Man's Citizenship The Reconstruction era of United States history ended in 1877, while both races in the country were trying to develop their idea of nationality and community. There is no doubt that the country was a patriarchal society; that men of both races were in control and achieving the same goal. Both African Americans and whites aimed at their individual ideas of what citizenship meant. When speaking of their citizenship, each race spoke of their manhood. For each race, the overall goal was simple: maintain one's virility. For each race, the means to achieve manhood were complex: control or influence in government would complement their idea of ​​citizenship. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayCaucasian men were partial to their idea of ​​citizenship, which had existed since the beginning of slavery. Before the Fifteenth Amendment took effect, white men delighted in the lifestyle that allowed them to feel as if they were a superior race. To the Caucasian man, all men (who were white) were part of a brotherhood of mankind; one who had the right and obligation to maintain his superiority over other races. Any other form of citizenship, which included anything more than the white race, would take away the manhood of Caucasians. Due to the convincing ideology supported by white men, the growth of African Americans' rights would lead to the decrease of their superiority and as a result of their virility, the Ku Klux Klan began its work. The Caucasian race created such a large group to maintain its ideal version of citizenship; all-white citizenship. Indeed, when they are initiated, they must say: “Convinced that we belong to this natural ethic, we know further that the government of our Republic was established by white men, for white men alone, and that it was never in the contemplation of its founders that it fell into the hands of an inferior and degraded race” (4). Within the Oath of Initiation of the Knights of the White Camellia (circa 1860) there is a clear depiction of the Caucasian man's belief that his manhood is being taken away from him to be shared with a subordinate race. While the primary goal of the Ku Klux Klan was “the maintenance of the supremacy of the white race” (4), the supremacy of the white race was also the supremacy of the citizenry. The Klan worked to advance white ideas in the Republic and to maintain their power, Klan members pledged to "vote only for white men for any office of honor, profit, or trust" (4). Through government control the Klan could do anything without fear of punishment. To recognize their citizenship, the Klan believed it was necessary and right to maintain discriminatory citizenship. The Ku Klux Klan had no problem, “at any rate, giving them [the black people] everything that legally belongs to them” (5). As stated before, the Klan had every intention of controlling the law, so giving them what rightfully belongs to them would mean whatever the Klan decided to do. The Klan's philosophy included the idea that through force and fear they would be able to claim the existence of white supremacy. The Klan's efforts to control the government would not be surpassed by anyone. No one cared about the Klan's violence. The Klan feared its rights would be taken away by the rise of theAfrican Americans in politics. They believed that their manhood, their citizenship, had been taken away from them; “It therefore becomes our solemn duty, as white men, to strenuously and tenaciously resist these attacks upon our natural and constitutional rights, and to do all in our power to maintain, in this Republic, the supremacy of the Caucasian race, and restrict the black or African race to that condition of social and political inferiority” (5). By struggling to keep the Klan as close to its pre-Civil War status as possible, the Klan was showing its own idea of ​​humanity. The idea that all white men should have rights and citizenship at a higher level or higher status than African Americans; for the Klan this was the idea of ​​manhood. The specific goal of the Ku Klux Klan was to deprive African Americans of their rights at all costs. The Oath of Initiation of the Knights of the White Cameila concludes their Oath with: “it would be ungenerous for us to undertake to restrict them to the narrowest limits as regards the exercise of certain rights” (5). By concluding in a way that denounces the rights of African Americans, the Klan emphasizes the fact that they are the master race. Thanks to their superiority, the Klan believes they can maintain their manhood and right to citizenship. The Klan used violence, fear, and intimidation to advance its political and social agenda. Through these means they were able to corrupt the government by tampering with ballots and weakening the African American vote. They used intimidation to prevent African American men from running for political office or from voting; they went to the limit of violence and fear against white men who supported the political rights of African Americans. African Americans similarly grasped the link between manhood and citizenship. Blacks began to fight for true citizenship because “no promise of wealth or fame is worth the renunciation of a people's manhood or the loss of a man's self-respect” (52). W. E. Du Bois's 1906 Niagara Address gave way to African-American ideology. In his speech, Du Bois called for rights not only to be afforded to people of color, but also to be enforced. Du Bois spoke for the black community in linking manhood to forced citizenship. The first request that Du Bois makes in his speech is the right to vote, because "with the right to vote everything goes: freedom, virility, honor of your wives". , the chastity of your daughters, the right to work and the possibility of rising" (51). Du Bois proposes the ideology that without the right to vote a man might as well be castrated; without the right to vote, a man has no honor of his wife, no chastity of his daughters, no right to work and no opportunity to rise. This philosophy ensures that the right to vote would effectively guarantee the citizenship of the African American community. Not only could they vote on elected officials, but also on legislation that emerged. The advancement of the Fourteenth Amendment allowed all people to be citizens of the United States. While the Fifteenth Amendment recognized African Americans the right to vote. These advances in the political structure of the United States gave African Americans rights but did not enforce them. Therefore the culture of the South was able to remain the same. Without enforcement of constitutional laws, the Klan and other law enforcement professionals were able to corrupt the laws. African Americans were given the right to vote but could not do so. Local areas or states created laws that required all people to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes. By creating a literacy test, the state government or.