After the Civil War, the South suffered from both economic hardship and drastic social
change. For centuries, the south had relied on slave.Fear, anger and frustration. These are
three themes that run throughout all hate groups. Most hate groups form during times of
economic hardship or social change. Certain groups of people begin to blame another
group for the reason of a major social or economical change.
s to harvest crops at plantations. When the slaves were freed, the plantations weren't
being worked on anymore, causing the owners to loose a lot of money. When this
happened, six former Confederate soldiers started a hate group called the Ku Klux Klan.
During the post-Civil War era, the Klan was very popular among southern whites. Their
ignorance was feeding the fire that blacks were the root of their problem, when in reality
the white's ignorance is the root of their own problems.
The Klan has since died down and risen numerous times with the start of many
social changes such as the women's rights movement (1920's) and the civil rights
Another large and devastating hate group is the neo-Nazis. These working-class
people blame all immigrants for taking jobs away from the whites. Their ignorance pushes
them so far as to violently attack and kill blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and
Hate crimes can happen anytime, anywhere. In a small Texas town of Jasper,
Texas, 3 white men are under heavy guard after being accused of a murder of an innocent
man. Shawn Berry,23, Lawrence Brewer,31, and John King, 23, allegedly members of the
extremist Aryan Brotherhood, dragged a black man to his death behind a pick-up truck,
ripping his body to pieces. James Byrd, Jr., a 49 year-old, former vacuum cleaner salesman
disabled by an arm injury, was walking home from a party celebrating the wedding of his
niece, when he was picked up by the three white men, who offered him a ride. Acc...