Our captivating talk with historian and author fergus bordewich. The Capital Historical Society chartered by congress, a nonprofit organization, is designed to tell the story of the capital and the people who work there in a manner that inspires informed patriotism. Today is clearly of that effort. Were going to discuss mr. Bordewich s new book clash war Ulysses Grant and the battle to save reconstruction, which is actually a story not just about president grant, but about the role that Congress Actually played in all of this activity. Because he found the results of one of the very first investigative committees of congress. This multivolume report part of the investigation on the Klu Klux Klan that went the south and story is told throughout his book, which talks about the bloody reconstruction era roots and how really influences whats going on today. This story he will tell details how the federal government wields, its power to try to dismiss the Klu Klux Klan, defined as the first organized terrorist movement in American History. That out of the ashes of the civil war at the peak of its, you know, power in the early 19, 1870s. The klan boasted tens of thousands of members. No small of the landowners Law Enforcement officers, doctors, journalists, churchmen. Future governors and Congress People to to repel that that boro went through a tidal wave of violence. President grant a two term battle against both the armed southern of reconstruction and. Northern politicians seduced by the visions of postwar reconciliation testing the limits of the federal government in determining the extent of states rights. You will hear from our author how he transports us into that time. Fergus bordewich is the author of eight previous books, all nonfiction, including congress at war how james madison, George Washington and a group of extraordinary men invented the government and so many more. Hes independent historian and has been a writer since the early 1970s. We are so honored to have him here with us today to tell what he learned in his book, to share the story of his book and of the klan war. And he will be with us for a good set of questions. So you can put your questions in the q a. But first, were going to hear from our author, fergus. Take it away. Certainly, of course, you to the u. S. Capitol Historical Society. One of my absolute favorite organization is in america. And i appreciate your having me there. And hello to everyone whos on this zoom. Wherever you may be be, im not going to read anything from the book, but i am going to open by reading a very short quote from w. E. Dubois, which in sense explains why, i wrote this book, or at least puts what ive done here in context. W. E. B. , i dont think needs any any excellent. He wrote in 1935, in his book black reconstruction, which should be much better known, more widely read than it is, at any rate. This is what he wrote in 1935. One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea. Evil must be forgotten distorted and skimmed over the difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive. An example it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does tell the truth. If he says we are going to use history for our pleasure and amusement for inflating our national ego and giving us a false but pleasurable sense of accomplishment, then we must give up the idea of history. It raises science. Or, as an art and what this is about, what hes saying here is that we cant afford to obscure or or hide or airbrush aspects of our past, even if those aspects are troubling. And thats what happened. The history of reconstruction for 100 years or more. Those of you who may have been educated as i was back in the 1950s and 1960s, probably learned very about reconstruction, very about the historical ku klux and next to nothing about the extremely violent terrorism that was perpetrated against black freed people and white republicans by the klan in the late 1860s and early 1870s. So i wrote this book in part i had several motives, but in part i wanted because i wanted to show that organized terrorism has roots deep in American History. Today, when we talk about terrorism, we think of it as something foreign isis, al qaeda or lately hamas. But in fact, its embedded deeply in American Life and history and i deeply troubling about it that history is that it was perpetrated by otherwise respectable, often middle class or even upper class america. Theres kind of a myth that the ku klux klan was made up of losers and louts and hooligans. And so but in fact, it was largely founded and led by educated at its six founders, Royal College graduates in tennessee. 1866 and its leaders almost everywhere. As jane said, her introduction were professional people, landowners, doctors, sometimes churchmen, journalists and so on. They were community leaders, which makes what they perpetrated all the more disturbing. They cant be written off by dismissing the the kind of people who who made up the klan. So. Im going to talk about a couple of things here. Im going to talk about what the klan was, the klan of the 1870s, and then ill talk about how the federal government coped with it and in which, yes, as jane said, congress as well as president grant played a pivotal roles. So insofar we think of the ku klux klan today, its most often i think the klan of the 20th century. Many of us remember its more recent. Ascendancy in the 19 oh sixties and so on, in reaction to the civil rights movement. The original ku klux klan was founded, as i said, in 1866, and a small city a large town, pulaski, tennessee, which is south of nashville, was founded by a group of confederate war veterans, young men who were bored and and fishing around for Something Interesting to do. So they created this what was at the beginning a kind of local fraternity that dressed up in weird costumes and popped up in odd places, town and among their other entertainments, which is