DIFFERENCES IN THE KLU
KLUX KLANS
By: Jennifer Christensen
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“Gender and sexuality were compelling symbols”
that existed in both Klu Klux Klans (11).
Each Klan “summoned white men to protect
threatened white womanhood and white female
purity.” (11).
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A main difference is how the Klan’s each used
womanhood as a symbol.
“The first Klan used symbols of imperiled
womanhood to represent assault on Southern white
men’s racial privileges and regional autonomy. The
second Klan, too, tried at first to use white
womanhood to symbolize threatened religious,
national, and racial supremacy. But newly won
female enfranchisement and women’s political
experience complicated this strategy.” (12).
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The first KKK: “was organized in Tennessee
immediately after the Civil War, it summoned
defeated sons of the Confederacy to defend the
principles of white supremacy against interference by
the northerners and retaliation by freed black
slaves.”(12).
“Gangs of Klansmen threatened, flogged, and
murdered countless black and white women and men”
(12). They were all about violence and inflicting fear
in the people.
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“The KKK was particularly expert in the use of sexual
violence and brutality. Klan mobs humiliated white
Southern Republicans…by sexually abusing them.
Klansmen routinely raped and sexually tortured
women, especially black women, during “kluxing”
raids on their households….Lynching, torture, and
sexual mutilation intimidated Klan opponents and
terrorized its enemies.” (13)
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This first klan fell apart very quickly, they had an
“elaborate hierarchy…lacked direction and
political focus.” (16).
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After a few decades it was reborn. It started to come
around again in 1915 but by the mid 1920’s there
were nearly 4 million men and women in the Klan.
They really focused on “white protestant
supremacy”(17).
The definition of manhood no longer focused on
violence, but as a fraternal brotherhood (19). They
wanted to protect women and motherhood by hurting
any abuser’s, drunkard fathers, or just lazy fathers.
They focused more out in the open by gaining
members with wonderful speakers, parades,
and activities.
 They spread propaganda about blacks,
catholics and jews about how horrible they are
and you should have nothing to do with them.
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Women eventually joined to help endeavor the
women’s rights movements and provided activities for
wives that needed something to do.
This Klan did not last very long due to problems within
their own leaders and just led to its own collapse.
Bibliography
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Blee, Kathleen M. Women of the Klan: Racism and
Gender in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of
California, 1991. Print.