Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally in 1922.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of several past and present fraternal organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism. These organizations have often used terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A fraternal organization, sometimes also known as a fraternity, is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ... White supremacy is a racist ideology which holds the belief that white people are superior to other races. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth... Anti-Catholicism is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at Catholics or the Catholic Church, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution. ... Homophobia is the fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. ... Although opposition to immigration is a feature of all countries with immigration, the term nativism originated in American politics has a specific meaning. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...

The Klan's first incarnation was in 1866. Founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, its main purpose was to resist Reconstruction, and it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves. The KKK quickly adopted violent methods. A rapid reaction set in, with the Klan's leadership disowning violence and Southern elites seeing the Klan as an excuse for federal troops to continue their activities in the South. The organization was in decline from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed in the early 1870s by President Ulysses S. Grant's vigorous action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act). Some Confederate soldiers The Confederate States Army (CSA) was formed in February 1861 to defend the Confederate States of America, which had itself been formed that same year when seven Southern states seceded from the United States (four more states soon followed). ... Reconstruction was the attempt from 1865 to 1877 in U.S. history to resolve the issues of the American Civil War, when both the Confederacy and slavery were destroyed. ... In United States history, the term carpetbagger was a term for Northerners (Yankees) who moved to the South during Reconstruction between 1865 and 1877. ... In the United States, Scalawags were Southern whites who joined the Republican party in the ex-Confederate South during Reconstruction. ... Slave sale in Easton, Maryland The history of slavery in the United States began soon after Europeans first settled in what became the United States. ... Historic Southern United States. ... Ulysses S. Grant[2] (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American general and the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877). ... The Civil Rights Act of 1871, now codified and known as , is one of the most important federal statutes in force in the United States. ...

William Joseph Simmons founded the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915.

In 1915, a second distinct group was founded using the same name. It was inspired by the newfound power of the modern mass media, via the film The Birth of a Nation and inflammatory anti-Semitic newspaper accounts surrounding the trial and lynching of accused murderer Leo Frank. The second KKK was a formal membership organization, with a national and state structure, that paid thousands of men to organize local chapters all over the country. At its peak in the early 1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4-5 million men.^[1] The second KKK typically preached racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism, and some local groups took part in lynchings and other violent activities. Its popularity fell during the Great Depression, and membership fell further during World War II, because of scandals resulting from prominent members' crimes and its support of the Nazis. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (573x700, 238 KB) (All user names refer to en. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (573x700, 238 KB) (All user names refer to en. ... William Joseph Simmons (1880–May 18, 1945) founded the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915. ... The Birth of a Nation is a famously controversial film which promoted the superiority of the white race. ... Postcard depicting the lynching of Lige Daniels, Center, Texas, August 3, 1920. ... Lucille and Leo Frank at Franks trial. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth... This does not cite its references or sources. ... The Great Depression was a time of economic down turn, which started after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

The name "Ku Klux Klan" has since been used by many different unrelated groups, including many who opposed the Civil Rights Act and desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, with members of these groups eventually being convicted of murder and manslaughter in the deaths of Civil Rights workers and children (such as in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama). Today, it is estimated that there are as many as 150 Klan chapters with up to 8,000 members nationwide.^[2] These groups, with operations in separated small local units, are considered extreme hate groups. The modern KKK has been repudiated by all mainstream media and political and religious leaders. Several United States laws have been called the Civil Rights Act: Civil Rights Act of 1866 aimed to buttress Civil Rights Laws to protect freedmen and to grant full citizenship to those born on U.S. soil except Indians. ... Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. ... The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist incident at 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, in the United States. ... A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates hate, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender or other designated sector of society, or that supports and publishes assertions and argumentation characteristic of hate groups without necessarily explicitly advocating such hate or violence that... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Politics of the United States of America takes place in a framework of a presidential... The Washington National Cathedral, located in the capital of the U.S., is one of the largest churches in the country. ...

