Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant and I'll be your history teacher for today.

I'm really looking forward to starting our learning journey together, and my role will be to make sure that you can meet today's learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the boom years in the USA, where we're asking ourselves, what was the impact of the boom on the lives of the American people? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to assess the racial tensions which existed in the USA during the 1920s.

There are three keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are Klansmen, supremacy, and minorities.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan were known as Klansmen.

Supremacy refers to a situation where one thing is considered better than another.

And minorities are small groups of people within a country who differ from the main population in race, religion, culture, or language.

In the USA, this included African Americans and recent immigrants.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts and we'll begin by asking ourselves, who were the Ku Klux Klan? The Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, was originally founded in the 1860s to terrorise African Americans.

A film produced in 1915 helped to revive the KKK's appeal and popularity in the USA.

This film was called "The Birth of a Nation," and a poster for it can be seen on the screen.

There were five million Klansmen who paid the fee or who'd been invited to join the organisation by 1925.

So, reflecting on what we've just heard, I want you to write the missing statistic in the following sentence.

By 1925, there were blank members of the KKK.

So what's the missing statistic? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well then to everybody who said the missing statistic was five million.

By 1925, there were five million members of the KKK, giving us a really clear impression of just how popular that organisation was during the boom years.

Almost all Klansmen were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, otherwise known as WASPs.

The majority of members were also poor white people living in the South.

Overall membership was diverse, though.

We need to be careful not to act like only a few types of Americans were part of the KKK.

In fact, there were state governors in the South, such as George Walker, who was the Governor of Georgia, showing us that some powerful people were part of the KKK.

There were local officials, such as sheriffs and judges, and there were also many Klansmen in the North.

So, let's make sure our understanding of what we've just heard is really secure.

I want you to write the two missing words in the following sentence.

Almost all members in the KKK were blank Anglo-Saxon blank.

Now, at the end of this sentence, we've got the acronym WASPs in brackets.

Now, that can give you a little bit of a clue as to what our two missing words might be.

So pause the video here, write what you think the missing words are, and press play when you're ready to see if you got the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing words were White and Protestants.

Almost all members of the KKK were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, otherwise known as WASPs.

And let's try another question.

Which statement is most accurate: the majority of Klansmen enjoyed high incomes, the majority of Klansmen enjoyed middle incomes, or the majority of Klansmen were on low incomes? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

The majority of Klansmen were on low incomes.

Most Klansmen were actually quite poor.

The KKK believed in white and Protestant supremacy, so they believed that white Protestants were greater or better than any other group of people.

The KKK looked to defend what they called pure Americanism against African Americans, Catholics, and Jews.

Many poorer white Americans blamed these groups to explain why they had not enjoyed more prosperity themselves.

So, let's reflect on what we've just heard.

We've got a statement on the screen, which reads: the KKK supported all white Americans.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response, so two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the KKK argued that Catholics and Jews were not pure Americans.

And the second says that the KKK argued that only white people living in the South were pure Americans.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A.

The KKK argued that Catholics and Jews were not pure Americans.

This shows us that the KKK did not support all white Americans.

In fact, they saw Jews, Catholics, and African Americans as threats to what they called pure Americanism.

And let's try another question.

How did economic factors influence membership of the Ku Klux Klan? Was it that many members blamed minorities for their own lack of prosperity, that membership was treated as a protest against the government's trade policies, or that poor WASPs were able to join the Ku Klux Klan for free? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A.

Many members of the Ku Klux Klan blamed minorities, so Jews, Catholics, African-Americans, for their own lack of prosperity.

And this shows is that economic factors were important for encouraging some members to join the KKK.

So, we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about who the KKK were into practise.

We're gonna split Task A into two parts.

First, I want you to study the following statements about the KKK and identify which are true and which are false.

So our statements say: the Ku Klux Klan only had a small membership isolated to the South, the Ku Klux Klan believed in white and Protestant supremacy, the KKK were only hostile towards African Americans, and the majority of Klansmen were rich and powerful WASPs.

Once you've completed part one of Task A, you should then move on to the second part, where I want you to rewrite any of the false statements, and you should provide additional detail to help correct those statements.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So, firstly, I asked you to study each of our statements about the KKK and identify which were true and which were false.

So you should have said that statement A was false, that statement B was true, that statement C was false, and that statement D was also false.

