Three separate Klans have existed in three non-overlapping time
periods. Each comprised local chapters with little or no central
direction. Each has advocated extremist
reactionary positions such as
white nationalism,
anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism,[57][58]
anti-Semitism,[59][60][61][62][63][64]
anti-Catholicism,
Prohibition,
right-wing populism,
anti-communism,
homophobia,[65][66][67][68]
anti-atheism,[29][30][31][32]
and
Islamophobia.[69][70][71][72][73]
The first Klan, founded by Confederate veterans in the late 1860s,[74]
would assault and murder politically active Black people and their
allies in the
South. The second iteration of the Klan originated in the late
1910s, and was the first to use cross burnings and white hooded
robes. The KKK of the 1920s had a nationwide membership in the
millions and reflected a cross-section of the native-born white
population.[75]
The third Klan formed in the mid 20th century, largely as a reaction
to the growing
civil rights movement. It committed murders and bombings to
achieve its aims. All three movements have called for the
"purification" of American society, and are all considered
far-right extremist organizations.[76][77][78][79]
In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were
highly exaggerated by both friends and enemies.
The first Klan, established in the wake of the
Civil War, was a defining organization of the
Reconstruction era. According to historian Bordewich, the Klan
was "the first organized terror movement in American history."[40]
Federal law enforcement began taking action against it around
1871. The Klan sought to overthrow
Republican state governments in the South, especially by using
voter intimidation and targeted violence against
African-American leaders. The Klan was organized into numerous
independent chapters across the Southern United States. Each chapter
was autonomous and highly secretive about membership and plans.
Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and
pointed hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their
identities.[80][81]
The second Klan started in 1915 as a small group in
Georgia. It suddenly started to grow after 1920 and flourished
nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the
Midwest and
West. Taking inspiration from
D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film
The Birth of a Nation, which mythologized the founding of
the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a
popular fraternal organization structure. Rooted in local
Protestant communities, it sought to maintain
white supremacy, often took a pro-Prohibition
stance, and it opposed
Jews,
while also stressing its opposition to the alleged political power
of the
pope and the
Catholic Church. This second Klan flourished both in the south
and northern states; it was funded by initiation fees and selling
its members a standard white costume. The chapters did not have
dues. It used
K-words which were similar to those used by the first Klan,
while adding
cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others. It rapidly
declined in the latter half of the 1920s.
The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after
1950, in the form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK
name. They have focused on opposition to the
civil rights movement, often using violence and murder to
suppress activists. This manifestation is classified as a hate group
by the
Anti-Defamation League and the
Southern Poverty Law Center.[82]
As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership
nationwide at around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center
puts it at 6,000 members total.[83]
The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made
frequent references to a false mythologized perception of America's
"Anglo-Saxon"
blood, hearkening back to 19th-century
nativism.[84]
Although members of the KKK swear to uphold "Christian morality",
Christian denominations widely denounce them.[85]
Depiction of Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina in 1870, based on a
photograph taken under the supervision of a federal officer who seized
Klan costumes
The first Klan was founded in
Pulaski, Tennessee, on December 24, 1865,[86]
by six former officers of the
Confederate army:[87]
Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and
James Crowe.[88]
It started as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then
largely defunct
Sons of Malta. It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from that
group, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public
curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan",
according to Albert Stevens in 1907.[89]
The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski.[90]
The origins of the hood are uncertain; it may have been appropriated from
the Spanishcapirote
hood,[91]
or it may be traced to the uniform of Southern
Mardi
Gras celebrations.[92]
According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in
April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation. ... The members had
conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of
power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found
themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all—that
there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do."[89]
The KKK had no organizational structure above the chapter level. However,
there were similar groups across the South that adopted similar goals.[93]
Klan chapters promoted
white supremacy and spread throughout the South as an
insurgent movement in resistance to Reconstruction. Confederate veteran
John W. Morton founded a KKK chapter in
Nashville, Tennessee.[94]
As a secret
vigilante group, the Klan targeted
freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by
threats and violence, including murder. "They targeted white Northern
leaders, Southern sympathizers and politically active Blacks."[95]
In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the
Enforcement Acts, which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan
crimes.[96]
The first Klan had mixed results in terms of achieving its objectives. It
seriously weakened the Black political leadership through its use of
assassinations and threats of violence, and it drove some people out of
politics. On the other hand, it caused a sharp backlash, with passage of
federal laws that historian
Eric
Foner says were a success in terms of "restoring order, reinvigorating
the morale of Southern Republicans, and enabling Blacks to exercise their
rights as citizens".[97]
Historian
George C. Rable argues that the Klan was a political failure and
therefore was discarded by the
Democratic Party leaders of the South. He says:
The Klan declined in strength in part because of internal weaknesses;
its lack of central organization and the failure of its leaders to
control criminal elements and sadists. More fundamentally, it declined
because it failed to achieve its central objective – the overthrow of
Republican state governments in the South.[98]
After the Klan was suppressed, similar insurgent
paramilitary groups arose that were explicitly directed at suppressing
Republican voting and turning Republicans out of office: the
White League, which started in Louisiana in 1874; and the
Red Shirts, which started in Mississippi and developed chapters in the
Carolinas. For instance, the Red Shirts are credited with helping elect
Wade Hampton as governor in South Carolina. They were described as
acting as the military arm of the Democratic Party and are attributed with
helping white Democrats regain control of state legislatures throughout the
South.[99]
The Ku Klux Klan Was Founded In 1865
QUOTE
The notorious Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 at Pulaski, Tenn by 6 former
Confederate officers that included Jonathan Shank, Barry Ownby, Frank
McCord, Richard Reed, inspired by
Sons of Malta
to Malta to overthrow Republican Govts down South after the Civil War.
UNQUOTE
Sound chaps, what?