First Klan

Creation

A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868

A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic Party as continuations of the Confederacy

Nathan Bedford Forrest

The original Ku Klux Klan was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated, middle-class Confederate veterans^[3] from Pulaski, Tennessee, who were bored with postwar routine. The name was constructed by combining the Greek "kyklos" (circle) with "clan"^[4] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (808x556, 70 KB)kkk cartoon File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (808x556, 70 KB)kkk cartoon File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Postcard depicting the lynching of Lige Daniels, Center, Texas, August 3, 1920. ... In United States history, the term carpetbagger was a term for Northerners (Yankees) who moved to the South during Reconstruction between 1865 and 1877. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (804x946, 295 KB)anti-kkk cartoon File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (804x946, 295 KB)anti-kkk cartoon File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Nathan Bedford Forrest (19th century photo) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Nathan Bedford Forrest (19th century photo) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... For the World War II general, see Nathan Bedford Forrest III. Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a Confederate army general and figured in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. ... This article is becoming very long. ... December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God, Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (traditional) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861–April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (from April 3, 1865) Language(s) English (de facto) Government Republic President... Pulaski is a city in Giles County, Tennessee, United States. ... A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by perceived descent from a common ancestor. ...

The Ku Klux Klan soon spread into nearly every southern state, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders both black and white. Those assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds, three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who had served in constitutional conventions."^[5] The Republican Party of the United States was established in 1854 and is one of the two dominant parties today. ... Official language(s) English Capital Little Rock Largest city Little Rock Area  Ranked 29th  - Total 53,179 sq mi (137,002 km²)  - Width 239 miles (385 km)  - Length 261 miles (420 km)  - % water 2. ... James M. Hinds of Little Rock, represented Arkansas in the United States Congress from June 24, 1868 through October 22, 1868 when he was assassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan. ... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston(1670-1789) Columbia(1790-present) Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32°430N to 35...

From 1866 to 1867, the Klan began breaking up black prayer meetings and invading black homes at night to steal firearms. Some of these activities may have been modeled on previous Tennessee vigilante groups such as the "Yellow Jackets" and "Redcaps."

In an 1867 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, an effort was made to create a hierarchical organization with local chapters reporting to county leaders, counties reporting to districts, districts reporting to states, and states reporting to a national headquarters. The proposals, in a document called the "Prescript," were written by George Gordon, a former Confederate brigadier general. The Prescript included inspirational language about the goals of the Klan along with a list of questions to be asked of applicants for membership, which confirmed the focus on resisting Reconstruction and the Republican Party. The applicant was to be asked whether he was a Republican, a Union Army veteran, or a member of the Loyal League; whether he was "opposed to Negro equality both social and political;" and whether he was in favor of "a white man's government," "maintaining the constitutional rights of the South," "the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights," and "the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power."^[6] Nickname: Music City Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee Coordinates: Country United States State Tennessee Counties Davidson County Founded: 1779 Incorporated: 1806 Government  - Mayor Bill Purcell (D) Area  - City  526. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties Libertarian Party State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of... George W. Gordon was an officer in the Confederate Army, rising to be the youngest brigadier general in the confederacy by the last year of the war. ... The 21st Michigan Infantry, a company of Shermans veterans. ... A Union League is one of a number of organizations established during the American Civil War to promote loyalty to the Union side and the policies of Abraham Lincoln. ...

Despite the work that came out of the 1867 meeting, the Prescript was never accepted by any of the local units. They continued to operate autonomously, and there never were county, district or state headquarters.

According to one oral report, Gordon went to former slave trader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Tennessee, and told him about the new organization, to which Forrest replied, "That's a good thing; that's a damn good thing. We can use that to keep the niggers in their place."^[7] A few weeks later, Forrest was selected as Grand Wizard, the Klan's national leader. In later interviews, however, Forrest denied the leadership role and stated that he never had any effective control over the Klan cells. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For the World War II general, see Nathan Bedford Forrest III. Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a Confederate army general and figured in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... // Nigger is a racial slur used to refer to dark-skinned people, especially those of African ancestry. ... Grand Wizard was the title used by the overall leader of earliest form of the Ku Klux Klan, during Reconstruction in the South. ...

