They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.  2010.  They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group.  Houghton Mifflin.  ISBN: 9780618440337.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Bartoletti presents historical events that brought men into the south to create a club called the K.K.K. Since the south was devastated by the civil war, men that were supposed to become heroes became powerless. It was obvious that it is wrong to have slaves in America and so a dilemma of slavery had surfaced between the North and South. After the war was over and the south was defeated 6 confederate officers: John Lester, Clavin Jones, Richard Reed, James Crowe, Frank McCord, and John Kennedy started the club. Disillusioned by the devastation and the humiliation the north had bestowed upon the south the 6 confederate men began a “Reconstruction” of the south and all the black people wondering in the south.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Bartoletti creates a realistic and well developed series of events. She takes us through a chronological order and organizes it wonderfully. Bartoletti brings forward the atrocities the freedmen endured and give plenty of facts of the times.  She documents the fears the freedmen went through when they thought they would be beaten or even killed. She backs up her primary sources with court records,  government interviews and census records. She has a unique way of placing a quote next to each picture from an interview. She has a civil rights timeline that begins with the Emancipation Proclamation and ends with the election of President Obama. In the back of her book she gives a short biography of important people as well as object and places to include the Emancipation Proclamation and the Black Codes. She has topics for discussion which can be implemented within a class discussion and stimulate emotions. Access features are evident throughout the book. A wonderful to have in any library.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
School Library Journal:   “Bartoletti effectively targets teens with her engaging and informative account that presents a well-structured inside look at the KKK, societal forces that spawn hate/terrorist groups, and the research process.”

Booklist: Starred Review – “It’s the numerous first-person quotes, though, that give the book its beating heart, and her searing, expertly selected stories of people on all sides of the violent conflicts will give readers a larger understanding of the conditions that incubated the Klan’s terrorism; how profoundly the freed people and their sympathizers
suffered; and how the legacy of that fear, racism, and brutality runs through our own time.”

Kirkus: Starred Review – An exemplar of history writing and a must for libraries and classrooms.”

5. CONNECTIONS
* Read multicultural non-fiction books
* Write a reflection about why racism is wrong
* Write a mock letter to any of the 6 confederate soldiers and tell them what they are doing is wrong.
* Create a timeline of the events in the book to show what it looks like.