They Called Themselves the KKK

They Called Themselves the KKK is a 2010 historical nonfiction book by Susan Campbell Bartoletti documenting the circumstances that led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War in 1865. The book is geared towards young adults and was a YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction finalist. Bartoletti uses testimony, interviews, historical journals, diary entries, and archived images from newspapers to bring the text to life. She has written several books about hate and terrorist groups, all geared toward young adult audiences.

Bartoletti begins the story in Camden, Arkansas, in 1865. The Civil War is raging, but this doesn’t stop the daily grind of farming operations. A young slave named Mittie Williams hears news of the war through her mistress, Miss Eliza. Williams is privy to the fact that Lincoln has signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that would free the slaves. She can sense that her owner is nervous about the outcome of the war, and resents the “Yankees” who have come from the north to enforce the Proclamation.

A few weeks later, on April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant, signaling the end of the war and the beginning of the Reconstruction period. Lincoln, who is supposed to guide the transition, is assassinated before his efforts begin. Vice President Andrew Johnson is put in charge, and his bias toward the Southern states makes him a very different leader from Lincoln.



His task is not easy, however. After the war, Confederate money has no value, and the Southern states’ economy is obliterated because of the loss of slave labor. Most families have lost a son, and the body count is still rising. Buildings are burned and reduced to ruins, and many farmers are left with only their land. In addition, racism is deeply entrenched, and many whites fear that blacks will “take over” and enslave them in revenge.

Testimonies describe this time as hopeless and lost, but also boring because the stress of the war is over. Six white men – John Lester, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, James Crowe, Frank McCord, and John Kennedy – start having conversations in a local law office in Pulaski, Tennessee. There is speculation about their initial motives, but the disenfranchised men start a club, in part, to regain their sense of worth. They name themselves “Kuklos” and add “Klan,”—both words for “circle”—ungracefully naming their club “Circle Circle.”

They start by dressing as ghosts, breaking up picnics, and raiding the houses of black families. Their group is anonymous until others start to discover their antics. A surprising number of people want to join the group, if not because of its racist actions, then because of a desire for power. The Klan meets in Nashville during the Southern Democratic Convention in an attempt to gain more clout. Its main goal is to fight the Reconstruction efforts. Its disturbing manifesto asserts that America is “founded by the white race and for the white race only.”



President Johnson, while not exactly encouraging the Klan’s efforts, is lenient about prohibiting laws that would return black men to slavery. In 1868, Congress impeaches Johnson. He is acquitted by one vote but loses most of his power for the remainder of his term. In the same year, Ulysses S. Grant replaces him as President and works to give blacks the right to vote.

During this time, the battle for equality in the South is still raging. Sharecropping is begun as a result of the loss of slave labor. Black farmers are allowed to receive a third of the crop in exchange for their work, while white farmers receive two-thirds for providing them the land. This system partially revives the South’s economy, but white planters are loose with their contracts and find petty reasons to break agreements with black workers.

Other struggles arise for the “freedmen,” as the former slaves are now called. They have a right to education but almost no way in which to access it. A group called the Freedman’s Bureau, made up of abolitionists from the North, comes to the Southern states to aid the freedmen. Ministers help blacks build up communities by promoting an early form of “black pride.” They also encourage blacks to be involved in politics, get an education, and fight for the right to vote.



As a result of this new independence in the black community, Klan violence increases. The night raids continue, and whippings and public hangings become a regular event. The Klan starts to complain of blacks owning guns and calls on its members to show up to protest. The governor of Tennessee eventually recalls all guns sold to blacks.

News of the race war in the South makes its way to President Grant. He creates the Ku Klux Klan Act in order to assess the situation. He sends spies to observe Klan meetings and to interview blacks about hate crimes at the hands of the Klan. This continues for eight months as Grant tries desperately to create equality in the South.

Grant allegedly weakens the KKK, but the group still forms sects in secret, often under false names such as the White Liners and the White Caps. By 1876, the entire country is disillusioned by the Reconstruction and elects Rutherford B. Hayes, who essentially agrees to keep his hands out of the South’s problems. In the epilogue, Bartoletti acknowledges that the Klan has never entirely dissolved. She gives a brief timeline of the Civil Rights Movement starting from 1863 and details an unsettling Klan Congress meeting she attended in 2006, long after the group was said to have disbanded. Bartoletti’s overall stance is quite clear, and she does not hesitate to label the KKK as terrorists as early as the book’s extended title, which is, The Birth of an American Terrorist Group.