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The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is the name of an American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organization and hate group. Various historians, including Fergus Bordewich, have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. There have been three distinct iterations with various targets relative to time and place, including African Americans, Jews, and Catholics.
Kemper County is a county located on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,988. Its county seat is De Kalb. The county is named in honor of Reuben Kemper.
The Colfax massacre, sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the parish seat of Grant Parish. An estimated 62–153 Black men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Three White men also died during the confrontation.
John Tyler Morgan was an American politician who was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and later was elected for six terms as the U.S. Senator (1877–1907) from the state of Alabama. A prominent slaveholder before the Civil War, he became the second Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. Morgan and fellow Klan member Edmund W. Pettus became the ringleaders of white supremacy in Alabama and did more than anyone else in the state to overthrow Reconstruction efforts in the wake of the Civil War. When President Ulysses S. Grant dispatched U.S. Attorney General Amos Akerman to prosecute the Klan under the Enforcement Acts, Morgan was arrested and jailed.
The Redeemers were a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War. Redeemers were the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. They sought to regain their political power and enforce white supremacy. Their policy of Redemption was intended to oust the Radical Republicans, a coalition of freedmen, "carpetbaggers", and "scalawags". They were typically led by White yeomen and dominated Southern politics in most areas from the 1870s to 1910.
This is a partial list of notable historical figures in U.S. national politics who were members of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office. Membership of the Klan is secret. Political opponents sometimes allege that a person was a member of the Klan, or was supported at the polls by Klan members.
John Walter Stephens was an assassinated state senator from North Carolina. He was stabbed and garroted by the Ku Klux Klan on May 21, 1870. This killing began the Kirk–Holden war.
The Camilla massacre took place in Camilla, Georgia, on Saturday, September 19, 1868. African Americans had been given the right to vote in Georgia's 1868 state constitution, which had passed in April, and in the months that followed, whites across the state used violence to combat their newfound political strength, often through the newly founded Ku Klux Klan. Georgia agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau recorded 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill against freedmen from January 1 through November 15.
The Meridian race riot of 1871 was a race riot in Meridian, Mississippi in March 1871. It followed the arrest of freedmen accused of inciting riot in a downtown fire, and blacks' organizing for self-defense. Although the local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter had attacked freedmen since the end of the Civil War, generally without punishment, the first local arrest under the 1870 act to suppress the Klan was of a freedman. This angered the black community. During the trial of black leaders, the presiding judge was shot in the courtroom, and a gunfight erupted that killed several people. In the ensuing mob violence, whites killed as many as 30 blacks over the next few days. Democrats drove the Republican mayor from office, and no person was charged or tried in the freedmen's deaths.
Jim Williams was an African-American soldier and militia leader in the 1860s and 1870s in York County, South Carolina. He escaped slavery during the US Civil War and joined the Union Army. After the war, Williams led a black militia organization which sought to protect black rights in the area. In 1871, he was lynched and hung by members of the local Ku Klux Klan. As a result, a large group of local blacks immigrated to Liberia, West Africa.
James Rufus Bratton (1821–1897) was a medical doctor, army surgeon, civic leader, and leader in the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina with whom he was guilty of committing numerous crimes. Bratton trained in medicine in Philadelphia in the 1840s but spent most of his life in Yorkville, South Carolina. He joined the Confederate Army as an assistant surgeon in April 1861, the opening month of the American Civil War. After the war, he became an opponent of Reconstruction and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He was one of the leaders linked in the lynching and killing of local black leader Jim Williams. This led to a string of violent attacks which eventually led to a large group of York County blacks emigrating to Liberia. Bratton fled to London, Ontario, to escape prosecution, but later was able to return to South Carolina, where he pursued his career in medicine for the remainder of his life.
Junius S. Mobley, also known as June Mobley, was a politician in South Carolina. He was considered an ultra-radical, and was one of South Carolina's 1868 Radical Republican members of the Legislature. He reportedly became a preacher after the Reconstruction era. Mobley was a political leader during the Reconstruction era in South Carolina and was involved in the distribution of ammunition to freedmen. He was part of the Union Brotherhood that replaced the Union League in 1872. Mobley was from Union County, South Carolina. John Schreiner Reynolds wrote about Mobley and other African American legislators in 1905. He was not a fan of Mobley's, and described him as "mulatto" and said he gave incendiary speeches causing bloodshed for the "men of his own race". He also referred to Mobley as a "vicious and mouthy Negro".
James Daniel Lynch was an American lawyer, farmer, judge, poet, and writer. His poem "Columbia Saluting the Nations" was chosen as the official salutation for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. He lived in Mississippi. He served in the Confederate Army. He was an opponent of Reconstruction.
Robert Gleed Sr., was an American politician, merchant, and civic leader. He served as a Republican in the Mississippi State Senate during the Reconstruction era.
Isham Stewart, sometimes written as Isom Stewart, was a state legislator in Mississippi. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era and also served in the Mississippi Senate. He was the target of attacks from newspapers critical of African American politicians as well as so-called scalawags and carpetbaggers. His son served as deputy sheriff and was prosecuted under a law intended to target Ku Klux Klan members. His son Robert served as postmaster in Macon, Mississippi.
Orange Brunt was an American state legislator in Mississippi. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1874 to 1875 representing Panola County. He had a wife named Thursday and children.
Urbain Ozanne was a French-born American political organizer, sheriff, and businessman. He was a Republican Party organizer and served as sheriff in Panola County, Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. He later became a businessman in Nevada operating a mail route and hotel.
Nelson Green Gill was a state legislator and school organizer in Mississippi. He organized a school for African American students in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Mrs. Gill was also involved with the school. He represented Marshall County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1874 and 1875. He was white. He was a Republican.
James Monroe Wells (1837–1918) was an author, Union Army officer, and politician. He wrote The Chisolm Massacre; A picture of "home rule" in Mississippi about the Chisolm Massacre. James Daniel Lynch responded with an account blaming Radical Republicans titled Kemper County Vindicated, And a Peep at Radical Rule in Mississippi. Wells served as a state senator in Idaho.
Allen Pardee Huggins (1839–1916) was a Union Army soldier, Freedmen’s Bureau official, sheriff, county school superintendent, tax official, and state legislator in Mississippi.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Newton, Michael (December 21, 2009). The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History. McFarland. ISBN 9780786457045 – via Google Books.
- ↑ "The Chisolm Massacre: A Picture of "Home Rule" in Mississippi | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History". www.gilderlehrman.org.
- 1 2 "Clipped From Yorkville Enquirer". Yorkville Enquirer. May 10, 1877. p. 2 – via newspapers.com.
- ↑ "The Chisolm Massacre". The New York Times. June 27, 1878.
- 1 2 Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967. Univ. Press of Mississippi. June 22, 1981. ISBN 9781617034183 – via Google Books.
- ↑ "The Chisolm Massacre". Ardent Media. 1969 – via Google Books.