The history of the Ku Klux Klan

The KKK was formed as a social club by a group of Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1865 or 1866. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general, was the Klan's first leader, called the Grand Wizard. The group took its name from the Greek word kyklos, meaning circle, and the English word clan.

Klan members, who believed in the superiority of whites, soon began to terrorize blacks to keep them from voting or exercising the other rights they had gained during Reconstruction, the period following the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The Klan threatened, beat, and murdered many blacks and their white sympathizers in the South. To hide their identity, Klan terrorists wore robes and hoods, draped sheets over their horses, and rode at night. The KKK spread rapidly throughout the Southern United States and became known as the Invisible Empire. Its attacks helped drive blacks out of Southern political life. In 1871, Congress passed the Force Bill, which gave the President the authority to use federal troops against the Klan. The KKK soon disappeared.

In 1915, William J. Simmons, a former Methodist clergyman, organized a new Klan in Atlanta, Ga., as a patriotic, Protestant fraternal society. The Klan directed its activities against groups it considered un-American, including blacks, immigrants, Jews, and particularly Roman Catholics.
The KKK grew rapidly and by the mid-1920's had more than 2 million members throughout the country. Some Klan members burned crosses and whipped, tortured, and murdered people whose activities angered them, but most relied on peaceful means. By electing public officials, the Klan became a powerful political force throughout the South and also in many Northern and Western states, including Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, and Oregon. However, public criticism of Klan violence and quarrels among Klan leaders weakened the organization. By the 1930's, only local Klan groups in the South remained strong. The organization died out again in 1944.

     Samuel Green, an Atlanta physician, revived the Klan in 1946. Green died in 1949, and the Klan then split into many competing groups. However, all of the groups opposed racial integration.
     Increased civil rights activities during the 1960's brought a new wave of Klan violence. Klan members were involved in many terrorist attacks, including the killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, and the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in which four black girls were killed. President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe the Klan. Some Klan members were sent to prison, and membership fell to about 5,000 by the early 1970's.
     Beginning in the mid-1970's, new leaders tried to give a more respectable image to competing Klan groups. Some accepted women as members and set up youth groups. The KKK especially appealed to whites who resented both special programs designed to help blacks and job competition from blacks and recent immigrants. Also in the 1970's, it largely abandoned its opposition to Roman Catholics.

Klan membership rose to about 10,000 by 1980. The KKK still attracted people with extreme views who often used violence. In 1979, Klan members and their supporters killed five anti-Klan demonstrators in Greensboro, N.C. Klan members murdered a black youth in Mobile, Ala., in 1981. Since then, declining interest in the Klan and some prosecutions for illegal activities have reduced KKK membership to about 6,000. Most of these members live in the South.

Glossary

Wizard: troldmand

Superiority: overlegenhed

Exercising: udøve

Gained: opnået/fået

Threatened: truede

Whipped: piskede

Angered: ophidsede/gjorde dem vrede

Quarrels: skænderier

Weakened: svækkede

Physician: læge

Revived: genoplivede

During: I løbet af

Respectable: pænere/mere stuerent

Competing: konkurrerende

Prosecutions: tiltaler

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Read the interview with KKK leader Jeff Berry (full version):

http://www.liberator.net/articles/KKKJeffBerry.html

Glossary:

Fraternal: Broderlig, venskablig, velgørende

widows: enker

Disputes: uoverensstemmelser, konflikter

Property: ejendom

Eventually: til sidst, det endte med

Lethal: dødelig

Punishment: afstraffelse

Credibility: troværdighed

Decreed: arvet, vidergivet

Supremacist: overherredømme

Connotation: betydning, association
Dictionary: ordbog
Ashamed: skamfulde, flove
Offended: fornærmede
Provider: forsørger
Accomplished: opnået
Taught: lært
Equal rights: lige rettigheder
Affirmative action: positive særbehandling
Dedicate: tilegne, give sit (liv) for
Trenches: skyttegrave
Interpret: forstå, oversætte
Reverend: præst, forkynder
Hillbillies: bonderøve
Conjure: trylle, fremmane
Citizens: borgere
Welfare: understøttelse (som eks. kontanthjælp)
Equivalent: tilsvarende, det same
Fortunate: heldig

Answer the questions:

1. What does Berry say is the purpose of the Klan?

2. What is equal rights for Berry?

3. What is a typical Klansman according to Berry?

4. What is Barry's view on guns and right-to-carry laws?

5. Is Berry government friendly? what does he think about taxes and welfare?

6. Does the interview with Berry make you change your opinion on the Ku Klux Klan? why/why not?

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This is an original essay of a Klansman, who shows us, how the KKK started persecuting other minorities in the states. In the 1920's the Klan targeted the Roman Catholics and the Jews in stead of African Americans.

http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/108/110605/ch23_a3_d1.pdf

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Black Man Fatally Dragged In a Possible Racial Killing

By CAROL MARIE CROPPER

A black man was dragged to his death on Sunday from the back of a pickup truck in a rural section of Texas known for racist and Klan activity, and today three white men were charged with the murder.

