Question

Using context clues, determine the meaning of the word vigilante, and explain how you arrived at that definition. Be sure to write in complete sentences, directly referencing the excerpt above.

...and fear of white vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan, who exerted an often-unchecked reign of terror across the South, where lynching of African Americans was a common occurrence and rarely prosecuted.
(from “We Shall Overcome,” www.nps.gov)

Answer 1

Vigilante means keeping watch for possible danger or possibilities. You have to be vigilante with the Ku Klux Klan because they are dangerous.

Answer 2

Vigilante in this passage means, a group of people who take care of crime themselves and disregards the police. The KKK was a group of people who wanted to get ride of African Americans so, they did themselves, by harming the African Americans and making them feel threatened or scared for their lives.