Anti-Immigration and the KKK

							Anti-Immigration and the KKK


    Created by Heather Dorey
     Hohokam Middle School
           Tucson, AZ
 "Our unity is threatened by hordes of
immigrants . . . who bring foreign ideas
 and ideals into our land," he intones.
  "Two things must be done: first, we
 must stop influx of foreigners; second,
 we must through education, bring all
 people to common program of acting
             and thinking."
         How did the KKK begin?
• Began in Pulaski,
    Tennessee in 1866 by
    former Confederate
    veterans as a social club
•   Focused on the ideas of
    white supremacy and
    opposition towards
    Reconstruction
•   Attempted to control
    freedmen through threats
    and violence
    Second Era Begins - 1915
• KKK resurfaces under the leadership of
  William J. Simmons and a renewed sense
  of nativism
• This new Klan spread from the south into
  the rest of America
• Focused not just on African-Americans but
  anyone who was “un-American” including
  immigrants, Jews, and Roman Catholics.
William J. Simmons, Imperial Wizard
• Membership grew to
    between 2 and 5
    million people
•   Included ordinary,
    “respectable”, white
    middle class Americans
•   Film “Birth of a Nation”
    is released in 1915
    showing the KKK as
    America’s savior
• In 1924, writer Stanley Frost wrote the
 following about the KKK:
  – “The Ku Klux Klan has become the most
    vigorous, active, and effective organization in
    American life outside business.”
In 1925, more than 25,000 KKK members
  marched in Washington, D.C.
1925 KKK Manual
• Purpose:
"To unite white male persons, native-born, Gentile citizens of
the United States of America, who owe no allegiance of any
nature or degree to any foreign government, nation,
institution, sect, ruler, person, or people; whose morals are
good; whose reputations and vocations are respectable;
whose habits are exemplary; who are of sound minds and
eighteen years or more of age, under a common oath into a
brother hood of strict regulations."
End of the 2nd Era - 1930

• Corruption amongst Klan leaders and
  the Great Depression caused the
  organization to slow down but they
  never went away
• Regained strength once again during
  the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s
  and 1960s, membership about 20,000
Ku Klux Klan Today
• Once again gaining strength
• Focus: immigration, gay marriage, and urban
  crime




• http://www.kkk.bz/
• http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Extremism_72/4973_72.htm