#otd 150 years ago, the Ku Klux Committee submitted its report to Congress.
It remains an invaluable source for those who #TeachReconstruction – and an object lesson in the power of historical denialism.
Its official name, btw, was a little less pithy:
It remains an invaluable source for those who #TeachReconstruction – and an object lesson in the power of historical denialism.
Its official name, btw, was a little less pithy:
Under a Republican majority, it spent 8 months interviewing 100s of witnesses and compiling a report of 13 volumes and 8,000 pages.
The evidence was overwhelming—of Klansmen whipping and murdering black and white Republicans, raping freedwomen, and burning schools and churches.
The evidence was overwhelming—of Klansmen whipping and murdering black and white Republicans, raping freedwomen, and burning schools and churches.
The Democratic minority included virulently racist opponents of Reconstruction.
Among them: Frank Blair Jr, who called Black Americans “semi-barbarous” and ran for vice president in 1868 on a platform calling the Reconstruction Acts “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.”
Among them: Frank Blair Jr, who called Black Americans “semi-barbarous” and ran for vice president in 1868 on a platform calling the Reconstruction Acts “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.”
(Side note - Blair's statue remains part of the Statuary Hall collection in the US Capitol today.)
aoc.gov/explore-capito…
aoc.gov/explore-capito…
Committee Democrats belittled and badgered Black witnesses.
They worked hard to obscure the reality of Klan violence and to change the focus to allegations of corruption and venality vs Southern state governments.
In other words: think the Jan 6 committee, but with Jim Jordan.
They worked hard to obscure the reality of Klan violence and to change the focus to allegations of corruption and venality vs Southern state governments.
In other words: think the Jan 6 committee, but with Jim Jordan.
Submitted #otd in 1872, the Republicans’ majority report highlighted the brutality, wide scope, and political nature of Klan violence.
It called for extending the President's power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which Grant had used to help quash the Klan in S. Carolina.
It called for extending the President's power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which Grant had used to help quash the Klan in S. Carolina.
The Democrats’ minority report propagated a self-contradictory, 1870s version of the Big Lie.
Reports of violence were exaggerated. The Klan wasn’t political. Also, it was *totally* politically justified, because Black men were unfit voters who helped elect terrible governments.
Reports of violence were exaggerated. The Klan wasn’t political. Also, it was *totally* politically justified, because Black men were unfit voters who helped elect terrible governments.
What happened next?
As the 1872 election loomed, Congressional Republicans declined to extend the President’s power to suspend habeas corpus.
It was a step in their retreat from Reconstruction, and weakened the federal government’s ability to respond to future violence.
As the 1872 election loomed, Congressional Republicans declined to extend the President’s power to suspend habeas corpus.
It was a step in their retreat from Reconstruction, and weakened the federal government’s ability to respond to future violence.
The Democrats' minority report came to serve as a kind of 1st draft/road map for negative portrayals of Reconstruction.
For example: about 1/3 of witnesses were African Americans, but they disappeared in Dunning School and "tragic era" accounts of the era.
For example: about 1/3 of witnesses were African Americans, but they disappeared in Dunning School and "tragic era" accounts of the era.
Mind you, the report didn't disappear.
It gets cited *a lot*—not to highlight Klan violence, but to prove Black voters' unfitness and Southern Republicans' malfeasance.
For example, it's quoted & mentioned on dozens of pages in James Pike's 1874 "expose," The Prostrate State.
It gets cited *a lot*—not to highlight Klan violence, but to prove Black voters' unfitness and Southern Republicans' malfeasance.
For example, it's quoted & mentioned on dozens of pages in James Pike's 1874 "expose," The Prostrate State.
William A. Dunning - who described Reconstruction as a "social and political system in which all the forces that made for civilization were dominated by a mass of barbarous freedmen" - likewise found proof in the Klan Report.
hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x0046…
hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x0046…
The novelist Thomas Dixon glorified the Klan in a trilogy of “historical romances” and boasted of his historical research, including in the Klan Report.
Dixon's The Clansman was the basis for the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, with an assist of sorts from Woodrow Wilson.
Dixon's The Clansman was the basis for the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, with an assist of sorts from Woodrow Wilson.
And while that was 100 years ago, the sobering truth is that it took the profession a looooong time to reject the Dunning School view of Reconstruction.
And its influence can still be seen in school curricula, as documented here:
And its influence can still be seen in school curricula, as documented here:
https://twitter.com/ZinnEdProject/status/1481720879268737031?s=20&t=Bbv3IzgnHjn_zYldiZXnkg
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