Activities

The Klan sought to control the political and social status of the freed slaves. Specifically, it attempted to curb black education, economic advancement, voting rights, and the right to bear arms. However, although the Klan's focus was mainly African Americans, Southern Republicans also became the target of vicious intimidation tactics. The violence achieved its purpose. For example, in the April 1868 Georgia gubernatorial election, Columbia County cast 1,222 votes for Republican Rufus Bullock, but in the November presidential election, the county cast only one vote for Republican candidate Ulysses Grant.^[8] Voting rights refers to the right of a person to vote in an election. ... This article refers to the right to bear arms (weapons) and bear arms(military service). ... Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. ... Rufus Bullock Rufus Brown Bullock (March 28, 1834 – April 27, 1907) was an American politician. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ...

Klan intimidation was often targeted at schoolteachers and operatives of the federal Freedmen's Bureau. Black members of the Loyal Leagues were also the frequent targets of Klan raids. In a typical episode in Mississippi, according to the Congressional inquiry^[9] A Bureau agent stands between an armed group of Southern whites and a group of freed slaves in this 1868 picture from Harpers Weekly The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, popularly known as the Freedmens Bureau, was a federal agency that was formed during Reconstruction to aid... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

In other violence, Klansmen killed more than 150 African Americans in a single county in Florida, and hundreds more in other counties.^[10] Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... Monroe County is a county located in the state of Mississippi. ... A Browning 9 millimeter Hi-Power Ordnance pistol of the French Navy, 19th century, using a Percussion cap mechanism Derringers were small and easily hidden. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ...

An 1868 proclamation by Gordon^[11] demonstrates several of the issues surrounding the Klan's violent activities.

• Many black men were veterans of the Union Army and were armed. From the beginning, one of the original Klan's strongest focuses was on confiscating firearms from blacks. In the proclamation, Gordon warned that the Klan had been "fired into three times," and that if the blacks "make war upon us they must abide by the awful retribution that will follow."
• Gordon also stated that the Klan was a peaceful organization. Such claims were common ways for the Klan to attempt to protect itself from prosecution. However, a federal grand jury in 1869 determined that the Klan was a "terrorist organization." Hundreds of indictments for crimes of violence and terrorism were issued. Klan members were prosecuted, and many fled jurisdiction, particularly in South Carolina.^[12]
• Gordon warned that some people had been carrying out violent acts in the name of the Klan. It was true that many people who had not been formally inducted into the Klan found the Klan's uniform to be a convenient way to hide their identities when carrying out acts of violence. However, it was also convenient for the higher levels of the organization to disclaim responsibility for such acts, and the secretive, decentralized nature of the Klan made membership difficult to prove. In many ways the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party, the planter class, and those who desired the restoration of white supremacy.^[13]

Three Ku Klux Klan members arrested in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, September 1871, for the attempted murder of an entire family.

• Interview with Nathan Bedford Forrest on Wikisource

By 1868, only two years after the Klan's creation, its activity was already beginning to decrease^[14] and, as Gordon's proclamation shows, to become less political and more simply a way of avoiding prosecution for violence. Many influential southern Democrats were beginning to see it as a liability, an excuse for the federal government to retain its power over the South.^[15] Georgian B.H. Hill went so far as to claim "that some of these outrages were actually perpetrated by the political friends of the parties slain."^[16] Original caption reads: This appeared in Harpers Weekly January 27, 1872. ... Original caption reads: This appeared in Harpers Weekly January 27, 1872. ... Tishomingo County is a county located in the state of Mississippi. ... Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ...

In an 1868 newspaper interview,^[17] Forrest boasted that the Klan was a nationwide organization of 550,000 men, and that although he was not a member, he was "in sympathy" and would "cooperate" with them, and he could muster 40,000 Klansmen with five days' notice. He stated that the Klan did not see blacks as its enemy so much the Loyal Leagues, Republican state governments like Tennessee governor Brownlow's, and other carpetbaggers and scalawags. This was a half truth since one of the main reasons for targeting these white groups was that they were impediments to efforts against the former slaves. The Klan went after white members of these groups, especially the schoolteachers brought south by the Freedmen's Bureau, many of whom had before the war been abolitionists or active in the underground railroad. Many white southerners believed, for example, that blacks were voting for the Republican Party only because they had been hoodwinked by the Loyal Leagues. Black members of the Loyal Leagues were also the frequent targets of Klan raids. One Alabama newspaper editor declared that "The League is nothing more than a nigger Ku Klux Klan."^[18] William Gannaway Brownlow (August 29, 1805 - April 29, 1877) was Governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and a Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. ... This English poster depicting the horrific conditions on slave ships was influential in mobilizing public opinion against slavery. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Decline and suppression

