History of the Ku Klux Klan

The image of vigilantes clothed in flowing white robes and high pointed white masks mounted on white bedecked horses invoke ominous memories of American extremism and terror. They were called "Klansmen" - a post Civil War throng of former Confederate partisans seeking to oppose the aims of the Reconstruction under the name Ku Klux Klan.

A play on the words "clan" and "kyklos", which was the Greek word for circle, the name Ku Klux Klan was adopted by a Confederate Army veterans club at Pulaski, Tennessee in May of 1866. Soon after its inception, other vigilante groups were absorbed into the Klan spurred on by its call for "white supremacy". The riders' attire signifies the spirits of the dead armies of the Confederate States returning from the war. Parading in silence, the feet of their horses padded, they impressed white Americans sympathetic to the Democratic Party, but at the same time instilled fear among black Americans.

In April of 1867, a convention of local Klans established itself as the "Invisible Empire of the South" with General Nathan Bedford Forrest elected as Grand Wizard of the Empire. The organizations hierarchy also employed menacing titles for its ranks - a Grand Dragon governed Realms (a Confederate State) and Dominions (counties) were under a Grand Titan while Grand Giants controlled provinces. Individual clansmen were also referred to as Ghouls.

The Ku Klux Klan was notorious for breaking up black assemblies, even mundane prayer meetings. They were responsible for assassinations of Republican leaders both blacks and whites. They would ride at midnight invading the homes of black families, confiscating firearms. Come election time, the Klan effectively drove black voters away from the polls. Schoolteachers of black children were also subject to intimidation. Those who tried to oppose them were flogged. Infamous of all iconic representations of the Ku Klux Klan are victims of lynching, summarily executed against the backdrop of a burning cross.

After a few years, Klan related violence erupted to horrific proportions that not even the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan could control nor tolerate. In 1869, General Forrest ordered the Klan disbanded and stepped down from his post as Grand Wizard of the organization. The activities of the Klan subsided with only a few remnant groups continuing its scare tactics in the years that followed.

In 1915, a former minister William J. Simmons spearheaded the resurgence of the second Ku Klux Klan. This time, the Klan expanded the scope of its racist agenda beyond blacks to include Jews, Catholics, Communists and immigrants. This reconstituted KKK was inspired by the strong depiction of the Ku Klux Klan in the landmark film "The Birth of the Nation" by D.W. Griffith. The formation of the new Klan was also fueled by a celebrated case of a convicted rapist and murderer Leo Frank, a Jew, whose sentence was later on commuted to life imprisonment. Frank was however abducted and hanged by a lynch mob calling itself the "Knights of Mary Phagan" (Mary Phagan was the rape victim).

The second Ku Klux Klan was politically influential and as it grew in numbers, it was able to position allies for Congressional and State seats in many places in both the North and South. The estimated membership of the Klan by the mid-1920 was at 4 million throughout the United States. This easily made millionaires of the leadership of the Klan with initiates paying membership fees and purchasing Klan paraphernalia.

To fend off the Klan threat, State laws were passed forbidding the wearing of masks and participating in other clandestine activities. This somewhat diminished the activities of the organization. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930's, Klan membership quickly fell unable to pay their membership dues. Over the years, several Klan members were convicted of murders directly linked with their association in the Klan.

Since then, the Ku Klux Klan declined steadily although there were pockets of revival attempted by various splinter groups. To date, only a few hundred chapters of the Klan remain with a population of only several thousand.