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their own farms. Their brutality impacted the 1866 elections and grew more organized at shutting out the newly granted black vote. The Klan and other similar white supremacist groups so terrorized black communities that a law was passed to stem their terrorism. The 1871 Force Bill helped to reduce the violence against freedmen, though it did not end completely. Around 1915, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a resurgence, and Klan membership ranged from four to five million across the nation during the 1920s. This new Klan did not only target African Americans. They also directed their violence toward other ethnic and religious groups, such as new immigrants, Jews, and Roman Catholics. A burning cross in front of the homes of victims became the new Klan’s calling card. Most black men, women, and children living in the South during the 1920s and 1930s were taught how to avoid, or at least survive, attacks by white supremacists. Still, thousand of African Americans lost their lives. The membership and influence of the Ku Klux Klan dwindled in the 1940s, but the organization experienced a revival during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Members of this white supremacist group still exist in the United States, although their activities were curtailed in the 1980s by a series of lawsuits won on behalf of victims by the Southern Poverty Law Office. Today the Klan’s membership is estimated at around 5,000 people nationwide.

CH A P T E R 1 : TA R G E T O F T H E K L A N

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