On This Day: Lancaster paper reports on Klan trial

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1866 as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee. At about the same time our nation was undergoing a Reconstruction period as we attempted to heal from the Civil War. What began as a social club for mostly Confederate veterans, quickly turned into a political organization and soon devolved into a vehicle of hatred, racism and prejudice.

The Banks County (Georgia) KKK trial began on 23 October 1883 in Atlanta, GA. The trial made news across the country and On This Day in 1883 the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer reported on the trial.

Warren Bryson testified he was called from his house and beaten by a crowd of masked men. Calvin Bush testified that a mob pulled him out from bed, striped him and gave him over a hundred lashes. Elisha Brooks told the court he was whipped by the crowd and that he recognized Jasper Yarbrough in the crowd. Ben Sanders told the court he had been shot three times and left for dead by a mob.

Source

Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. (Lancaster, PA), 24 October 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.

On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

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