AHC: have the KKK be forgotten

samcster94

Banned
In OTL, the KKK is one of America's worst creations. A revival effort in the early 20th century brought it back, but it was a 19th century creation as a paramilitary organization. My goal is to prevent it from being remembered at all(where it appears obscure in textbooks). The idea of TTL, no matter how racist people are(a Jim Crow analog is inevitable), is to prevent the Klan from being remembered(I know this barely crosses the 1900 line). Bonus points if a different groups is not remembered instead.
 
Don't have Thomas Dixon's books get popular, at least not to the degree they can have that one Hollywood movie from 1915 made about them.

That said, it's kinda a moot point since you'd be bound to get at least a few awful groups like the Klan (both Second Klan and Third Klan) unless you significantly alter the way the South worked past Reconstruction. Even then you'd probably just get some Klan-like group in the South backing the worst of Southern racism (your Theodore Bilbo types) and some anti-immigrant group in the North which is basically like the Second Klan. The difference is they aren't united under one leadership like the Second Klan is.

The biggest difference is they don't base themselves on a freaking movie like the Klan did. Hell, maybe this hypothetical racist group would base themselves more on the actual original KKK rather than Thomas Dixon/D.W. Griffith's romanticised version.

The original Klan for that matter is the same way, since it's a natural reaction to Reconstruction and if they didn't exist some other group would've filled their role. Would've helped Pulaski, Tennessee's (ironically named for a Catholic Polish guy i.e. the antithesis of Klandom) reputation big time if some other group had become as big as the Klan. On the other hand, no one would care about Pulaski, Tennessee aside from being yet another small town off the interstate, so there you go.

Ergo, the solution is to prevent the Civil War entirely and have a different end to slavery and sectional tensions in the US.
 
I don't believe that forgotting KKK or other hate groups would be good idea. Same if we just would try forgot Nazis. If we forgot such hate groups we too forgot how bad thing racists can do.
 
In OTL, the KKK is one of America's worst creations. A revival effort in the early 20th century brought it back, but it was a 19th century creation as a paramilitary organization. My goal is to prevent it from being remembered at all(where it appears obscure in textbooks). The idea of TTL, no matter how racist people are(a Jim Crow analog is inevitable), is to prevent the Klan from being remembered(I know this barely crosses the 1900 line). Bonus points if a different groups is not remembered instead.

Fairly easy, though I know some people say the path is impossible. Booth misses; Lincoln conducts Reconstruction on very different terms from Johnson. He actively recruits Southerners into the Republican Party by touting the Republican parallel to the old Whig program - protective tariffs, internal improvement. He pushes for extensive "internal improvements" in the South, to help the South recover from the effects of war - which wins over some public opinion and offers a lot of patronage opportunities. He of course uses existing Federal patronage, such as the Post Office. He doesn't stampede white Southerners with demands for immediate civil equality for blacks - which means black majority rule in two states and many counties in other states. But he does insist that blacks have freedom of movement and freedom of contract, the same protection of the laws, and that at least some be considered proper citizens and vote.

There's a backlash to this, but since there is no immediate threat of "negro domination", the backlash is limited. There are no white paramilitaries to fight, i.e. the Klan never exists. Some white Democratic politicians start making use of negro votes. (OTL that happened in 1900-1910; Boss Crump's Memphis political machine used black votes.)

Over time, racial barriers break down gradually. By 1900, it becomes customary for black men to serve as aldermen and county commissioners, representing all-black areas or as at-large members, even a few state legislators. Also, in heavily black areas most school boards have a black member. Sure, it's tokenism, but it's also a step toward civil equality; and because there is still no question of black rule, it's accepted.

The early 1900s see a shakeup, with blacks demanding a non-token share of power, at the same time as populist whites attack entrenched political elites - the old courthouse crowd, and the remnants of the old plantation class. The two groups of reformers are uneasy allies, but nonetheless work together in several states. Blacks also gain significant power outside the South, which puts pressure on the South to move forward. Enough of the flood of immigration lands in the South to dilute white Southern allegiance to the Lost Cause.

The landmark Supreme Court decision Chappelle v. Buckner (1935) strikes down the remaining restrictions on black voting. This initiates a political and social transformation, as blacks exercise their increased power to overturn "separate but equal" government institutions and actually gain authority in majority black areas. When the sky does not fall, resistance ebbs. Neighborhoods and public accommodations not provided by government remain largely segregated into the 1970s, but as more of a voluntary association thing than marks of supremacy and subordination. Even as late as 2000, there are still a few explicitly "white-only" private clubs, housing developments, and some other things, but in general, and outside the South, nobody cares.
 
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