Summary

Chapter Seven details the origins and evolution of the Ku Klux Klan. This hate group started out as a social club of ex-Confederate soldiers who modeled themselves on the Greek fraternities that were popping up on college campuses. However, members of the Democratic Party took over this group in order to take power from the Republicans and keep blacks in their place in the post-slavery period. The Klan and their political allies quickly learned that violence and terror were the best strategies to meet their goals. They burned down houses and drove opponents out of the state. They stabbed, flogged, and murdered blacks. In one extreme incident they shot a black woman and her five children. The Klan leaders defended their murderous tactics by claiming that they were keeping order in a turbulent society that had been ravaged by war. Chaos reigned throughout the...