150 Years After Its Founding, KKK Says US Politics Are Going Its Way...
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stringer bell
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/kkk-dreams-rising-again-150-years-after-founding
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the Ku Klux ? died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. Membership dwindled, a unified group fractured, and one-time members went to prison for a string of murderous attacks against blacks. Many assumed the group was dead, a white-robed ghost of hate and violence.
Yet today, the KKK is still alive and dreams of restoring itself to what it once was: an invisible empire spreading its tentacles throughout society. As it marks 150 years of existence, the ? is trying to reshape itself for a new era.
? members still gather by the dozens under starry Southern skies to set fire to crosses in the dead of night, and KKK leaflets have shown up in suburban neighborhoods from the Deep South to the Northeast in recent months. Perhaps most unwelcome to opponents, some independent ? organizations say they are merging with larger groups to build strength.
In a series of interviews with The Associated Press, ? leaders said they feel that U.S. politics are going their way, as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens across the nation. Stopping or limiting immigration — a desire of the ? dating back to the 1920s — is more of a cause than ever. And leaders say membership has gone up at the twilight of President Barack Obama's second term in office.
Joining the ? is as easy as filling out an online form — provided you're white and Christian. Members can visit an online store to buy one of the ? 's trademark white cotton robes for $145, though many splurge on the $165 satin version.
While the ? has terrorized minorities during much of the last century, its leaders now present a public front that is more virulent than violent. Leaders from several different ? groups all said they have rules against violence aside from self-defense, and even opponents agree the KKK has toned itself down after a string of members went to prison years after the fact for deadly arson attacks, beatings, bombings and shootings.
"While today's ? has still been involved in atrocities, there is no way it is as violent as the ? of the '60s," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group that tracks activity by groups it considers extremist.
"That does not mean it is some benign group that does not engage in political violence," he added.
? leaders told the AP that most of today's groups remain small and operate independently, kept apart by disagreements over such issues as whether to associate with neo-Nazis, hold public rallies or wear the KKK's trademark robes in colors other than white.
It's impossible to say how many members the ? counts today since groups don't reveal that information, but leaders claim adherents in the thousands among scores of local groups called Klaverns.
"Most ? groups I talk to could hold a meeting in the bathroom in McDonald's," said Chris Barker, imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux ? in Eden, North Carolina. As for his Klavern, he said, "Right now, I'm close to 3,800 members in my group alone."
The Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish protection group that monitors ? activity, describes Barker's Loyal White Knights as the most active group today, but estimates it has no more than 200 members. The ADL puts total ? membership nationwide at around 3,000.
The Alabama-based SPLC estimates the ? has about 190 chapters nationally with no more than 6,000 members total, which would be a mere shadow of its estimated 2 million to 5 million members in the 1920s.
"The idea of unifying the ? like it was in the '20s is a persistent dream of the ? , but it's not happening," Potok said.
Formed just months after the end of the Civil War by six former Confederate officers, the ? originally seemed more like a college fraternity with ceremonial robes and odd titles for its officers. But soon, freed blacks were being terrorized, and the Klanwas blamed. Hundreds of people were assaulted or killed as whites tried to regain control of the defeated Confederacy. Congress effectively outlawed the ? in 1871, and the group died.
The ? seemed relegated to history until World War I, but it was resurrected as waves of immigrants arrived from Europe and elsewhere, and grew more as the NAACP challenged the South's Jim Crow laws in the 1920s. Millions joined, including community leaders like bankers and lawyers.
That momentum declined, and best estimates place membership at about 40,000 by the mid-'60s, the height of the civil rights movement. ? members were convicted of using murder as a weapon against equality in states including Mississippi and Alabama, where one Klansman remains imprisoned for planting the bomb that killed four black girls in a Birmingham church in 1963.
KKK leader Brent Waller, imperial wizard of the United Dixie White Knights in Mississippi, said stopping immigration — not blocking minority rights — is the ? 's No. 1 issue today.
And other ? leaders say Donald Trump's ascendancy in the GOP is a sign things are going their way.
"You know, we began 40 years ago saying we need to build a wall," Arkansas-based ? leader Thomas Robb said.
Despite trying to rebrand itself, the ? has not stepped away from burning crosses. As the sun set on a warm Saturday in April,? members gathered in a huge circle in a northwest Georgia field to set a cross and ? ? afire.
"? !" they chanted in unison.
"Death to the ungodly! Death to our enemies!"
Comments
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who cares what the kkk has to say.
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Cool
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we already know this as many cops, lawyers, and judges are in the KKK.
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The reason politics is going their way, because they been in politics from Day 1. White Supremacy made the laws of this country.
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The real 150 year history is that the KKK was the ISIS/Al Quada wing of the Democratic party after Reconstruction. They fell off after the 1960's though, but were still praising old KKK members like that ? Robert Byrd well into the 2000's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUlFfcY2_4
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I AM NOT A ? REPUBLICAN
and i don't know how many times i have to explain that to you simple minded politically uneducated idiots on this forum -
No
.....you just support republicans -
No
.....you just support republicans
? just shut the ? up..... i don't support republicans or democrats i support polices that i think are good and don't supports ones i think are bad. If your ? sized brain could understand that i wouldn't be writing this. -
You still voting for rubio you bumboclatt?
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You still voting for rubio you bumboclatt?
How the ? am i voting for rubio??? you know what
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Don't ? yaself
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? this thread i'm done.
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I did not watch the whole debate but so far rubio has my vote
http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/comment/8361271#Comment_8361271
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All I know is, if Trump wins, I'm renewing my passport and getting the ? outta here.
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I did not watch the whole debate but so far rubio has my vote
http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/comment/8361271#Comment_8361271
So the ? what??? my point to you earlier was that i cannot vote for rubio NOW AND IN ANY ? case like i told you it is the policies that matter and it is the policies i support.
PAY ? ATTENTION AND LEARN NOW TO THINK. -
BangEm_Bart wrote: »All I know is, if Trump wins, I'm renewing my passport and getting the ? outta here.
You gonna need more than a passport if you tryna leave permanately..unless you gonna use your passport to get into another country and then overstay your welcome as an illegal immigrant -
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Trump will win the election....
? ain't moving nowhere.....
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Rubios not the issue idiot
You said you do not support Republicans... But you vote for them.
How does that work batty man?
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Rubios not the issue idiot
You said you do not support Republicans... But you vote for them.
How does that work batty man?
I SAID HE HAD MY VOTE but i could not and did not vote for him... so shut the ? up and even if you do vote for a particular politician it does not follow that you are comprehensively supporting him or his political party. You maybe voting on one particular point of importance and give no credence to any other point.
so the general statement " you support republicans" is ? ? , perhaps you are too ? stupid to see the nuances in what i am saying. -
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Republicans obviously aint ?
But democrats slick aint ? either
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Trump will win the election....
? ain't moving nowhere.....
hell nah. I know some ? ass cac republicans that said they aren't going to vote at all.
And quiet as its kept I think Kasich is going to be the republican nominee. -
Republicans obviously aint ?
But democrats slick aint ? either
And we used to know this pre-1960's. We need to go back to how things were during the civil rights era. Make both parties tell us what they're actually going to do. Make them work for our vote the same way they do for Latinos today. Ask Hillary was specifically she's going to different from the Clinton years where their major contribution was to drop the Crime bill on our heads. Make Trump tell us how his populism will help the Black middle class which is still struggling. Hell ask Johnson and Stein too.
MLK worked with Nixon, worked with JFK, and worked with LBJ for a reason. WE ARE the real swing vote in this country.