And this means we needed to correct statements A, C, and D for part two of our task.

So, when you were rewriting our false statements and providing additional detail to help correct them, your answers may have included: the Ku Klux Klan enjoyed nationwide membership.

By 1925, five million Americans were part of the Klan.

The KKK were hostile to all groups they did not consider pure Americans, including African Americans, Catholics, and Jews.

And, the majority of Klansmen were WASPs, but most of these were poor white Americans who blamed their own hardships on minorities.

So really well done if you identified all of those incorrect statements rightly in part one of Task A and if you managed to rewrite them in a way that looks similar to the models we've just seen.

And now we're ready to move on to part two of our lesson where we're gonna focus on the actions of the Klan.

The KKK was a racist terror group.

At times, the KKK resorted to extreme violence and illegal activities.

However, the Klan also pursued its goals of white and Protestant supremacy through some legal methods as well.

During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan repeatedly acted in ways intended to demonstrate its power and support.

In both 1925 and 1926, the KKK organised marches in Washington D.

C.

, the capital of the USA.

Klansmen dressed in white robes and carried American flags during the march.

An image of this can be seen on the screen.

It was estimated that 30,000 Klansmen from across the USA travelled to Washington D.

C.

to participate in the 1926 march, and the event was watched by a further 150,000 people who lined the streets of the city.

The KKK also worked hard to organise its members during elections.

The KKK hoped that by lending its support to particular candidates they could gain greater political influence.

Many local officials, such as mayors and sheriffs, were members of the Klan.

Several state governors elected during the 1920s were either Klansmen or elected with KKK support.

This included George Walker, who was Governor of Georgia from 1923 to 1927, regularly consulted leaders of the KKK from his state on policy matters.

So, let's make sure we've got a secure understanding of what we've heard so far about the actions of the Klan.

I want you to study the photograph on the screen.

What two inferences could historians make from the photo, that the KKK enjoyed high levels of support, that the KKK had sheriffs, judges, and governors as members, that the KKK wanted to influence politicians, or that the KKK was a racist group? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that one of the inferences we could make from this photograph is that the KKK enjoyed high levels of support.

We can see in the image many different members of the Klan dressed in their white robes stretching all along the street shown in the photograph.

Another inference that could be made from this source is that the KKK wanted to influence politicians.

We can tell this because this KKK march which is photographed was happening in Washington D.

C.

You can even see Congress in the background.

The presence of the KKK in that city is deliberately chosen because it's where the nation's lawmakers sat, so they were trying to influence them by showing just how popular they were as an organisation.

So really well done if you identified both of those correct inferences.

And let's try another question.

Which statement is most accurate? George Walker was a Klansman but refused to support the KKK once elected Governor of Georgia, George Walker was a Klansman and consulted KKK leaders once elected Governor of Georgia, or George Walker was a Klansman and replaced all state officials with other KKK members once elected Governor of Georgia.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

George Walker was a member of the KKK and consulted KKK leaders once elected Governor of Georgia.

He was one of several state governors elected during the 1920s who was either a member of the KKK or achieved this position of power with the support of the KKK.

The KKK was willing to use violence to maintain white and Protestant supremacy.

In 1923, the KKK bombed a Catholic university in Ohio, although nobody was killed.

Other violent actions included kidnapping, whipping, and even lynching victims. During lynchings, white mobs killed a victim who they suspected of committing some type of events even though they hadn't been put on trial.

Most victims of lynchings were hanged.

59 African Americans were lynched in 1921 alone, mostly in the South where the KKK was strongest.

Illegal activity by the KKK often went unpunished.

In April 1921, Klansmen in Dallas, a city in Texas, kidnapped Alex Johnson, an African American, after he was accused of having sexual relations with a white woman.

The Klansmen burned the letters KKK into Johnson's forehead, before severely beating him.

The local police chief refused to punish the Klansmen for their actions, publicly stating that he believed that Johnson, the victim, deserved this treatment.

Encouraged by this, the Dallas KKK went on to whip 68 other people in 1922 as a form of punishment.

So, let's make sure that our understanding of what we've just heard is really secure.

We have a statement on the screen that reads: the KKK only attacked African Americans who had committed crimes.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response, so two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the KKK whipped and beat Alan Johnson as they believed he had sexual relations with a white woman.

