Informational - Grades 5-8

Bartoletti, S.C. (2010). They Called Themselves The K.K.K.: THe Birth of an American Terrorist Group. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is an author to remember.  Her writing is fairly neutral and she includes several pictures and documentations of the time period in order to support her writing.  This book is set in the years following the Civil War, a time period likely skimmed over in most text-books but a time period that put into place many things we still see today.  The reconstruction of the South was nearly lost as President Andrew Johnson seemingly sided with the South and ignored the violent actions of the Ku Klux Klan, which means literally and foolishly, “circle circle.” The Freedman’s Bureau, meant to protect and stabilize the transitions in the South found struggle and opposition instead.  However, in the face of so much opposition, black Americans made progress.  This is the story of their struggle and explains the beginning of a long and treacherous path for the South. (Grades 5 and up).