![]() The early Klans used violence and intimidation to create terror and maintain control.Most members of the original Ku Klux Klan were also members of the (at that time) conservative Democratic party, with their Northern opponents making up the progressive Republican government fighting for universal suffrage and equal protection under the law.Klansmen and other Southerners misrepresented the threat posed by the newly freed slaves to justify their violence Historian David Chalmers states that it is impossible to understand the motivations of the original Klan without appreciating the widespread fear among white Southerners of African American insurrection against them.The Klan has a loose hierarchical structure with leaders at various levels of power bearing esoteric names such as Dragon, Emperor, Wizard, Kligrapp, Giant, and Kludd.There was a central charter, and the Klans were nominally overseen by Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, but individual Klans largely pursued their own agendas. The Klan of the 1860s–70s consisted of many small Klans.The first Grand Wizard, or overall leader, of the KKK was Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate General.Their strategies of intimidation and electoral meddling were quite successful the balance of power in the Southern states remained largely in white, Democratic hands. The initial Klan aimed to destabilize the Reconstruction policies designed to integrate blacks into Southern communities.During the winter of 1870–71, a majority of African Americans in South Carolina slept in the woods at night, hoping to avoid the Klan's wrath.The original Klan likely killed close to 1,000 African Americans and Republicans.Early KKK leaders referred to their organization as "The Invisible Empire," and saw themselves as knights carrying out a crusade to maintain white leadership and safeguard the moral fabric of the South.Īpproximately 620,000 soldiers died in the American Civil War, and the resulting social upheavals are still being felt today (Civil War Trust) After the devastation of the Civil War, many Southern men were drawn to the Klan, seeing it as a way to regain a sense of control over their lives and communities, and as a continued form of resistance to what they considered Northern aggression.Initially they saw themselves as pranksters, but soon realized that they could use their antics to spread fear among the newly freed slaves and exercise their growing power to reassert white control. The first KKK was formed in 1865 by a group of six friends from Pulaski, Tennessee.While it is commonplace to think of the Ku Klux Klan as a male organization, Klanswomen have played a prominent role in the group's history, especially during the Klan revival of the 1920s.It was likely chosen simply because it sounds mysterious and frightening. The name "Ku Klux Klan" is derived from Kuklos, the Greek word for circle.As of 2017, 200 of those Klansmen have given up their robes as a result of their friendship with Davis. Daryl Davis, an African American blues musician, has spent the last 30 years befriending members of the KKK and questioning them about their beliefs.The KKK defines its principle enemies as African Americans, Jews, and Catholics.The Southern Poverty Law Center places their estimate slightly higher, between 5,000 and 8,000. According to a 2016 Anti-Defamation League report, membership in the KKK throughout the USA had dropped to approximately 3,000 members.Notable periods of Klan activity include the original Klan of the 1860s and the Klan revivals of the 1920s and 1950s. The Klan is not a single historical group, but a grassroots movement that has risen and then largely disappeared several times since the original Klan was disbanded in 1872.The Ku Klux Klan arose in the Southern United States after the end of the Civil War in 1865.
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