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 .