Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan emerges to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves.

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Four million slaves were formally freed when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, but with the Civil War still raging, their future was far from certain.

Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered by a Ku Klux Klan member, South Caroline ratified the Articles of Confederation, and John Walker Lynn called the American Taliban goes to trial in This Day in History video. The date is February 5th. The Ku Klux Klan member who killed Medgar was Byron De La Beckwith.

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The Emancipation Proclamation refocuses the purpose of the Civil War to address the issue of slavery.