The Emergence of the KKK

The occupation by Union troops in the former Confederate states led to the development of the Ku Klux Klan. During the Reconstruction, the process of rebuilding that followed the Civil War, white supremacy reigned supreme in the Southern states (Trelease xxviii). However, early Reconstruction legislation limited the amount of power that whites had over blacks politically and socially. Implementations such as the Reconstruction Act of 1867 created a precedent that made blacks equal with whites, giving …

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