Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes two examples of state circumvention of the de facto constitutional authority of the 13th Amendment to protect black Americans against the severe limitations on their day-to-day rights and freedoms formerly imposed by slavery. It shows that, by enacting the Black Codes, starting in 1865 following the 13th Amendment, however, and by giving birth, in 1866, to the Ku Klux Klan and its reign of terror over the freed men, the southern states successfully circumvented the actual enjoyment by blacks of most of the freedoms granted them by the 13th Amendment.

From the Paper:

"Through its clandestine activities that terrorized the blacks, the Ku Klux Klan effectively, even if not legally, more or less enslaved them using fear, despite the freedom granted them by the 13th Amendment. Clearly, the 13th Amendment did not entirely free them, then: it was not until 1871 that "Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which gave the federal courts jurisdiction over conspiracies against the freedmen and authorized the President . . . to declare martial law in any terrorized community" (Carman 739). Even then, however, various state laws continued to interfere with federal laws protecting blacks, and even well into the 20th century, "The Supreme Court nullified laws Congress passed to protect African Americans from intimidation and murder by lawless mobs" (Reconstruction 7)."

More papers on Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan:

• Research Paper # 108919 : "Domestic Terrorism and the Ku Klux Klan"
• Book Review # 55907 : "The Ku Klux Klan in the City"
• Analytical Essay # 88630 : "The Ku Klux Klan: An Analysis of White Supremacy"

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