how they saw it, was to scare local black people. Whats going on whats the context of the time . This is early reconstruction, just after the end of the civil war, freed people nearly 4 million freed people are for the first time able to assert themselves as americans. If not wholly, yet as citizens. That comes a little bit later, but as at least free individuals. An end, you have to think of whats taking place in the south as a racial revolution thats going to change social, political relations across the south. That revolution provokes, a reaction, a violent reaction, that reaction is spearheaded by the ku klux klan. So this this rather small group and polaski, by the way, they call themselves the ku klux klan. Why . They were they were experimenting with different oddball names. It doesnt mean anything. It has no secret at meaning at all. Although the klan was very secretive in its organization, the name meant nothing was meant to sound a bit weird and spooky. And it is. They tried other names which were less catchy. It fell by the wayside. A few months later, a a group of former former high ranking confederate officers meeting in nashville recognizing the spread of this weird organizing. Not far away around and adjoining counties set out to transform the klan specifically into a terrorist and political organization. The for the most part across the south as it as it very rapidly expanded became the paramilitary arm of the southern Democratic Party, the reactionary party of its time, the party bent on destroying, subverting, reconstruct and preventing a free now free black americans from participating in public life. Its political was the destruction of an embryonic two party system in the south. The republic and party is brand new. Its bi racial. Virtually all freed people once they can participate in politics become republicans. Theyre joined at the beginning by a significant number of white southerners who were demeaned. As time goes by with this term scalawags, which is an insult of course, but white republicans spend quite a wide range. Theyre often victims of the klan, too. So its important to realize that the klans primary goal was political to destroy this embryonic Republican Party. As well as to scare free black people out of public life. Im. So at any rate, the klan. Very quickly in 1867, 68, 69. How did that happen . Well. The klan recruited at the beginning, Nathan Bedford forrest, those of you who know Civil War History will recognize his name. He was a an extremely wealthy prewar slave trader based in memphis. He made fortune buying and selling human beings. He served as a general in the Confederate Army during the war, a very talented cavalry commander, very talented commander who. Led his cavalry, often as a kind of Guerrilla Force behind union lines. And thats signify in the way that the klan in the tactics the klan adopted later on. And bedford forest was also a criminal. He presided the massacre of a black Union Garrison in 1864 at fort pillow in tennessee. He was he originally boasted about. Then when it was clearly became was so shocking that it was bad publicity even for the. He backed off and, denied it and after the war he was he had he had military charisma, lets say military charisma. He was recruited by the founders of the klan to become first grand wizard and in that role. But traveling more or less undercover, he traveled around the south, helping set up dens. Klan as they were called, usually ten, ten, 20, 30 people to a group. One county might have many clans. They met metastasized. They, as they said, spread very quickly wherever dens popped up. Violence soon followed. The violence perpetrated by the klan was often savage. It involved, at a minimum, the intimidation of black free people and white republicans. Floggings, stabbings, beatings, shootings, rapes, abuse of women and children. Sometimes truly barbaric tortures, which im not going to describe here. I try not to dwell beyond the necessary amount on this in book, but it needs to be clear what was perpetrated and why the klan was terrifying as it was, and what terrorism really was like in the hamlets and towns of the south. So thats thats how the klan came to be. And i want to say at this point, the klan was not a continuous organization. There were three clans. There was the klan im talking about of the 1860s and 70 is the klan was crushed by Ulysses Grant and the federal government in the early 1870s . The klan is reinvented in the 20th century. Its probably the only terrorist movement inspired by a movie or famous film. Birth of a nation and the klan therefore developed in the 19 tens. First in the 1920s, and faded at the end of that decade, because internal corruption and was then really essentially re founded after war two in reaction to the civil rights movement. So we have to think of three clans not a continue with organization obviously the second and third clans based their their their style paraphernalia and and their their tactics on the first clan. But this is what were talking about here is is the is the mother clan, so to speak. So how many members did the clan have . Its unknown that that is unknowable, except that membership in counties, many counties is document able had been more than 50 in 64, and 70 of the white male population. Total number, probably couple of hundred thousand. The klan was a secret as it could be, but thats n it was. Its members were often very widely known in their communities because they they arose from those communities. What what were the disguises about . Partly to terrify people. Partly to grant anonymity. To people. Or participate headed in. In in terrorist acts. And anonymity allowed people, men, to do things that they might might not do if. Their faces were seen even by their fellows in the klan. I so i. Initially, the federal government is unable to cope with the klan. Theres theres a kind of myth that the south was, under military