And the second says that the KKK whipped and beat Alan Johnson at random.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A.

We can tell that the KKK didn't only attack African Americans who they thought had committed a crime because in 1921 the KKK whipped and beat Alan Johnson, an African American man, just because they believed he had had sexual relations with a white woman.

And let's try another question.

I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

In 1921, 59 African Americans were blank across the South.

So pause video here, write the missing word, and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was lynched.

In 1921, 59 African Americans were lynched across the South.

So in these violent incidents, these people were killed by white mobs simply because they were thought guilty of having committed some kind of offence, and yet they were never put on trial to prove their guilt for this.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about the actions of the KKK into practise.

I want you to study Source A.

It's an extract from a newspaper article published in 1922.

And it says, "The growth of the Ku Klux Klan in Texas has been marked by lawlessness and violence.

Klan violence has replaced action by the police and the courts.

In some areas, this has been made possible by cooperation between the Klan, sheriffs and judges." So, thinking about what is said in Source A, I want you to identify one thing the newspaper article tells historians about the actions of the KKK.

You should include a quote from Source A to support your answer.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to identify one thing the newspaper article tells historians about the actions of the KKK.

Your answer may have included: Source A tells historians that the KKK often acted illegally.

For example, in the source it says "the growth of the Ku Klux Klan in Texas has been marked by lawlessness and violence." Or you may have said, Source A tells historians that police officers and other legal authorities helped the Klan.

For example, it says that in some areas KKK violence was "made possible by cooperation between the Klan, sheriffs and judges." So well done if your own answer looks something like one of those two models we've just seen.

And now we can move on to the second part of Task B.

Still thinking about Source A, now I want you to answer, how accurately does the source represent the actions of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s? So for this question, you'll need to refer to your own knowledge to help explain your answer.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that part of Task B.

So I asked you, how accurately does Source A represent the actions the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s? And your answer may have included, Source A accurately represents the fact that the KKK often acted violently and illegally during the 1920s.

For example, in Dallas in 1922, the local Klan whipped 68 people as a form of punishment, rather than relying on proper legal methods.

However, the source does not represent the full range of KKK activities during the 1920s.

The Klan also pursued its aims non-violently by instructing members to vote for particular candidates during elections.

For example, support from the KKK helped George Walker to become Governor of Georgia and led to Klan members being included in policy discussions.

So well done if your own response.

looks something like that model.

You may have written something different, but the key thing is that you used your own knowledge to help back up your judgement about the accuracy of the source.

And now we are ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson today where we are gonna focus on racial tensions in the North and South.

After 1925, membership of the KKK declined sharply.

The decline of the KKK did not lead to an end of racial tensions.

Racial tensions existed in both the US North and South which were independent of the actions of the KKK.

There were similarities and differences between the racial tensions experienced in these areas.

Across the South, state laws known as Jim Crow laws were enforced, which segregated African Americans from whites.

Most public spaces, including schools, were segregated in the South.

In theory, segregated spaces had to be separate but equal.

So in other words, white and Black Americans might have different facilities to use, but these facilities should have been of the same quality.

However, in practise, the facilities provided for African Americans were often of very poor quality.

Segregation even governed people's relationships.

In 1924, the State of Virginia introduced a Racial Integrity Act.

This banned any marriage between a white person and a coloured person.

Under this law, anyone who had a single ancestor who was not white was classified as coloured.

Every state in the South had similar laws enforced during the 1920s banning racial intermarriage.

A smaller number of states in the North, such as Indiana, also had their own versions of these laws.

Furthermore, many African Americans were denied their right to vote by states in the South.

Although it was illegal to ban people from voting because of their race alone, other ways were found to stop African Americans from voting.

This included introducing difficult literacy tests or high taxpaying requirements.

These additional requirements excluded most African Americans in the South from voting because of their poverty and the poor education they were provided with under the segregated education systems in the region.

So, let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've heard so far.

Which two things were African Americans legally banned from doing in the South because of their race, attending the same school as white people, entering high-paying careers, marrying white people, or voting in elections? Remember, you're looking for two answers to this question.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that one of the things African Americans were legally banned from doing in the South because of their race was attending the same school as white people.

Schools were segregated across the South.

Although they were supposed to be separate but equal, the schools for African Americans were often of very poor quality.