The first Klan was never centrally organized. As a secret or "invisible" group, it had no membership rosters, no dues, no newspapers, no spokesmen, no chapters, no local officers, no state or national officials. Its popularity came from its reputation, which was greatly enhanced by its outlandish costumes and its wild and threatening theatrics. As historian Elaine Frantz Parsons discovered:^[19] An invisible dictatorship was a term coined by Mikhail Bakunin to describe his concept of clandestine revolutionary leadership. ...

Gov. William Holden of North Carolina attempted to use the state militia against the Klan and was removed from office.

Forrest's national organization had little control over the local Klans, which were highly autonomous. One Klan official complained that his own "so-called 'Chief'-ship was purely nominal, I having not the least authority over the reckless young country boys who were most active in 'night-riding,' whipping, etc., all of which was outside of the intent and constitution of the Klan..." Forrest ordered the Klan to disband in 1869, stating that it was "being perverted from its original honorable and patriotic purposes, becoming injurious instead of subservient to the public peace."^[20] Because of the national organization's lack of control, this proclamation was more a symptom of the Klan's decline than a cause of it. Historian Stanley Horn writes that "generally speaking, the Klan's end was more in the form of spotty, slow, and gradual disintegration than a formal and decisive disbandment."^[21] A reporter in Georgia wrote in January 1870 that "A true statement of the case is not that the Ku Klux are an organized band of licensed criminals, but that men who commit crimes call themselves Ku Klux."^[22] Guerilla may refer to Guerrilla warfare. ... A freedman is a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Categories: Stub | 1818 births | 1892 deaths | Governors of North Carolina ...

Although the Klan was being used more often as a mask for nonpolitical crimes, state and local governments seldom acted against it. In lynching cases, whites were almost never indicted by all-white coroner's juries, and even when there was an indictment, all-white trial juries were unlikely to vote for conviction. In many states, there were fears that the use of black militiamen would ignite a race war.^[23] When Republican Governor of North Carolina William Woods Holden called out the militia against the Klan in 1870, the result was a backlash that led to Republicans losing their majority in the legislature, and ultimately, to his own impeachment and removal from office.^[24] The Governor of North Carolina is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. ... Categories: Stub | 1818 births | 1892 deaths | Governors of North Carolina ...

Despite this power, there was resistance to Klan terror. "Occasionally, organized groups successfully confronted the Klan. White Union Army veterans in mountainous Blount County, Alabama, organized 'the anti-Ku Klux,' which put an end to violence by threatening Klansmen with reprisals unless they stopped whipping Unionists and burning black churches and schools. Armed blacks patrolled the streets of Bennettsville, South Carolina, to prevent Klan assaults."^[25] Blount County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. ... Bennettsville is a city located in Marlboro County, South Carolina. ...

There was also a national movement to crack down on the Klan, even though many Democrats at the national level questioned whether the Klan even existed or was just a creation of nervous Republican governors in the South.^[26] In January 1871, Pennsylvania Republican Senator John Scott convened a committee which took testimony from 52 witnesses about Klan atrocities. Many southern states had already passed anti-Klan legislation, and in February Congressman (and former Union General) Benjamin Franklin Butler of Massachusetts (who was widely reviled by Southern whites) introduced federal legislation modeled on it.^[27] The tide was turned in favor of the bill by the Governor of South Carolina's appeal for federal troops, and by reports of a riot and massacre in a Meridian, Mississippi, courthouse, from which a black state representative escaped only by taking to the woods.^[28] Official language(s) English, Pennsylvania Dutch Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... John Scott (July 24, 1824–November 29, 1896) was an American lawyer and Republican party politician from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. ... Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as its governor. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Meridian is a city located in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. ...

Benjamin Franklin Butler wrote the 1871 Klan Act.

