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U.S. History 1877-Present 7.8: The Rise of the KKK 109 Views
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Description:
Okay, so...we're going to spend a little time with the KKK. Don't worry, it's only three minutes. And you can jump right into the shower afterward.
Transcript
- 00:00
sweets in the 1920s like every decade had a real dark side
- 00:07
but this one had a side so dark we honestly don't even like talking about [Darth Vader with lightning bolts in the background]
- 00:11
it but alas is purveyors of historical
- 00:13
information we can't leave it out so without further ado let's spend some
- 00:17
time with the KKK well we're not going to invite them over for a barbecue but [Guy at a barbecue in a garden]
Full Transcript
- 00:21
we are going to get to know who they were and what they were all about the [KKK members appear with meat]
- 00:25
KKK well there's one American organization that meets the dubious
- 00:29
criteria of being among the most horrifically racist organizations in [Picture of a KKK meeting]
- 00:33
human history and being among the most ridiculously whack organizations like
- 00:38
ever yep it's the Ku Klux Klan well this homegrown group of violent
- 00:42
white supremacists has murdered over 4,000 people and not to be judgy but [Picture of KKK violence]
- 00:47
they looked ridiculous while doing it seriously whoever told them that point
- 00:51
he had a ghost costumes were real cool they even called their leader the Grand
- 00:55
Wizard and they still do as of 2016 the Grand Wizard is named David Duke yep [The Grand Wizard with a star wand and a wizard's hat]
- 01:02
that guy Wizards misery we thought he wouldn't last a minute in an iron cage
- 01:06
with you know Dundalk somehow the KKK is ridiculous outfits and titles only [Gandalf strikes Duke with a bolt from his staff]
- 01:11
seemed to add to the horror of their actions see the Klan was founded in the
- 01:15
south right after the Civil War because apparently some folks hadn't gotten the [The KKK on a map of the US]
- 01:18
whole slavery is over message accidentally deleted that text or
- 01:23
something well the Klan was vigorously prosecuted by the federal government [Court gavel being used]
- 01:27
during Reconstruction and was on the point of dying out when it was revived
- 01:31
in 1915 by controversial Pro KKK movie Birth of a Nation
- 01:36
after that blockbuster hits the screen Klan chapters reopened all over the [People watching the film in a theatre]
- 01:40
south thanks for that one Hollywood why didn't the federal government crack down
- 01:44
on them again well by the 1920s the Klan had the support of some fundamentalist [Guy wearing a fundamentalist t shirt]
- 01:48
because it now focus not just on killing and terrorizing black Americans but also
- 01:52
Jewish Catholic and communist Americans important to diversify in the 1920s
- 01:57
there was so much negative emotion about new immigration and the Red Scare that [Guy looking worried]
- 02:01
lots of people were okay with this well the KKK and other hate groups
- 02:05
conducted disturbing ceremonies where they burned crosses to scare black
- 02:09
families into in town however that was nothing
- 02:12
compared to the KKK the other main activity kidnapping black men and women [KKK members in a room]
- 02:17
and then getting together to hang em at night this was called lynching and it's [Noose hanging]
- 02:20
high on the list of worst ideas ever many KKK members saw nothing wrong with
- 02:25
lynching they even sent postcards family and friends with pictures of the people [Woman looks shocked as she sees the post card]
- 02:29
they just kill somewhat predictably black Americans did not respond
- 02:32
favorably to this tensions reach the boiling point in 1990 there were [Man looking angry]
- 02:36
actually full-out race riots in several major cities the most violent erupting
- 02:41
in Chicago after a black teenager was killed for crossing into the unofficial
- 02:44
white part of a beach though the KKK couldn't claim credit for this
- 02:47
particular atrocity chances are they were down south given that disgruntled [Boy being chased away by a crowd with burning torches on the beach]
- 02:51
white beach goer a big round of applause of course KKK saw the summer of 1919
- 02:56
often called the red summer as proof that black Americans were truly savages
- 03:01
this of course continued a reign of terror in the south that raged through [KKK member holding a confederate flag]
- 03:04
the 20s and beyond why is it that the worst ideas always have the most staying
- 03:09
power like the KKK outfits there it makes the where those things
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