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Class Year

2026

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Abstract: The Ku Klux Klan used a number of tactics to impact the judicial system of the South, tactics that can be seen in public interviews of Congress’s Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. Intimidation was a powerful and widespread strategy of the KKK to create fear and inhibit the judicial system. Deception was also key to KKK activities, as many times KKK crimes went unprosecuted due to the secrecy of the offenders. Some popular support for what the KKK stood for and judges who were either ineffective or KKK sympathizers made up a final group that held the judicial system’s power in check. These actions had impacts on the judicial system that resulted in a widespread fear of the KKK, the spread of aggressive amounts of misinformation, people in power corrupted by KKK ideology, and widespread political and racial bias.

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