occupation during reconstruction in 1865, at the very end of the war, july 1565, there were about a million federal troops in the south. They demobilized very rapidly. Northerners didnt want or didnt want to pay for an army that size. By 1868, there were 12,000 troops spread all across the south. North carolina, i had just a couple of hundred mississippi at one point had fewer than 200 for the entire state. This doesnt constitute military occupation. Nearly all these were infantry. Its rather hard, if you think about it, for an infantryman to capture a klansman on horseback. So the klan carried out its terrorism virtually with impunity for years. The Andrew Johnson administration was not very interested in prosecuting the klan. In addition klansmen, the klan intimidated or coopted Law Enforcement judges, juries and so on. So there very, very little prosecute people who testified in clan were often murdered. That was part of the terrorist goal of the klan. So how did how does government deal with. Finally, i crucial is the passage of the 14th amendment which extends civil rights or Citizenship Rights lets say Citizenship Rights to free people across the south and. Seems to provide a guarantee that those rights will be protected. There is a great debate thats taking in congress thats taking place across the country about who what entity can enforce civil rights. Traditionally, insofar as civil rights can be enforced, its by the states. You think rights was a as a political argument, died with the defeat of the confederacy . It didnt. It persisted well, after the war. Still with us today, obviously so it was generally presumed that states it was the duty of states enforce civil rights and to protect citizens. Well, most states didnt particularly when there were no federal troops, courts couldnt be trusted. And local militias were weak or nonexistent. And. In 1871, congress and i think this will be of particular interest to to you on this the soon today a Congress Passes three enforcement acts are designed to give the federal government the authority to enforce the 14th amendment in the south and and third the third of those acts is known as the klux klan act. And its very specific in describing and making illegal the klan. The klan, the behaviors of the klan wearing costumes on a public or in wearing disguises while invading a home home in the middle of the night in daylight, on public roads, in many other very specific details make it clear that the klan is the target. Or part of whats taking place. At the same. And jane referred to this was an extreme investigation by the congress of the United States by a joint committee essentially to investigate the ku klux klan. It was probably the most expensive, extensive, if not expensive, extensive oral investigation to date. It produced incredible 13 volumes of testimony. Im going to show you a volume. This is a short one. This is for florida, the smallest, but there are 13 volumes. Thousands and thousands of pages in all. And this committee, joint committee dominated by republic gans, of course, who were a majority in congress at the time, took testimony in. Washington on capitol hill in the capitol and also dispatched subcommittees across the south. Most of the former confederate states, where testimony was taken in localities almost everywhere. A few states. It skipped a few states for reasons that cant get into and it. Took testimony from hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. It was the First Federal investigation that. Im aware of the testimony from africanamericans and also the first to my knowledge, the took testimony from women many women, both black and white, testified many africanamericans. And much of that testimony is extremely poignant. There are witnesses who talk about walking 30 miles to get to the Committee Hearing room. There are witnesses who are murdered, it turns out, for testifying and the extraordinary forthrightness detail with which African Americans in particular testify is is breathtaking for the first time, black in the south have an audience with authority thats listening to what they have to say. And they talk in great detail about the difficulties, their life as free people. The the intimidation they their family have undergone. How members of their family, even wives, children have been murdered, tortured, flogged by the ku klux klan. How in other ways theyve been punished for trying to vote this investigate mission is in large part a huge chronicle of voter intimidation, Voter Suppression and and of every imaginable type, ranging from putting guns to peoples heads on election day to stealing boxes, stuffing ballot boxes and so on. So this this investigation, this this report, 13 volumes was a is an extraordinary resource as it was for me. I use it a great length for material in the book and the questioning itself. And i say this because i think im this is this room. There are a lot of people who know how congress works. The interrogation of witnesses is really quite interesting. The committee includes, both radical republicans who are naturally sympathetic to black and other republican witnesses and also includes democrats, a northern democrats who are on the whole very hostile to black witnesses and and republicans and you see them in time, essentially undermining attempting to undermine witnesses who are telling we know the truth about what was happening to them and taking extraordinary risks to testify at all. And, you know, these volumes, by the way, are are available online. They can be downloaded. They make they make challenging reading only because the tape the tape is about that small and if you see me wearing glasses, its for a reason or. And theres also excellent material in other sources which are used to research the book in archives in the south and a Freedmans Bureau reports and also material in the National Archives as well as material that was very timely. Its