Thomas Nast, widely considered the “Father of the American Cartoon,” used his drawings and illustrations to promote the Union cause and the abolition of slavery during the Civil War and progressive, anti-segregation, anti-corruption causes thereafter. During the Reconstruction era that followed the war, white paramilitary groups like the White League and the Ku Klux Klan formed to preserve the racial order that had existed before the end of the Civil War. They enacted violent pogroms against African Americans and northern sympathizers and used intimidation methods to elicit fear. These groups operated both openly and covertly to harass Black-owned businesses and dissuade African Americans from exercising their political rights, including intimidating them at the polls.