t of the defiant blackcodes, Congress refused to seat the new Southern senators and representatives when it reconvened in December 1865 after a long recess. Thus, at the moment the fledgling Klanwas born in Pulaski, the stage was set for the showdown between Northerners determinednot to be cheated out of the fruits of their victory and die-hard southerners who refused togive up their supremacy over blacks. Ironically, the increasingly violent activities of the Klan throughout 1866 tendedto help prove the argument of Radical Republicans of the North, who wanted harshermeasures taken against southern governments as part of their program to force equaltreatment for blacks. Partly as a result of news reports of Klan violence in the South, theRadicals won overwhelming victories in the Congressional elections of 1866.In early 1867 they made a fresh start at Reconstruction. Congress overrodePresident Johnson’s veto and passed the Reconstruction Acts, which abolished theex-Confederate state governments and divided 10 of the 11 former rebel states intomilitary districts. The military were charged with the enrolling of black voters and holdingelections for new constitutional conventions in each of the 10 states, which led to thecreation of the Radical Reconstruction Southern governments. From this point on, the Klan steadily became increasingly more violent in responseto the new federal reconstruction policy. Thousands of the white citizens of Tennessee,Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi had by this time joined the Klan and many now viewedthe escalating violence with growing alarm- not necessarily because they had sympathy forthe victims but because the night riding was getting out of their control. Anyone could puton a sheet and mask and ride into the night to commit assault, robbery, rape arson, andmurder. By early 1868, stories about Klan activities were appearing in newspapersnationwide and Reconstruction governors realized they fac...
