Chapter Four Summary and Analysis

In Chapter Four Bartoletti explains that historians believe that the Ku Klux Klan meeting in Nashville at the same time that the Southern Democratic convention met was part of the plan to form a powerful paramilitary organization. The Klan was hoping to be powerful enough to overthrow the Republicans and fight Reconstruction policies. They wrote a creed that sounded patriotic and religious but in reality needed the word white before every instance of the word man. Whites were the superior race and should be in charge of the whole earth. Especially America and the South. Loyalty and secrecy was imperative for the Klan to grow and conquer. It became known as the "Invisible Empire." The members of the group had titles. The Southern States were turned into names like realm and dominion. The Klan was so large it needed...