The South
I've been doing a lot of research on the South for my new project and have read many great books, including Confederates in the Attic, Dixie, and Dixie Rising. But Susan Campbell Bartoletti's They Called Themselves the KKK is a masterful history of the organization that packs many surprises.
Foremost, it provides ample evidence that the roots of today's current political rants of many Tea Partying, extremist reactionaries spring directly from the politics of the Reconstruction. Much of the fear-mongering dialogue is almost verbatim: state's rights, the evils of big government and taxation, fear of minority power stealing jobs, the revisionist history. Much of today's rants never made sense to me until it was connected here. The South hated the Federalists who occupied the South during Reconstruction and had to intervene again after the terror reign of the KKK, in order to ensure the Civil RIghts Act of 1871 and enforce the 14th amendment.
The big shocker is to see that back then, the Republicans were the party of change and civil rights and the Democrats were the reactionary blowhards who looked backwards. How times have changed. That change occurred during Nixon's diabolical Southern Strategy where he convinced those Democrats that white power really lay on the side of the modern day Republican party.
The book is devastating in its simple recounting of the rise of terror that the Klan created and what freedom seeking people had to endure, both black and white. The Civil War may have ended in 1865, but the victories did not begin to take place until 100 years later. The South has come a long ways since, but still the Lost Cause manages to rear its ugly head. With the election of a black President, suddenly, a lot of that ugliness came tumbling out. Racism disguised as rhetoric from birthers or radical Tea Partiers or TV and radio hosts are just one step removed from the vile of the early Klan. As one survivor of the Klan's wrath stated: : "As a general thing, they are an ignorant, illiterate set of men, and they seemed determined to keep everybody else the same."
There are many monuments that are dedicated to Confederate heroes, including one of the original leaders of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest. But there are none to the victims of their crimes...until now. A wonderful book that finally gives voice to the victims and survivors of the Klan War. Amen to that.
Foremost, it provides ample evidence that the roots of today's current political rants of many Tea Partying, extremist reactionaries spring directly from the politics of the Reconstruction. Much of the fear-mongering dialogue is almost verbatim: state's rights, the evils of big government and taxation, fear of minority power stealing jobs, the revisionist history. Much of today's rants never made sense to me until it was connected here. The South hated the Federalists who occupied the South during Reconstruction and had to intervene again after the terror reign of the KKK, in order to ensure the Civil RIghts Act of 1871 and enforce the 14th amendment.
The big shocker is to see that back then, the Republicans were the party of change and civil rights and the Democrats were the reactionary blowhards who looked backwards. How times have changed. That change occurred during Nixon's diabolical Southern Strategy where he convinced those Democrats that white power really lay on the side of the modern day Republican party.
The book is devastating in its simple recounting of the rise of terror that the Klan created and what freedom seeking people had to endure, both black and white. The Civil War may have ended in 1865, but the victories did not begin to take place until 100 years later. The South has come a long ways since, but still the Lost Cause manages to rear its ugly head. With the election of a black President, suddenly, a lot of that ugliness came tumbling out. Racism disguised as rhetoric from birthers or radical Tea Partiers or TV and radio hosts are just one step removed from the vile of the early Klan. As one survivor of the Klan's wrath stated: : "As a general thing, they are an ignorant, illiterate set of men, and they seemed determined to keep everybody else the same."
There are many monuments that are dedicated to Confederate heroes, including one of the original leaders of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest. But there are none to the victims of their crimes...until now. A wonderful book that finally gives voice to the victims and survivors of the Klan War. Amen to that.