Why did ku klan burn the crosses?

Answer 1

The Ku Klux Klan, the organization most closely associated with burning crosses, identifies itself as Christian and tries to squeeze under the protected speech of the First Amendment.

The KKK has since the early 1866 taken some of the rituals of the Scottish clans who would set hillside crosses ablaze as symbols of defiance against military rivals or to rally troops when a battle was imminent, but cross-burning was not part of terror on re the Scottish clans and it was the KKK that took it further as a warning to those that dare interfere with a pure race of white supremists movement.

They started to burn crosses when film makers put them in movies. This motivated the KKK. Also a poem called The Lady of the Lake talks about a burning cross to summon the Scottish clans.

It was in Scotland that the 'fiery cross' called Crann Tara was created as a declaration of war. Even though some KKK members where of Scottish descent there is no proof that this ritual was brought over from Scotland.

The KKK was united in 1866 in Tennessee by six veterans of the Confederate Army until Ulysses S. Grant destroyed the KKK by the Civil Rights Act of 1871. This, however, did not deter the KKK from terrorizing the blacks. It was William J. Simmons the founder of the second clan that used the burning of the cross by the KKK more often which was called 'cross burning' or cross lighting' to let other KKK members know where to meet and to defend what they considered their territory and to terrorize blacks and whites alike that disagreed with their Aryan order. Many citizens thought it was a sacralidge to burn the cross, but the KKK defended themselves by claiming they burned the crosses as a symbol of their faith in what their belief system was. The KKK killed not only blacks, but whites and also a few politicians along the way.

The Reconstruction era Klan did not burn crosses; Thomas Dixon in 1902 - 1907 with his trilogy novels romanticized this version.

Once a mighty force the KKK has weakened a great deal, but still exists in some States and in Canada to this day. They have gone from millions of members to just thousands.