Discrimation of the black communities in the USA

The discrimination and opression of black communities in the United States of America is still a very big problem, despite many well knwon icons and celebreties from the USA are black for example one of the most popular presidents of the United States Barack Obama.

Portrait of Barack Obama (2012), President of the USA from 2009 - 2017. His presidancy was seen as the dream of Luther King coming true.

The racism in the USA has a long history, it traces back to the 17^th century, but after many famous human right activists for the rights of black people for example Martin Luther King there still are news about racist attacs on black and the KKK is still very popular and according to a poll by the National Public Radio 92% of the blacks still think racism is a problem in the US.

History

The racism and discrimination of blacks in the USA basically began with the first african slaves and the domination of beliefs of "White supremacy". In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed with Africans in Puerto Rico and not much later in 1508 Ponce de Leon enslaved the indigenous Taínos in an area of the present USA. Africans were enslaved in a colony in an area of the contemporary South Carolina in 1526 at first. They mostly had to work at plantations. Soon many more black African came to America, in 1619 the first slaves came to Virginia. When in 1640 a black slave and two whites tried to flee from their masters they were convicted, it was the first time, that slaves were punished by law. In 1641 Massachusetts were the first state to legalize slavery. Several laws were adopted in the next years for instance laws arranging inheritance of slave status when a slave gets a child 1662 in Virginia or about the punishment of slaves in South Carolina in 1690. In the end of the 15^th century the number of slave importations increased rapidly because of rice plantations were created in Carolina. In the next several years many riots, especially by slaves took place and more states adopted slavery laws. But in the last half of the 16^th century many of the northern states declare that slavery is abolished - officially. In 1787 the Northwest Ordiance, the Northwest Territory, forbided the slavery. Still many people, especially blacks lived in slavery. For example in Pennsylvania there were no slaves in 1860 first. When Abraham Lincoln were elected in 1860 he declared the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves.

Ku-Klux-Klan

Emblem of the KKK, since the late 1960s

The Ku-Klux-Klan (short KKK) is a Protestant rascist and violent association from the USA. It was founded on the 24^th of December in 1865 in Tennessee by six officers from the southern states, therefore it is the first terrorist group of America. These officers fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War 1860/61. When they started with night rides with masks they began with their anti-black policy. Soon they gained many members from all over the southern states, their maximum number of members was even at 6,000,000. Nowadays it is at about 5,000 - 12,000. Against common stereotypes their main targets are not only blacks, they attacked Jews, immigrants and Catholics as well but they are also anti-LGBT. Common procedures and ceremonies is lynching, torture e.g. whipping or Cross burnings (since Grand Wizard William Joseph Simmons), also the well known white robes are their traditional wear to hide their identity.

History of KKK

The Ku Klux Klan emerged in aftermath of the Civil War 1860/61 and was founded in the Reconstruction in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by six military veterans from the southern states.

KKK night rally in Chicago, c. 1920

As the defeated of the Civil War one of their first goals was the sabotage of Reconstruction but soon they started with masked horserides at night and realized that blacks were afraid of them and the blacks became their main target, they wanted to maintain the "white supremacy". After the Emancipation Proclamation 1862 the Ku Klux Klan wanted to restore the "racial order" how it was before the Civil War . They attacked many freed black slaves and gained more popularity after riots in the 1860s when white societies were formed to stand up against the abolishment of slavery. Later in 1867 they tried to create a hierarchy in Nashville but local KKK organisations were mostly independent. George Gordon, one of the first members and a former Confederate General wrote the KKK's first Prescript, in which he supported and highlighted their conviction in the "white supremacy". Their organisation was really chaotic at first, not structured, many local brands basically did their own things and did not follow the Prescript. According to historain Eric Foner the Ku Klux Klan was the military force for the Democratic Party, the planter class and the people who wanted to restore the white supremacy . They started early with killing and supress blacks which voted for example. Some anti-KKK movements were formed and in 1871 Benjamin Franklin Butler wrote the Civil Right Act or the first "Ku Klux Klan Act" which were signed by the President Grant and when the Klan refused to dissolve their Klan severeal Clansman were arrested and reluctantly the Klan with about 550,000 members was abolished. Nevertheless many groups of white racists were formed until 1915 the second Klan was founded by William Joseph Simmons. The first Klan was gloryfied and romanticised, especially by the movie "The Birth of a Nation" by D. W. Griffith based on a book by Thomas Dixon Jr, who opposed eqaul right for blacks.

