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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 2: Racist Organizations in the U.S. 495 Views
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Description:
When people dress up like ghosts and go on murdering sprees during Reconstruction, who ya gonna call? Well...Ulysses S. Grant, in this case.
Transcript
- 00:00
historian Clarence e Walker described the Ku Klux Klan is one
- 00:07
of the original American terrorist organizations. well the KKK figured
- 00:12
literacy political equality and any kind of advancement for black people was a [books stacked between two men of different colors]
- 00:16
loss to white. the klan did the only logical thing and dressed up like ghosts
- 00:21
and terrorized african-americans. and they weren't alone several other hate
Full Transcript
- 00:26
groups formed during the Reconstruction. there were the Knights of the white
- 00:30
camellia and also the red shirts. and not the ones from Star Trek to do stupid
- 00:35
things and die. led by prominent members of every community the KKK used
- 00:40
Horiffic violence to intimidate blacks and whites sympathizers. all this to
- 00:44
undermine reconstruction so that the experiment would fail and black
- 00:47
Americans would never again be given the same chances. insert evil laugh here. well
- 00:53
in one famous crime Klansmen kidnapped and whipped Georgia representative Abram
- 00:58
Colby for three hours in 1869. scarily cases like this were pretty common with
- 01:04
white men practically lining up to whip and burn black men tied to rocks. white
- 01:09
women participated by sewing the white robes and hoods the Klansmen used as
- 01:13
disguises. it was like Halloween but not cute at all. here's something funny. even [KKK costume pictured]
- 01:19
though the clans goal was to end reconstruction they actually ended up
- 01:22
making it last longer. How's that for irony? long story short kkk gave Republicans a
- 01:27
reason to pass even harsher acts. federal district attorney's ended up with the
- 01:32
power to prosecute anybody who tried to stand in a way of black taking advantage
- 01:36
of their new rights. and then president ulysses s grant came on the scene with
- 01:41
smackdown.
- 01:46
grant sent federal marshals into the south to arrest hundreds of Klansmen
- 01:51
trying to bring an end to an organized terrorism in the south. but the Klan just
- 01:56
kept on going between 1868 and 1871 clan members went on a killing spree
- 02:01
murdering over a hundred fifty people in the plantation County of Jackson Florida.
- 02:05
their victims included black leaders and a Jewish merchant named Samuel Fleishman,
- 02:10
who was known for dealing fairly with black customers. and in 1871 they were
- 02:15
hungry for more murdering ,30 blacks and a white republican judge in Meridian
- 02:19
Mississippi. the grand finale for their killer show occurred two years later in [Mississippi on the map]
- 02:24
colfax Louisiana. white stormed the entire town with a cannon. seriously a
- 02:30
cannon. hundreds of free people were murdered including 50 black militiamen
- 02:35
who had already surrendered .we'd like to say that the KKK is now ancient history,
- 02:40
so their domestic terrorism activities are drastically reduced from the bad old
- 02:44
days there are still KKK related incidents in the south and even some in
- 02:48
the north and the whole skinhead movement is alive and well. it looks like
- 02:52
some ghosts never go away. [man wearing KKK hood lounges on the couch]
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