White Supremacy And Terror Politics:A Study On The Rise Of The Second Ku Klux Klan Movement

In general,we refer to the political,economic,and social reforms that took place in the United States from 1880 to 1917 as the "Progressive Movement".The progressive movement essentially is a bourgeois reform with the middle class as the main body and participation of all social strata.Its purpose is to eliminate various social abuses caused by the transition from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism in the United States,and to reconstruct civilized social value system and economic order in line with modern industrial cities.The United States in this period is both a continuation of the political and economic tradition since its founding and a reflection on the way out in a new age.This thesis will focus on the second KKK movement that is considered as one of the most important and neglected social movements in the 20 th century in the United States.In the social reform movement,the progressive era with the banner of progress,freedom,and democracy,the second KKK movement was known for being conservative,repressive,and reactionary.Generally,the movement is considered to be a reaction to the mainstream progressive thoughts that appeared at the turn of the century.However,the extreme ideology represented by the KKK was a right-wing social political tradition originating from the founding of the United States,under the wave of reform that happened at the turning point of a turning time,absorbed some “progressive” claims of contemporary progessivism.Taking the white supremacy as the main banner,it used terrorism which was a main political measure as an extremely ideological trend.In the United States,the main idea that freedom and democracy occupy the main position does not seem to be absurd.The parallels of the two thoughts “freedom and democracy” also revealed the complexity of American social development.This thesis attempts to collate and analyze the background,ideological origins,political activities,and features of the KKK’s generation for the second time,hopes to better understand the United States.This thesis consists of three parts,and they are respectively introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction introduces the reasons for choosing the second KKK movement in the progressive era as the research object,as well as the academic review,academic value and practical value,the research content,research objectives,and key issues for resolution.The main text consists of four parts: The first part is about the connection between progressivism and the second KKK movement,which mainly analyzes the new issues of modern American society in the progressive era,the relationship between progressivism and the second KKK movement,the influence of the First World War on the Progressive Movement and the KKK,and the analysis of the second KKK movement in the Mississippi State.This section considers progressivism as one of the backgrounds of the second KKK movement rejuvenation and analyzes its relevance.The second part focuses on the theoretical and practical basis of the white supremacy and the KKK,analyzes the ideological roots of white supremacy in the United States,the racialistic biology with racial overtones and racial optimization theory at the turn of the century,and the Americanization movement promoted by progressives and the general public.It attempts to define and distinguish the concept of “white supremacy” from the perspective of racism and the “Anglo-Uniquity” in general sense in order to analyze the connection between the white supremacy and the second KKK movement.The third part discusses the theoretical sources,practical activities of the specific KKK’s terrorist activities,and the ultimate restraint attitude of the general public,and also analyzes the terror political tradition of the United States and the relationship between the KKK and the U.S.two-party politics.The fourth part defines and summarizes the second KKK movement from the perspective of Alternative Right,points out the three characteristics of the movement: the ideological trend of the national extreme right-wing,the white supremacy of racism,Nonprogressivism in a cloak of progressivism.This section regards the second KKK movement as part of the extreme right-wing conservatism of the United States,and its influence on the progressive era and even contemporary American society were introduced.