Ku Klux Klan

The Reconstruction Era Klan

The Klan, originally a social fraternity, was organized in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. In 1867, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the Empire, converted the Klan into a paramilitary force that served to directly oppose the formation of Republican governments set up by Congressional Reconstruction acts.

As Republican governments sprouted up, so did the spread of Klan orders throughout the South in mostly rural areas. Organized locally, Klan orders were not centrally controlled, and instead each order was free to act independently.

Not every county had an order, but those that did were often ruled by terror. Klansmen dressed in white robes and covered hoods, rode on horses, and dragged black people and some white republicans from their homes, assaulting them by whipping or lynching them. Such assaults were successful in keeping black men from the polls, and thus altering election results.

While not all southern whites were members of the Klan, many sympathized with their objectives and did not attempt to stop their actions. As a result, law enforcement was often unable to stop or enforce the law when dealing with Klan members.

To stop the reconstruction era Klan, federal intervention was necessary. With the enactment of Congressional legislation and enforcement of the law by the federal government, the Klan was extinguished in 1871 – 1872.

The World War I Era Klan

In 1915, the second Klan era began. As World War I was underway, a strong patriotism developed and anti-Catholic sentiments emerged. Along with these new ideas, white supremacist attitudes, the publication of Thomas Dixon’s novel, The Clansman (1905), and the 1915 movie, Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffith, a new Klan emerged.

This time the Klan was able to spread throughout the South, North and Midwest. It garnered political power with the election of Congressmen and other elected officials in such states as Indiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Maine. The Klan’s membership numbered over 3 million by the 1920s.

Like the previous Klan, they sometimes used violence to achieve their objective. In addition, it was at this time that cross burning became a popular form of intimidation.

However, by the late 1920s, the Klan’s membership dwindled as the depression set in and as the government enacted laws prohibiting masks and the organization’s secrecy.

The Civil Rights Era Klan

In the late 1940s, the Klan again resurfaced. Samuel Green organized this newest establishment. However, the organization encountered trouble as states began banning its formation.

By the 1960s, as the civil rights movement was emerging, the Klan’s membership reached almost twenty thousand. Like the former Klan organization, there was not a central leadership, and instead the orders embraced their own agendas. While not all Klan orders used violence, those that did attacked blacks and used it as way to silence civil rights workers. By the end of the 1960s, the Klan’s membership declined once again.

While the Klan still exists today, its membership is in the low thousands. The Klan has ties to other white supremacist organizations such as the Aryan Nations and the Skinheads.