jan 1, 1870 - KKK at peak power

Description:

south: ppl thought that southern Reconstruction governments were illegit "regimes". Ex-confederates wanted to take the south back. SOuthern Democrats got ex-confederate voting rights restored to campaign against "negro rule". They used force to terrorize Republicans, especially black voters and political leaders. Many hid/fled. Southerners called this "Redemption"

-Nathan Bedford Forrest: COnfederate general, secessionists, slave trader, Mississippi planter. battle of Shiloh and led the terrible massacre at Fort Pillow when black union soldiers tried to surrender. He was a white supremacist who alterened the course of reconstruction

-WIlliam G. Brownlow- tennessee's republican governor, former prisoner to the confederacy. WHen he got elected, ex-confederates started a reign of terror, targeting brownlow's black supporters. The KKK was formed in late 1865. Forrest became the leader and wore the Grand Wizard robes.

-In many towns, KKK=democratic party
-similar groups (White LEague or Knights of the WHite Camelia)

result: democrats took power, slashing property taxes and other laws to help landowners. they ended reconstruction and stopped funding schools, especially ones for black students. they terrorized African Americans across the south.

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