After the end of the Civil War members of Congress tried to get rid of the power that the confederate states had. Congress wanted to help the past slaves since the southern states would not.

A law was then passed called the Freeman’s Bureau. It was established on March 3, 1865. The plan was to improve the former slave’s lives. It helped the slaves find jobs and homes. The Freeman’s Bureau spent around $17,000,000 to build houses, hospitals, and schools for the slaves. A few years later Congress tried to give more power to the Freeman’s Bureau but President Andrew Johnson vetoed it in February. Johnson also vetoed the Civil Rights Bill. In the election of 1866 there became more Radical Republicans in Congress. In the following year Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act. The South was divided into military districts. Elections were held in each state with black males having the right to vote. It also offered readmission to the Sout

In November 1922 Hiram Evans a dentist from Texas became the new Grand Wizard. In the 1920’s the Klan grew to around 4,000,000 members with many Klan’s members holding political positions, in states like Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Maine. Even when a Klan’s member was arrested they were unlikely to become convicted in the Southern juries because of the power of the Klan.

Benjamin Butler who was a Radical Republican urged President Ulysses S. Grant to take action against the KKK. In 1870, the President sent investigators to look into the organization. A grand jury reported back that there were many counties through out the states with a large organization called the Ku Klux Klan. It allowed only white men to join with most of the counties populations being members of the KKK.

President Grant passed a law called the Klan Act and Enforcement. It then became an illegal terrorist group. A few months later Nathan Forrest resigned from being the Grand Wizard leaving the KKK without a leader.

Around 1944 everything started to go bad for the KKK. When David Stephens a Klan leader was convicted of second degree murder, and evidence was brought up showing corruption with other Klan leaders such as the governor of Indiana and the mayor of Indianapolis the membershi

Some topics in this essay:
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