Despite its diverse ethnic origins, the tall pointed hat is likely, today, to elicit revulsion from those in the West who associate its distinctive shape with the sharp end of racial bigotry and the intimidating garb of the Ku Klux Klan.
But photos circulating in the media this week from Seville, Spain, serve as a reminder of the multifarious meanings of even the most seemingly singular and inimitable of cultural symbols. La Borriquita brotherhood hide their identities with pointy hooded hats in a ritual that dates back as far as the Inquisition Credit: Getty Images.
Historically, the capirote was intended as a mark of humiliation and was worn by those publicly punished by Church officials for doctrinal violations. In time, the cap was adopted by Catholic brotherhoods as a voluntary guise for their flagellants those flogging themselves as penance for their sins. Between and , the Spanish Romantic painter Francisco Goya vividly documented a more brutal rehearsal of such a procession - one in which excruciating physical penance was publicly observed by the pious participants, whose backs were whipped until bloody.
Removed from their religious context, penitents wearing the capirote might easily have been mistaken instead for members of the US white-supremacist organization, the KKK, which adopted an unsettlingly similar disguise for use in its terrorising campaigns throughout the 20th Century. No documented cross burnings occurred during the first Klan wave in the 19th century. However, D. Dixon, Jr. The symbol was quickly appropriated by opportunistic KKK leaders to help spur the group's subsequent "rebirth.
Through the s, Klan leaders regularly depicted the cross as embodying the KKK's Christian roots -- a means to spread the light of Jesus into the countryside. A bestselling 45rpm record put out by United Klans of America included the Carolina Klan's Bob Jones reciting how the fiery cross served as a "symbol of sacrifice and service, and a sign of the Christian Religion sanctified and made holy nearly 19 centuries ago, by the suffering and blood of 50 million martyrs who died in the most holy faith.
Has the KKK always functioned as a violent terrorist group? The KKK's emphasis on violence and intimidation as a means to defend its white supremacist ends has been the primary constant across its various "waves. However, during the periods of peak KKK successes in both the s and s, when Klan organizations were often significant presences in many communities, their appeal was predicated on connecting the KKK to varied aspects of members' and supporters' lives.
Such efforts meant that, in the s, alongside the KKK's political campaigns, members also marched in parades with Klan floats, pursued civic campaigns to support temperance, public education, and child welfare, and hosted a range of social events alongside women's and youth Klan auxiliary groups. Similarly, during the civil rights era, many were drawn to the KKK's militance, but also to leaders' promises to offer members "racially pure" weekend fish frys, turkey shoots, dances, and life insurance plans.
In this sense, the Klan served as an "authentically white" social and civic outlet, seeking to insulate members from a changing broader world. The Klan's undoing in both of these eras related in part to Klan leaders' inability to maintain the delicate balancing act between such civic and social initiatives and the group's association with violence and racial terror.
Indeed, in the absence of the latter, the Klan's emphasis on secrecy and ritual would have lost much of its nefarious mystique, but KKK-style lawlessness frequently went hand-in-hand with corruption among its own leaders. More importantly, Klan violence also often resulted in a backlash against the group, both from authorities and among the broader public. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. I n the summer of , hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history. In August , the small town of Plymouth, North Carolina nearly became the site of what might have been one of the bloodiest events of the civil rights era.
Filmmaker Callie Wiser reflects on the experience of making Klansville U. As the civil rights movement grew in the s, the long-dormant Ku Klux Klan reemerged with a vengeance. Klansville U. Support Provided by: Learn More. Now Streaming The Codebreaker Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
Related Features Klansville U. Article A Near Massacre In August , the small town of Plymouth, North Carolina nearly became the site of what might have been one of the bloodiest events of the civil rights era. Article Three Questions for Klansville U. Among the innovations beyond vitalizing self-flagellation was the donning of a cone-shaped hat.
Sometimes the capirote identified their wearers' particular sins by color and insignia. Although public mortification was presumably the point of the practice, over the years, capirote wearers began to make their hoods longer and longer, finally completely covering their faces. Thus their form came about centuries before the advent of the Ku Klux Klan. It is difficult to reconstruct how klansmen dressed in this period, as we have no photographs.
In general, the original Klan seems to have been too disorganized and decentralized to have a uniform, and its adherents marked themselves in different ways. The regalia we associate with the Klan today was adopted during the group's second iteration, in the early 20th century. One William J. Simmons of Atlanta was obsessed with fraternal societies, which were very much in vogue during the beginning of the 20th century, the height of the Temperance Movement, as wholesome alternatives to the saloon.
0コメント