The Beginning
The Ku Klux Klan originated in the South in the late 1800s. Led by confederate who's man goal was to prevent slaves from exercising their new acquired rights, but it didn't last long as the Confederates stopped after only three years. Almost fifty years later however the Klan returned and this time meant business.
The Ku Klux Klan wanted to have a major impact. The Klan wanted to impact American society, beliefs, and rights. In Atlanta a man named William Joseph Simmons led a dozen men up a rocky trail on the imposing granite crest of stone mountain. Simmons ignited a pine cross that light up the Georgia sky. With a bible in his hand, Simmons led the men in a vow of allegiance to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. (Streitmatter109) This ceremony began the resurrection of the KKK as in the next decade it inflamed into a nationwide organization. The KKK offered people a sense of fraternity,and a commitment to self defined traditional American values. The KKK really showed they were a force to be reckoned with when one of their members were elected to U.S.Senate in Texas, a Governor in Oregon,and won a senate race in Colorado.
Taking Over
After Simmons revived the klan in 1915 his followers remained quite low until 1920 when two promoters recognized that the klan was a financial gold mind. Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler persuaded Simmons to pay them one-fourth of the ten dollar each new member paid an arrangement's that ultimatley yielded the recruiters a sum of $30,000 a week. (Streitmatter 111)With Clarke's ambition and Tyler's creativity the Ku Klux Klan had up to four million members by 1924. Clarke and Tyler urged their recruiters to fill their rhetoric with loaded phrases such as "pure women hood, "100 percent Americans, and "the tenets of the religion Christian religion".(Streitmatter 111) Ku Klux Klan recruiters were also promised better schools, improved law enforcement, and hold fast to traditional values being threatened by social permissive Roaring Twenties.
The World Takes Issue
The first and most comprehensive journalistic crusade in defiance of the Klan was the New York World. The New York World promoted its September 1921 blockbuster with full ads that screamed "Ku KLux Klan Exposed!"(Streitmatter 112. The opening article stated that the Klans growth as a financial scam had stolen over forty million dollars in initiation fees. However the Worlds editors later found out that their plan to kill the KKK backfired as they gave them free publicity and informed potential Klan members of the Klans acts and published copies of the Klans application form.
The Commerical Appeal
The next major battlefield in the Klan- newspaper was unfolded in 1923in Memphis, where Ku KLux Klan membership exceeded 10,000. (Streitmatter 115). The editorial page condemned the Klans use of vigilante violence as a means of terrorizing the city's African Americans, Catholics, and Jews. The most affective thing The Commercial Appeal did was have bruising front page cartoons that portrayed the Klansman as cowards hiding behind masks. The Commercial Appeal played a huge role in the Memphis elections as Mayor Rowllett Paine won the election over the Klans W. Joe Wood.
The End of The KKK
The Montgomery Adviser had a huge role in shutting down the KKK.Editor Grover Cleveland Hall wanted to encourage a state law
to be passed that prohibited people from wearing masks and disguises in public
places and make it a felony for men that were disguised to attack citizens of
Alabama. Hall wanted this law to be passed because of the KKK's violent crimes
of physical punishment to people just because of their skin color or religion
and in some cases just because of their gambling and drinking habits.
The Ku Klux Klan was a very powerful organiztaion. Having its members in The United States Senate. Journalism helped put it to bed. The New York World, The commercial Appeal, and The Montgomery Advertiser all had a role in shutting down the KKK. We still live in a world where there is some racisicim but everyone needs to wake up. Its 2012 we have an African American President, and we are all equal.
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