White supremacists in the United States

Sociology-Politics

White Supremacy

This is a paper on the Ku Klux Klan. There are four references used for this paper.

There are a number of groups across the country which weld political power. It is important to look at the while supremacy group, the Ku Klux Klan, and determine its political power.

Political Power

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was "established in 1867 and its main objective was to maintain white supremacy in the South, which they felt was under threat after their defeat in the Civil War (www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlynching.htm)." When the organization was formed, "their activities served for the Democratic party and attacked Republicans (www.learntoquestion.com/vclass/seevak/groups/2001/sites/dees/back)."

The Klan was a strong political power during the 1920s. They "successfully elected three U.S. senators, eleven governors and half of the 1924 Indiana state legislature. Its focus on Americanism, patriotism and Protestant morality appealed to thousands of mainstream Americans, and it suggested that President Warren G. Harding had been inducted into the Klan. The Klan pushed anti-alien legislation, worked to demand more federal aid to public schools and sought to reform municipalities in order to rid them of vice and corruption (mcel.pacificu.edu/history/dept/students/Theses2003/mclain/mclain)."

Over the years, the Klan has been destroyed a number of times, such as in when white Republicans broke up the Klan in the 1870s, only to reemerge strongly during times of civil rights movements. While " resurgence of support for the Klan was manifest in the surprising popularity in the early 1990s of David Duke in Louisiana, actual membership in Klan organizations is estimated to be in the low thousands (Unknown)." The "Ku Klux Klan still exists and holds power today. They are responsible for many attacks and killings of blacks, immigrants, Jews and Catholics (www.learntoquestion.com/vclass/seevak/groups/2001/sites/dees/back)."