The broken body of James Byrd Jr., 49, was discovered on Sunday morning by residents of an area just outside the East Texas town of Jasper, population 8,000. As he walked home from his parents' house on Saturday night, Mr. Byrd was apparently picked up by the men sometime after midnight and taken to woods, where he was beaten, then chained to the truck and dragged for two miles.

Guy James Gray, the Jasper County District Attorney, called the killing ''probably the most brutal I've ever seen'' in 20 years as a prosecutor. Mr. Byrd's torso was found at the edge of a paved road, his head and an arm in a ditch about a mile away, according to an affidavit.

The police charged Shawn A. Berry, 23, Lawrence R. Brewer, 31, and John W. King, 23, with murder. The District Attorney said Mr. Brewer and Mr. King had racist tattoos and were Ku Klux Klan supporters, leading investigators to believe the killing was racially motivated.

The three were apparently roommates in a Jasper apartment.

R. C. Horn, Mayor of Jasper, said the victim came from a ''beautiful family.'' Mr. Byrd's sisters said he had been on disability and did not have a car but often accepted rides from acquaintances or walked around Jasper, where the number of blacks almost equals that of whites.

Mayor Horn said there had been no unusual racial problems in the town, built on the timber industry. ''Jasper is a city that has a strong bind together, both black and white,'' said Mr. Horn, who is black.

But Gary Bledsoe, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the eastern part of Texas, which includes Jasper, has been considered a problem area and a hotbed of Klan activity for years. He pointed to problems in 1993 integrating a housing project in nearby Vidor, for decades an all-white town, where an avowed white supremacist threatened the first black residents, and teen-agers dressed in sheets confronted black newcomers.

Mr. Bledsoe called for adding kidnapping charges, making the killing a capital crime. He said that he planned to go to Jasper to help the authorities with the investigation and that the N.A.A.C.P. wanted to help organize a community response, like a march or rally.

Mayor Horn said local church leaders were planning a prayer meeting at the courthouse square for Monday night.

According to the police affidavit, items left in the woods and along the dirt logging road where Mr. Byrd was first dragged led officials to the three men charged. One item was a cigarette lighter inscribed with a Klan symbol that the police said they believed belonged to one of the men.

Mr. Berry told the police he had been riding around with the other two men when he saw Mr. Byrd walking and offered him a ride, according to the affidavit. Mr. Byrd and Mr. Berry might have known each other because they had the same parole officer, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Byrd served six years in prison for theft and violating parole. All three suspects have criminal records for offenses including burglary and drug possession and served jail time together.

After Mr. Byrd was picked up, Mr. King became upset and began cursing, Mr. Berry is quoted as saying in the affidavit. The men stopped at a convenience store and then Mr. King drove to the dirt road, saying he was about to scare Mr. Byrd. The other two began to beat the victim, Mr. Berry told the police.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation may charge the three with violating the victim's civil rights, said Al Tribble, an F.B.I. special agent in Houston. The national N.A.A.C.P. is also watching the case, said Jean Hitchcock, acting chief operating officer for the organization, adding, ''We call upon all Americans to stand up and be counted and to condemn this for the heinous crime that it is.''

http://www.racematters.org/nytarchjb161.htm

In 2014 this documentary was made about James Byrd, his life and his death

Due to this horrible crime, the American Congress made a law called The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is a law that protects minorities against hate crimes. read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard_and_James_Byrd,_Jr._Hate_Crimes_Prevention_Act

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A time to kill

Essay assignment:

What is right and what is wrong? Think about the movie “A time to kill”. Why do we feel the father’s actions were right? Would you have done the same? Isn’t it wrong to take the law in your own hands?

Write an essay of 1-1½ page

Send it to engfedskjern@gmail.com

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The death penalty

Write about: : Is the death penalty good or bad? Do you think we should be able to sentence people to death in Denmark?

You have 5 min. Remember you have to read it aloud or post it in the Facebook group for everybody to see.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf

Look at the fact sheet about the death penalty and answer the questions / true or false

For students:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8S3uwhjUjhRQXB5czB5X1Vhb2M/view?usp=sharing

Answer sheet for the teacher:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8S3uwhjUjhRczR5Z0oySDhZVTA/view?usp=sharing

Learn more about the death penalty - look at

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

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Watch the movie "We need to talk about Kevin"

Answer the questions:

1. What is evil?
2. Can a child be evil - can you be born evil?
3. What is a psychopath?
4. Can Kevins mother be blamed for her sons actions?
5. Why do you think he does what he does?
6. What happens to Kevins sister Celie and his father Frank?
7. What is the message Kevin is trying to send?

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School Times online

Oct 2007: Gun violence

Apr 2009: Why so much violence

Mar 2010: Armed and dangerous

Devide the class in three. Read the text in the group