In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed Butler's legislation, the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was used along with the 1870 Force Act to enforce the civil rights provisions of the constitution. Under the Klan Act, federal troops were used rather than state militias, and Klansmen were prosecuted in federal court, where juries were often predominantly black.^[23] and decimated throughout the rest of the country, where it had already been in decline for several years. Prosecutions were led by Attorney General Amos Tappan Ackerman. The tapering off of the federal government's actions under the Klan Act, ca. 1871–74, went along with the final extinction of the Klan,^[29] although in some areas similar activities, including intimidation and murder of black voters, continued under the auspices of local organizations such as the White League, Red Shirts, saber clubs, and rifle clubs.^[30] Even though the Klan no longer existed, it had achieved many of its goals, such as denying voting rights to Southern blacks. Image File history File links BenFrankButler. ... Image File history File links BenFrankButler. ... Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as its governor. ... The Civil Rights Act of 1871, now codified and known as , is one of the most important federal statutes in force in the United States. ... Amos Tappan Akerman (1821 - 1880) was Attorney General of the United States from 1870 to 1871 under President Ulysses S. Grant. ...

• Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 on Wikisource

However, it took several more years for all Klan elements to be destroyed. On Easter Sunday, 1873, the bloodiest single instance of racial violence in the Reconstruction era happened during the Colfax massacre. The massacre began when black citizens fought back against the Klan and its allies in the White League. As Louisiana black teacher and legislator John G. Lewis later remarked, "They attempted (armed self-defense) in Colfax. The result was that on Easter Sunday of 1873, when the sun went down that night, it went down on the corpses of two hundred and eighty negroes."^[31] Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... On April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, a group of white men (including members of the White League and the Ku Klux Klan) clashed with members of Louisianas almost all-black state militia at the local courthouse. ...

In 1882, long after the end of the first Klan, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Harris that the Klan Act was partially unconstitutional, saying that Congress's power under the Fourteenth Amendment did not extend to private conspiracies.^[32] However, the Force Act and the Klan Act have been invoked in later civil rights conflicts, including the 1964 murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner;^[33] the 1965 murder of Viola Liuzzo;^[34] and Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic in 1991. Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Constitutionality is the status of a law, a procedure, or an acts accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable constitution. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments, intended to secure rights for former slaves. ... The Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders involved the 1964 slayings of three political activists during the American Civil Rights Movement. ... Viola Liuzzo with her husband Anthony, 1949. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

Second Klan

In the four and a half decades after the suppression of the first Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the United States remained very bad—the nadir of American race relations is often placed in this era, and according to Tuskegee Institute, the 1890s was the peak decade for lynchings. The nadir of American race relations refers to the period in United States history at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. ... There is also the Tuskegee Airmen, a corps of African-American military pilots trained there during World War II Tuskegee University is an American institution of higher learning located in Tuskegee, Alabama. ... Postcard depicting the lynching of Lige Daniels, Center, Texas, August 3, 1920. ...

Creation

Movie poster for The Birth of a Nation

The founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 demonstrated the newfound power of modern mass media. Three closely related events sparked the resurgence: Image File history File links poster for Birth of a Nation, 1915 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links poster for Birth of a Nation, 1915 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Birth of a Nation is a famously controversial film which promoted the superiority of the white race. ...

• The film The Birth of a Nation was released, mythologizing and glorifying the first Klan.
• Leo Frank, a Jewish man accused of the rape and murder of a young white girl named Mary Phagan, was lynched against a backdrop of media frenzy.
• The second Ku Klux Klan was founded with a new anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic agenda. The bulk of the founders were from an organization calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan, and the new organization emulated the fictionalized version of the original Klan presented in The Birth of a Nation.

