The violence which, for a short time, had helped the Klan to
grow, would eventually contribute to its decline. It appealed to
public animosity against Catholics, Jews, and Negroes, but its
own vitriolic crusade swung segments of that same public opinion
in favor of its victims. The Klan revival was particularly
disheartening to Negroes, who had assumed that the Klan was
dead. While slavery was gone, brutality and intimidation
remained. Half a century after the demise of the original Klan,
it had risen again and, this time, had become a nationwide
phenomenon. Jim Crow was the law in the South, and racism had
become rampant in the North. Slavery had been abolished, but
Negroes were aware that they still were not free.
PART THREE The Search For Equality
CHAPTER 8
The Crisis of Leadership
The Debate over Means and Ends
In the nineteenth century the problem that faced the Afro-
American community was how to destroy the institution of
slavery. In the twentieth century the question was how to
achieve equality. Frederick Douglass had been in the vanguard of
the fight to overthrow the peculiar institution.
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