When a group of neo-Nazis got together in the Grampians, a popular Victorian tourist destination, over the Australia Day weekend, images of the masked men standing in front of a burning cross made national headlines.
But how did the cross – the principal symbol of Christianity, and a sign of love and sacrifice – become tied up with the KKK as a symbol of hatred?
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the 1860s as a club for Confederate veterans. It was established as a vigilante group against the progress of Reconstruction – the period after the American Civil War when attempts were made to redress the inequalities of slavery and its legacy, and readmit the Union of 11 states that had seceded. The first wave of the Klan had members from all parts of US Southern white society and used violent intimidation to prevent Black people (or white people seen as supporting them) from voting or holding political office.
“The first KKK was a terrorist organisation in the literal meaning of the word ‘terror’,” said Linda Gordon, Professor of History at New York University and author of The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan.
Read the article by Kaley Payne in Eternity News.