congress passed the Ku Klux Act. This Act gave the President the.
power to interfere in troubled states, and the authority to suspend the writ of habeas.
corpus. Ulysses S. Grant used these means many times, but since white supremacy was.
now in full swing in the South the Klan disappeared as quickly as it had come into focus. .
The Klan was pretty much in a dormant state from 1871 until 1915. A man by the.
name of William J. Simmons rejuvenated the Klan after being inspired by The Ku Klux.
Klan by Thomas Dixon, and the film Birth of a Nation directed by D. W. Griffin. Nothing.
really became of this rebirthed Klan until after the first Word War. His direction of hatred.