Ku Klux Klan

Who is the Ku Klux Klan

Who are they:

1. American White Supremacist Hate Group

Nicknames:

1. KKK
2. The Klan
3. White Brotherhood
4. Constitutional Union Guards
5. Invisible Empire
Origins of Name:

Kuklos (Greek word) -

wheel, circle, or band

And

Klan (Celtic word) -

family
History
1st Klan - 1865 - 1871 - Unknown number of
members
2nd Klan - 1915- 1944 - 3,000,000 - 6,000,
000 members
3rd Klan - 1946 - Present - 5,000 - 8,000
Advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white
nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, and anti-
Catholicism.
All movements have aimed for the “purification” of
American society and are considered right-wing
extremist.
All members have used lynching, arson, rape, physical
assault, bombings, and murder against the groups and
individuals they opposed.
Research conducted in 2017 concluded that 3,959 black
people were killed in racial terror lynchings between
1877 - 1950.
True number is unknown.
1st KKK (1865 - 1871)
Founded: Pulaski, Tennessee by six former
officers of the Confederate army
Originally a fraternal social club inspired by the
disbanded group known as Sons of Malta.
Individual Klans (using same name and methods)
spread across the South but operated with little
to no organizational structure.
Civil Rights Act of 1871 (Ku Klux Klan Act)
made night-riding a crime and empowered the
president to use federal troops to put down
conspirators by force. The law provided criminal
and civil penalties for people convicted of private
conspiracies intended to deny others of their civil
rights.

The 1st KKK was insurgent movement

promoting resistance and white supremacy during
Reconstruction Era threatening violence against
white Republicans and black people.
2nd KKK (1915 - 1944)
Founded: on top of Stone Mountain in Georgia by Simmons created infamous hooded uniform.
William Joseph Simmons by ignited a flaming
cross. Demanded purification of politics and strict
enforcement of Prohibition.
Based on documents from the original klan and
memories of surviving elders but primarily on the Anti-Catholic and Anti-Immigration
film The Birth of a Nation (which presented the
KKK as a “heroic” force and chronicled the Powerful group with high-ranking government
assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the members.
relationship between two families during the Civil
War and Reconstruction).

Formal Fraternal (Brotherhood) Organization

with national and state structure. Only allowed
white American-born Protestant man to join.
3rd KKK (1946 - Present)
Loosely reorganized in 1946 with a surge in Classified as terrorist organization.
membership during the 1960s Civil Rights
Movement. Current research recongszies over 30 active Klan
groups with about 130 chapters.
Spread fear and terror through beatings,
murders, and bombings.

Organization was/is poorly structured and

fractured into several different organizations
(with similar goals and beliefs).
Costumes
Masks/Robes - hide their identifies and add to the
drama of night rides.

“Ghosts of Confederate Soldiers”