The Race Issue in America 1929-90
2. Reactions to life in 1929 - The NAACP and the
KKK
In this second episode, we'll look at two organisations that reacted in two very different ways to
the situation black American's found themselves in in 1929. The NAACP and the Ku Kux Klan.
The NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (or NAACP) was an
organisation which opposed racism and campaigned to end segregation. They were established in
1910 by a group of campaigners, both black and white, and they still exist today.
The NAACP used legal action, public enquiries and other legal and non-violent activities to raise
awareness of the unjust way black Americans were being treated. During the 1920s they
campaigned against the lynching of many black Americans, although their campaigns changed as the
years went on and the issues faced by black Americans changed.
The NAACP were different to many of the other groups campaigning on behalf of black
Americans, because they were proposing integration and equality between black and white
Americans. Many other campaigners at the time were actually pushing for more independence for
black Americans, in other words more segregation, but with more rights. One group, the UNIA
actually campaigned for black Americans to be able to return to various countries in Africa.
The NAACP were important because they campaigned for equality for black Americans when to
do so was both unpopular and in some places, dangerous. They are also important because they
chose to use legal and peaceful means of demonstration, ideas that would be picked up and
developed by the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's
The KKK
The Ku Kux Klan were a group of white Americans who were opposed to giving any rights or
freedoms to black people, who they generally regarded as being sub-human. The Klan had its
origins in the years after the Civil War as a group who opposed the freeing of slaves. By the 1920s
they had become popular again, and enjoyed a membership of 5 million in 1925. The Klan used
violence not only against black Americans, but against anyone they saw as inferior (including Jews,
Catholics and immigrants) and anyone who supported the idea of equal rights. They were
extremely powerful in the Southern States, and with members who were judges, policemen and
politicians had free reign to do as they saw fit.
The most brutal and well known of their tactics was lynching. Once a group of Klansmen had
decided that someone was guilty of a crime, a mob would track them down, beat them, and then
hang them from a nearby tree. Many of the victims of lynching were innocent of the crimes of
which they were accused, but the power of the Klan made that irrelevant. 119 black Americans
The Race Issue in America 1929-90
were killed in this way in the 1930's, and many others where beaten by mobs organised by the
Klan. In this way black Americans in the south were kept in firmly in their place as second class
citizens, and afraid to speak up or protest.
The Klan were important because of the power they held in the Southern States. The popularity of
the Klan also shows us just how widespread the support for racism and segregation there was.
For your exam
Make sure you can explain who the NAACP and the KKK were, what they wanted, and why they
were important.