An illustration from The Clansman: "Take dat f'um yo equal—"

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation glorified the original Klan, which was by then a fading memory. His film was based on the book and play The Clansman and the book The Leopard's Spots, both by Thomas Dixon who said his purpose was "to revolutionize northern sentiment by a presentation of history that would transform every man in my audience into a good Democrat!" The film created a nationwide craze for the Klan. At a preview in Los Angeles, actors dressed as Klansmen were hired to ride by as a promotional stunt, and real-life members of the newly reorganized Klan rode up and down the street at its later official premiere in Atlanta. In some cases, enthusiastic southern audiences fired their guns into the screen.^[35] The Birth of a Nation is a famously controversial film which promoted the superiority of the white race. ... Lucille and Leo Frank at Franks trial. ... Image File history File links illustration from The Clansman, by Thomas Dixon, 1905 cropped from Image:The-clansman. ... Image File history File links illustration from The Clansman, by Thomas Dixon, 1905 cropped from Image:The-clansman. ... Illustration from The Clansman. ... D. W. Griffith David Llewelyn Wark Griffith, commonly known as D. W. Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. ... Illustration from The Clansman. ... The Leopards Spots: A Romance of the White Mans Burden—1865–1900 is a book by Thomas Dixon, written in 1902, and published by Doubleday, Page & Co. ... Illustration from The Clansman. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... Hotlanta redirects here. ...

The film's popularity and influence were enhanced by a widely reported endorsement of its factual accuracy by historian and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as a favor to an old friend. Much of the modern Klan's iconography, including the standardized white costume and the burning cross, are imitations of the film, whose imagery was based on Dixon's romanticized concept of old Scotland as portrayed in the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott rather than on the Reconstruction Klan. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924), was the 28th President of the United States. ... Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots3 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  -  First Minister Jack McConnell... Portrait of Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time. ...

A quote from Woodrow Wilson used in the film

The Birth of a Nation includes extensive quotations from Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People,^[36] for example, "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country." Wilson, on seeing the film in a special White House screening on February 18, 1915, exclaimed, "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."^[37] Wilson's family had sympathized with the Confederacy during the Civil War and cared for wounded Confederate soldiers at a church. When he was a young man, his party had vigorously opposed Reconstruction, and as president he resegregated the federal government for the first time since Reconstruction. Image File history File links Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation. ... Image File history File links Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation. ... North façade of the White House, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Given the film's strong Democratic partisan message and Wilson's documented views on race and the Klan, it is not unreasonable to interpret the statement as supporting the Klan, and the word "regret" as referring to the film's depiction of Radical Republican Reconstruction. Later correspondence with Griffith, the film's director, confirms Wilson's enthusiasm about the film. Wilson's remarks were widely reported and immediately became controversial. Wilson tried to remain aloof from the controversy, but finally, on April 30, he issued a non-denial denial.^[38] His endorsement of the film greatly enhanced its popularity and influence, and helped Griffith to defend it against legal attack by the NAACP; the film, in turn, was a major factor leading to the creation of the second Klan in the same year. The Radical Republicans were an influential faction of American politicians in the Republican party during the American Civil War and Reconstruction eras, 1860-1876. ... April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... Non-denial denial is a term for a particular kind of equivocation; specifically, an apparent denial that, though it appeared clearcut and unambiguous when heard, on examination turns out to be ambiguous and not a denial at all. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is one of the oldest and most influential hate organizations in the United States. ...

The lynching of Leo Frank

In the same year, an important event in the coalescence of the second Klan was the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager. In sensationalistic newspaper accounts, Frank was accused of fantastic sexual crimes and of the murder of Mary Phagan, a girl employed at his factory. He was convicted of murder after a questionable trial in Georgia (the judge asked that Frank and his counsel not be present when the verdict was announced because of the violent mob of people surrounding the court house). His appeals failed (Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes dissented, condemning the intimidation of the jury as failing to provide due process of law). The governor then commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, but a mob calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan kidnapped Frank from the prison farm and lynched him. Ironically, much of the evidence in the murder actually pointed to the factory's black janitor, Jim Conley, who the prosecution claimed only helped Frank to dispose of the body. Leo Frank lynched (large) (1915 photograph) File links The following pages link to this file: Ku Klux Klan Leo Frank User:Xiaopo/Scratchpad Talk:Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse Categories: Images in the public domain in the United States ... Leo Frank lynched (large) (1915 photograph) File links The following pages link to this file: Ku Klux Klan Leo Frank User:Xiaopo/Scratchpad Talk:Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse Categories: Images in the public domain in the United States ... Lucille and Leo Frank at Franks trial. ... Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ...

