How Did The Ku Klux Klan Affect The Civilization Of African Americans?

Southern whites feared African American power after slavery was abolished. There was a higher population of black men, than there were of white men. Considering, African Americans now had the right to vote, white southerners feared that the Democratic Party wouldn’t win the election. The Ku Klux Klan did everything they could to keep white supremacy by convincing people that African Americans are inferior and savage. The Ku Klux Klan released a campaign that portrayed white woman endangered by African American men in office. This caused whites to threaten and discourage blacks from voting. Eventually this drove African American officials out of office. African American Votes decreased from 130,000 votes to just 5,000 Not only did these campaigns keep blacks from voting, but also reinforced the stereo-type that interracial relationships are wrong and inappropriate.
This perception of African American men wasn’t only displayed through campaigns, but through plays and motion pictures as well.
A play was released that reinforced the idea of lustful African American’s preying on innocent young white females. The solution in this play was the terrorization of the Ku Klux Klan. After the play was released, the press reported several false accusations of black males raping white woman. This caused mass hysteria. Mobs and riots to break out against whites and blacks. In 1915, “Birth of a Nation” was released showing pictures of Klan’s men. This caused violence in the city where the movie was played, and encouraged people to join the Klu Klux Klan. This motion picture also gave northerners insight on racism happening in the south. The media was also used to encourage segregation and Jim Crow laws through advertisements. The media failed to show African American’s talents, education, and skills, and was instead used to amplify fear. (Rise and fall of Jim
Crow) Today, the media is still used to promote social and political agendas. Donald trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admission and banning Muslim majority countries from entering the United States. News stations such as fox news seem to be pro-trump and refuse to label this executive order as a “Muslim ban”, even though it is. Trump claims this executive order is about protecting the United States from terrorism, not about xenophobia. But, this ban and the way the media portrays Muslims as “terrorist or dangerous” create xenophobia. This creates the perception that Americans should fear Muslims and that they are dangerous people. (www.theguardian.com) In fact, non-Muslims make up the majority of terrorist in the United States. The FBI reported that 94% of the terrorist attacks in the United States from 1980 to 2005 have been non-Muslims. (Huffington Post) Despite this, it is only Muslims who get called terrorist in media.