The History of the 1871 KKK Act
It is still being used, even today, to protect our rights.
Photo Credit: Britannica
Issue #382 Government August 10, 2023
The History of the Department of Justice
The position of Attorney General was established as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Attorney General was designated as the lead public prosecutor and chief legal officer of the U.S. government.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), the federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice in the United States, was not established until the year 1870, as part of a larger plan to reconstruct the South and ensure the enforcement of newly established civil rights laws. The Attorney General became the head of this new department.
The History of the KKK and the White Citizens Council
The KKK was first established in 1865, immediately after the Civil War, by Confederate veterans as a secret vigilante group targeting freed slaves and their allies. It used terror, including murder, to enforce its aims and to resist the reconstruction policies of the radical Republican Congress. Despite efforts to suppress the KKK, the organization re-emerged in the 20th century, targeting not only African Americans but also Jews, Catholics, and immigrants.
The White Citizens Council emerged much later, in 1954, in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education which ended segregation in public schools. The WCC, unlike the KKK, operated openly and had a veneer of respectability, but its goals were similar - resist desegregation and maintain white supremacy. Its members used economic and political pressure and violence to resist the Civil Rights Movement.
Both groups, despite their significant differences, played a substantial role in promoting racial terror and discrimination in the United States.
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The 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act and Fred Trump
The 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, officially known as the Third Enforcement Act, was passed under President Ulysses S. Grant's administration and aimed to dismantle the Ku Klux Klan and protect the civil and political rights of four million freed slaves.
The Act empowered the President to enforce the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment throughout the United States.
The Act allowed for the suspension of habeas corpus, enabling the government to arrest and hold suspected Klan members.
The Act also imposed heavy penalties against anyone who violated a citizen's constitutional rights and gave individuals legal protection against acts of violence perpetrated by the Klan.
On Memorial Day 1927, brawls erupted in New York led by sympathizers of the Italian fascist movement and the Ku Klux Klan. In the fascist brawl, which took place in the Bronx, two Italian men were killed by anti-fascists. In Queens, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested.
One of those arrested was Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Rd. in Jamaica.
The predication for the Klan to march, according to a flier passed around Jamaica beforehand, was that "Native-born Protestant Americans" were being "assaulted by Roman Catholic police of New York City."
"Liberty and Democracy have been trampled upon," the flyer continued, "when native-born Protestant Americans dare to organize to protect one flag, the American flag; one school, the public school; and one language, the English language."
Despite its initial impact, the application of the 1871 KKK Act faded following the end of the Reconstruction era. However, it recently resurfaced in prominent legal discussions.
In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, several legal scholars and activists proposed using the 1871 KKK Act to hold law enforcement accountable for violations of citizens' rights.
The Act also came into focus in January 2021, when Representative Bennie Thompson and the NAACP filed a lawsuit under the 1871 KKK Act against former President Donald Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani for allegedly conspiring with extremist groups to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
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