For many southerners who believed Frank to be guilty, there was a strong resonance between the Frank trial and The Birth of a Nation, because they saw an analogy between Mary Phagan and the film's character Flora, a young virgin who throws herself off a cliff to avoid being raped by the black character Gus, described as "a renegade, a product of the vicious doctrines spread by the carpetbaggers."

Thomas E. Watson

The Frank trial was used skillfully by Georgia politician and publisher Thomas E. Watson, the editor for The Jeffersonian magazine at the time and later a leader in the reorganization of the Klan who was later elected to the U.S. Senate. The new Klan was inaugurated in 1915 at a meeting led by William J. Simmons on top of Stone Mountain, and attended by aging members of the original Klan, along with members of the Knights of Mary Phagan. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 456 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (683 × 898 pixel, file size: 96 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) http://hdl. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 456 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (683 × 898 pixel, file size: 96 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) http://hdl. ... Thomas Edward Watson (5 September 1856–26 September 1922), generally known as Tom Watson, was a United States politician from Georgia. ... Thomas Edward Watson (5 September 1856–26 September 1922), generally known as Tom Watson, was a United States politician from Georgia. ... William Joseph Simmons (1880–May 18, 1945) founded the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915. ... Stone Mountain Close up of the carving Stone Mountain is a granite dome located in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. ...

Simmons found inspiration for this second Klan in the original Klan's "Prescripts," written in 1867 by George Gordon in an attempt to give the original Klan a sense of national organization.^[39] The Prescript states as the Klan's purposes:^[40]

• First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of the Confederate soldiers.
• Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States ...
• Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity with the laws of the land.

Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme...

Membership

Historians in recent years have obtained membership rosters of some local units and matched the names against city directory and local records to create statistical profiles of the membership. Big city newspapers were unanimously hostile and often ridiculed the Klansmen as ignorant farmers. Detailed analysis from Indiana^[41] shows the stereotype was false: This article is about the U.S. State. ...

The huge Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain, site of the founding of the second Klan; work was begun in 1923 with funding mainly from the Klan, and was completed in 1970.

The Klan was successful in recruiting throughout the country, but the membership turned over rapidly. Still, millions joined, and at its peak in the 1920s the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population^[42] and had chapters across the United States. There were clans founded in Canada, most notably in Saskatchewan, where there was a large clan movement against Catholic immigrants.^[43] Image File history File links Small Image of StoneMountain in Georgia, USA Image by: Tomato, retouched by User:bcrowell The image before retouching is Image:StoneMountainGaSm. ... Image File history File links Small Image of StoneMountain in Georgia, USA Image by: Tomato, retouched by User:bcrowell The image before retouching is Image:StoneMountainGaSm. ... Stone Mountain Close up of the carving Stone Mountain is a granite dome located in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In comparative religion, fundamentalism has come to refer to several different understandings of religious thought and practice, through literal interpretation of religious texts such as the Bible or the Quran and sometimes also anti-modernist movements in various religions. ... Motto: Multis E Gentibus Vires (Latin: From many peoples strength) Capital Regina Largest city Saskatoon Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart - Premier Lorne Calvert (NDP) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 14 - Senate seats 6 Confederation September 1, 1905 (Split from NWT) (9th (province)) Area Ranked 7th...

This Klan was operated as a profit-making venture by its leaders, and it participated in the boom in fraternal organizations at the time. Organizers signed up hundreds of new members, who paid initiation fees and bought KKK costumes. The organizer kept half the money and sent the rest to state or national officials. When the organizer was done with an area, he organized a huge rally, often with burning crosses and perhaps a ceremonial presentation of a Bible to a local Protestant minister. He left town with all the money. The local units operated like many fraternal organizations, occasionally bringing in speakers. The state and national officials had little or no control over the locals and rarely attempted to forge them into political activist groups. A fraternal organization, sometimes also known as a fraternity, is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ...

Activities

The burning cross is a symbol used by the Klan to create terror. Cross burning is said to have been introduced by William J. Simmons, the founder of the second Klan in 1915.

