Why did the Ku Klux Klan persecute and terrorize the former slaves?

Answer 1

They did that because they didn't like black people and they wanted a white government and they think that white is a superior race.


Additional Answer:

The original Ku Klux Klan was formed by several former confederate soldiers in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865-1866. At first they organized as a social club. They donned disguises and galloped around the town after dark, enjoying fraternity type activities. The former slaves in the area were particularly frightened by their night time raids. The KKK members quickly learned to take advantage of that fear . . . and they expanded their organization, rapidly.

The Civil War had disrupted the social order of the Old South. Resentful former soldiers and landowners swelled the membership of the Klan. It soon commenced a systematic policy of violence against the former slaves, their supporters from the North and any people they loosely called 'carpetbaggers'. Their goal was to prevent blacks from enjoying their rights as citizens. Their terroristic policies set the tone for their activities. Their membership ebbed and flowed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Eventually, they would attack, terrorize and often kill members of any group they perceived as a threat to their "American" life not only blacks. Immigrants, Catholics, Jews, liberals, and many other groups became targets.

The more modern klansmen began to invent a language of euphemisms to disguise their hatreds and move the Klan more into the mainstream. They succeeded. They began to speak of pride in their 'heritage'. They adopted a 'christian' identity and began to spread the word that Catholics and Jews wanted to outlaw their religious practices. They fiercely objected to gays being part of the mainstream. They complained loudly about people who received government assistance even though many of the klansmen received government aid themselves. All very similar to the sentiments being expressed today in some political circles.