Attitudes towards African Americans and the KKK

• The KKK formed after the Civil war to defend white supremacy over black people.

  Members attacked and intimidated black people.

  • they didn't want them to vote
  • they didn't want them to have their own politicians.
  • originally shut down in 1871 by federal government due to violence (continued to work for white supremacy)
  • Later, boosted by a film in 1915: 'Birth of a nation', William Simmons restarted the organisation and built up its membership.
• Flash recall:

  Treatment of African Americans was worst in South America.

  The laws that segregated African Americans were called Jim Crow laws.

  Only 1% of black people were able to attend a high school

  400,000 Black Americans served in WW1

  There were 76 lynchings in 1919
• 1.5 million African Americans migrated North.

  One example of a ghetto was Harlem.

  24 locations experienced riots in 1919.

  The African American populations of Chicago and New York doubled