And African Americans were also banned from marrying white people.

For example, in 1924, Virginia introduced the Racial Integrity Act, which said that anyone who had a single ancestor who was not white was a coloured person and that they could not marry a white person.

Although most African Americans were banned from voting in the South, this wasn't specifically because of their race, as that was not allowed.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement on the screen that says, segregated schools in the South had equal funding to ensure that they were separate but equal.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that states in the South set up schools for both white and Black children, but gave less funding for African American education.

And the second says that most states in the South refused to provide any funding for African American education.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was A.

States in the South set up schools for both white and Black children, but they gave less funding for African American education.

So well done if you got that right.

Widespread discrimination encouraged many African Americans to leave the South.

Hundreds of thousands migrated to cities in the North in what became known as the Great Migration.

In Chicago, the African American population increased by 148% between 1916 and 1919.

However, as African American populations rose rapidly in northern cities, so too did racial tensions.

Racial discrimination also remained a common experience.

For instance, New York's Cotton Club, a popular nightclub, was a whites-only establishment.

It did not accept Black customers, despite the fact that it regularly featured performances by African American artists like Duke Ellington.

This type of unofficial segregation could be found across the North.

In 1919, a group of African American teenagers were attacked in Chicago after accidentally straying into the unofficial whites-only area of the city's beach.

This attack, which killed one of the Black teenagers, escalated into seven days of further violence, during which 23 African Americans were killed.

Another 1000 to 2000 African Americans lost their homes after white mobs started a fire in the Black Belt, the area of Chicago where most of the city's Black population lived.

Although both Black and white residents participated in the violence, the Chicago police frequently refused to arrest white rioters.

So, let's make sure we have a really secure understanding of what we've just heard.

Which statement is accurate, Jim Crow laws were enforced throughout the North, no Jim Crow laws were en enforced in the North, but there was unofficial segregation, or no Jim Crow laws were enforced in the North and segregation only existed in the South? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

No Jim Crow laws were enforced in the North, but there was unofficial segregation.

For example, New York's most popular nightclub, the Cotton Club, was a whites-only establishment.

They did not accept Black customers.

And let's try another question.

We have a statement that reads, only the KKK was involved in racist attacks.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response, so two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that a large number of residents of Chicago, not just KKK members, were involved in the 1919 race riots.

And the second says that race riots occurred in some northern cities like Chicago, where the KKK had no members.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was A.

A large number of residents of Chicago, not just KKK members, were involved in the 1919 race riots, which led to the deaths of 23 African Americans.

It's important that we remember the KKK did have membership in the North and that there was violence against minority groups which occurred outside of the actions of the KKK.

So, we're now ready to put all of our knowledge about racial tension in the North and South into practise.

We have a claim from Andeep.

Andeep says that there was little racial tension in the North compared to in the South.

So, how accurate is Andeep's view of racial tension in the USA during the 1920s? I want you to write one paragraph to explain your answer.

You must refer to racial tension in both the North and South as part of your answer.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So we had our statement from Andeep, when he said there was little racial tension in the North compared to in the South.

And I asked you, how accurate is Andeep's view of racial tensions in the USA during the 1920s? Your answer may have included: Andeep's view is not accurate as there was significant racial tension in both the North and South.

In the South, Jim Crow laws enforced segregation so African Americans lived separately from white people and had to use different, often poorer-quality facilities.

By contrast, there were no Jim Crow laws in the North.

Nevertheless, many public spaces such as beaches in Chicago or nightclubs like the Cotton Club in New York were unofficially open to whites only.

This meant that many African Americans were effectively segregated from most white Americans in northern cities.

So really well done if your own answer looks something like that model there.

And that means we've now reached the end of today's lesson, so we're in a good position to summarise our learning.

We've seen that the Ku Klux Klan revived after 1915 and was committed to protecting pure Americanism.

Membership of the KKK peaked at five million and extended nationwide.

Jim Crow laws enforced segregation of African American people in the South.

African Americans faced persecution and discrimination in the North as well as in the South.

And recent immigrants, Catholics and Jews, were also victims of racial tensions across the USA in the 1920s.

So really well done for all of your effort in today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through it, and I look forward to seeing you again in future as we think further about the boom years in the USA and ask ourselves, how did the boom affect the lives of the American people?.