Category: Ku Klux Klan
George Ashburn Assassinated: The First Klan Murder in Georgia March 1868
George Ashburn was a Southern white man who joined the Union army during the Civil War. In 1867 he was a delegate to the Georgia…
New Resource on Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan from Gilder-Lehrman Institute
The Gilder-Lehrman Institute has a new essay describing the rise and fall of the Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan. Elaine S. Frantz of Kent State…
What Klansmen Ate in 1868
The Memphis Avalanche was one of the most pro-KKK newspapers in the country. This article from the Avalanche is poking fun at African Americans and…
Were the Ku Klux Ghosts of Confederate Soldiers? Mississippi 1868
This article announces the arrival of the KKK in Grenada, Miss. through the mockery of a black preacher. In the article “Uncle Ike” (older African…
The KKK “Works Upon the Fears of the Colored People” NY Times Feb. 1868
The New York Times only first reported on the Klan in January 1868, but it soon became a regular topic of coverage. This article in…
“A Lodge of That Famous Klan Will Soon Be Formed In Every Village” Tenn. March, 1868
As the Ku Klux Klan garnered national headlines for its terrorism in 1868, many white-owned Southern newspapers took the side of the Klan. They were…
Ku Klux Parade With a Supernatural Element Tennessee February 1868
The Memphis Daily Avalanche was a conservative newspaper that often appeared to support the Ku Klux Klan. Like other papers that gave aid to the…
Torturing a Black Man: The First New York Times Article on the Klan January 1868
On January 20, 1868 The New York Times published its first article on the KKK, which it referred to as the “Kuklux Klan”. Members of…
Black Troops Engage in Anti-Klan Operations in Tennesee in February 1868
The Klan did not simply run roughshod over the countryside in 1868. Army detachments, including black U.S. soldiers, were sent to combat the Klan. One…
“Threats Against Teachers of Colored Schools” by the Klan Tennessee March 1868
Freedmen’s schools were an early and frequent target of the Ku Klux Klan. This article reports that the teachers of black children were being expelled…