In keeping with its origins in the Leo Frank lynching, the reorganized Klan had a new anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist and anti-immigrant slant. This was consistent with the new Klan's greater success at recruiting in the U.S. Midwest than in the South. As in the Nazi party's propaganda in Nazi Germany, recruiters made effective use of the idea that America's problems were caused by blacks or by Jewish bankers, or by other such groups. The Ku Klux Klan burning a cross. ... The Ku Klux Klan burning a cross. ... William Joseph Simmons (1880–May 18, 1945) founded the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915. ... Anti-immigration is a label often applied to those who are opposed to having significant levels of immigration in their countries. ... Midwest as shown by U.S. Census Bureau official map from [3] Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... The (German: Nazional- socialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) [National Socialist German Workers Party]); generally known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

The new Klan differed from the original one in that while the first Klan had been Southern, the new Klan was influential throughout the United States, with major political influence on politicians in several states.

In the 1920s and 1930s a faction of the Klan called the Black Legion was very active in the Midwestern U.S. Rather than wearing white robes, the Legion wore black uniforms reminiscent of pirates. The Black Legion was the most violent and zealous faction of the Klan and were notable for targeting and assassinating communists and socialists. The Black Legion was an offshoot organization of the Ku Klux Klan and operated in the midwestern United States in the 1930s. ... Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ...

In addition, Klan groups also took part in lynchings, even going so far at to murder Black soldiers returning from World War I while they were still in their military uniforms.^[44] The Klan warned Blacks that they must respect the rights of the white race "in whose country they are permitted to reside."^[45] Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna...

Political influence

Main article: Notable Ku Klux Klan members in national politics

Sheet music to "We Are All Loyal Klansmen," 1923

The second Ku Klux Klan rose to great prominence and spread from the South into the Midwest and Northern states and even into Canada. At its peak, Klan membership exceeded 4 million and comprised 20% of the adult white male population in many broad geographic regions, as high as 40% in some areas. Most of the membership resided in Midwestern states. This article discusses presidents, Supreme Court judges, and other highly notable figures in U.S. and Canadian national politics who, according to at least hearsay evidence, were members of the Ku Klux Klan or were claimed as members of that organization as young men, years before they became important figures. ... Image File history File links cover of sheet music for the song We All Loyal Klansmen It is copyright 1923 by William Davis, William M. Hart, Charles E. Downey, and E. M. McMahon. ... Image File history File links cover of sheet music for the song We All Loyal Klansmen It is copyright 1923 by William Davis, William M. Hart, Charles E. Downey, and E. M. McMahon. ...

Through sympathetic elected officials, the KKK controlled the governments of Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon, in addition to some of the Southern legislatures. Klan influence was particularly strong in Indiana, where Republican Klansman Edward Jackson was elected governor in 1924, and the entire apparatus of state government was riddled with Klansmen. In another well-known example from the same year, the Klan decided to make Anaheim, California, into a model Klan city; it secretly took over the city council but was voted out in a special recall election.^[46] Official language(s) None Capital Oklahoma City Largest city Oklahoma City Area  Ranked 20th  - Total 69,960 sq mi (181,196 km²)  - Width 230 miles (370 km)  - Length 298 miles (480 km)  - % water 1. ... Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 9th  - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 2. ... Edward L. Ed Jackson (1873 - 1954) was governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from January 12, 1925 to January 14, 1929. ... Location of Anaheim within Orange County, California Coordinates: Country United States State California County Orange Mayor Curt Pringle Area    - City 130. ...

Klansmen in Anaheim, California, 1924

Klan delegates played a significant role at the pathsetting 1924 Democratic National Convention in New York City, often called the "Klanbake Convention" as a result. The convention initially pitted Klan-backed candidate William McAdoo against New York Governor Al Smith, who drew the opposition of the group because of his Catholic faith. After days of stalemates and rioting, both candidates withdrew in favor of a compromise. Klan delegates defeated a Democratic Party platform plank that would have condemned their organization. On July 4, 1924, thousands of Klansmen converged on a nearby field in New Jersey where they participated in cross burnings, burned effigies of Smith, and celebrated their defeat of the platform plank. Image File history File links Klansmen i