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historian Clarence e Walker described the Ku Klux Klan is one

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of the original American terrorist organizations. well the KKK figured

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literacy political equality and any kind of advancement for black people was a [books stacked between two men of different colors]

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loss to white. the klan did the only logical thing and dressed up like ghosts

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and terrorized african-americans. and they weren't alone several other hate

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groups formed during the Reconstruction. there were the Knights of the white

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camellia and also the red shirts. and not the ones from Star Trek to do stupid

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things and die. led by prominent members of every community the KKK used

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Horiffic violence to intimidate blacks and whites sympathizers. all this to

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undermine reconstruction so that the experiment would fail and black

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Americans would never again be given the same chances. insert evil laugh here. well

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in one famous crime Klansmen kidnapped and whipped Georgia representative Abram

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Colby for three hours in 1869. scarily cases like this were pretty common with

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white men practically lining up to whip and burn black men tied to rocks. white

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women participated by sewing the white robes and hoods the Klansmen used as

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disguises. it was like Halloween but not cute at all. here's something funny. even [KKK costume pictured]

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though the clans goal was to end reconstruction they actually ended up

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making it last longer. How's that for irony? long story short kkk gave Republicans a

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reason to pass even harsher acts. federal district attorney's ended up with the

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power to prosecute anybody who tried to stand in a way of black taking advantage

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of their new rights. and then president ulysses s grant came on the scene with

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smackdown.

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grant sent federal marshals into the south to arrest hundreds of Klansmen

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trying to bring an end to an organized terrorism in the south. but the Klan just

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kept on going between 1868 and 1871 clan members went on a killing spree

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murdering over a hundred fifty people in the plantation County of Jackson Florida.

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their victims included black leaders and a Jewish merchant named Samuel Fleishman,

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who was known for dealing fairly with black customers. and in 1871 they were

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hungry for more murdering ,30 blacks and a white republican judge in Meridian

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Mississippi. the grand finale for their killer show occurred two years later in [Mississippi on the map]

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colfax Louisiana. white stormed the entire town with a cannon. seriously a

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cannon. hundreds of free people were murdered including 50 black militiamen

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who had already surrendered .we'd like to say that the KKK is now ancient history,

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so their domestic terrorism activities are drastically reduced from the bad old

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days there are still KKK related incidents in the south and even some in

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the north and the whole skinhead movement is alive and well. it looks like

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some ghosts never go away. [man wearing KKK hood lounges on the couch]

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