Movie poster for The Birth of a Nation. It has been widely noted for inspiring the revival of the Ku Klux Klan.

The second clan was primarily from the midwest to west and their biggest enemy were the Catholics and Jews, the blacks only their third biggest were the blacks. Later they got anti-Communist as well. From 1920 the clan grew rapidley to a number of more than 4 million, the Klan's values and christian moral appealed to many people in the US. Some historians think that the public discusions about the KKK was a help for its rise. The second Klan even influenced statre governments, for instance Oregon and Indiana, the 1922 leader's aim of the KKK Hiram W. Evans 1922 was to turn the Klan into an influencial and powerful political group. Despite their big influence racist terror was spread rather in smaller towns and rural areas. For example they lynched people to suppress black involvement in politics. Later in the 20^th century they got attention in the publicity for shootings, massacres and more lynchings. Very popular is the Greensboro massacre 1979 where 5 communist protesters were killed by the KKK and american Nazis (Full Wikipedia-article: Greensboro massacre) or the Michael Donald lynching 1980, where one of the offender was executed. The KKK even got in relation with Neo-Nazism under the lead of the Grand Wizard David Duke.

KKK today and elsewhere

Today the KKK is not only one organisation but several groups in the US and even worldwide and in Germany and other european countries as well. It has estimatedly 5,000 to 12,000 members in the US. Their hate groups are on the rise in the last few years again. In Germany, the KKK exists since the begining of the 1920s in Germany, they are often related to right-wing extremist groups from modern Neo-Nazi groups, for example the NSU. There were about 4 Klans in 2012. Even some police officers should have been members of the german KKK

Further Reading and Web links

History of black people

• BBC documentary series about racism (three episodes): ep. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Ofa_GMKJU&t=2942s / ep. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hNiuzX2u3E / ep. 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKQTu0ZV4k
• BBC videos on black people in America and their lives on plantations: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fcqv9/clips

Luther King

• Short video by "3Sat" on the death of Martin Luther King (german): https://www.zdf.de/kultur/kulturzeit/martin-luther-king-114.html

KKK

• KKK FBI-Files: https://archive.org/details/KKK-FBI
• "Die Arier", 2014: german documentary about right-wing extremism in Germany and other countries, http://www.bpb.de/mediathek/198266/die-arier (about USA and KKK from 00:46:20, Interview with a KKK-Member 1:13:10)
• Article on the KKK and list of KKK hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
• Article on right-wing extremism in the USA by the BPB (german): http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/253409/rechtsextreme-us-szene

Sources

• Article on right-wing extremism in the USA by the BPB: http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/253409/rechtsextreme-us-szene
• Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Article on the KKK (german): https://www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de/node/8755
• Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Steven D. Levitt: Hatred and Profits: Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan
• Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism and Violence, 1997, by the SPLC via Google Books: https://books.google.de/books?id=To3kkDqNQdQC&pg=PA32&dq=ku+klux+klan+how+many+members&redir_esc=y&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=true
• Article on the KKK in the twentieth century: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ku-klux-klan-twentieth-century
• "The Crisis", October 1940, page 324: https://books.google.de/books?id=7FoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA324&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Article by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League): https://web.archive.org/web/20121003050902/http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20120825005249/http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/ku-klux-klan-brief-biography
• Article on the KKK and list of KKK hate groups by SPLC: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
• Article: "Life goes inside todays KKK": https://web.archive.org/web/20090427093003/http://www.life.com/image/85939265/in-gallery/25151/life-goes-inside-todays-kkk