Violence and Backlash

Before watching the video “Violence and Backlash,” (below) it is important to ask students to reflect on the effects of violence and terror on a democratic society and the ways in which that society might respond.

Begin this lesson by prompting students to write a short reflection in response to the following question:

• How should a democratic society respond to violence and terror?

After students have spent a few minutes recording their thoughts, use the Think, Pair, Share teaching strategy to have them share their ideas with each other.

The video “Violence and Backlash” provides an overview of two different periods of violence during the Reconstruction era, and it helps students distinguish between the violence of the Ku Klux Klan--which was largely and successfully ended by federal law enforcement--and the paramilitary violence that erupted later in the 1870’s and played a key role in ending the period of Radical Reconstruction. We recommend that you show the video in two segments, pausing after the end of Klan violence has been explained.

Show the video--pausing at the 7:45 mark. Before showing the video, share the following questions with students to guide their note taking:

• According to the scholars in the video, to what were the perpetrators of violence during Reconstruction reacting?
• What was the Ku Klux Klan? What were the Klan’s goals?
• What can you infer from the video about the goals of political violence? What examples of political violence does the video provide?

In this activity, students will read an account of a specific episode of Ku Klux Klan violence. It is important to give students the time to confront and respond together to the violence and terror depicted in the primary source document they analyze.

Read the document The Klansmen Broke My Door Open aloud as a class. After reading, use the Wraparound teaching strategy to help the class process the reading together. Students will first share a phrase or sentence from the reading that they find surprising, interesting, or troubling. Then they will share a single word that describes their experience reading this testimony.

Reading

Race in US History

Klansmen Broke My Door Open

Read the 1872 testimony of a victim of Ku Klux Klan violence.

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After processing a description of Klan violence together, the class can now engage in a deeper analysis of how such violence was possible and permissible to so many in American society in the 1860’s and 1870’s. This activity will help initiate a deeper analysis.

Ask the class to consider these questions:

• What made Ku Klux Klan violence possible and acceptable to so many Americans as a reaction to Reconstruction and interracial democracy?
• What evidence does the film provide to help you answer this question?  Record your initial thoughts in your journal.

Have students read the following analyses by W.E.B. Du Bois and historian Eric Foner:

Reading

Race in US History

Collaborators and Bystanders

Read historian Eric Foner's description of whom the Ku Klux Klan drew support from during the Reconstruction era.

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Reading

Race in US History

A Nucleus of Ordinary Men

Explore the role that secrecy and fear play in mob violence with W. E. B. Du Bois’ analysis of the Ku Klux Klan’s power.

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