What Is the Origin of the KKK?
The Ku Klux Klan, which also refers to itself as The Knights Party, is a "white pride" organization that claims to represent what it refers to as "White Christian America." The Klan is actually a discontinuous series of organizations that are analyzed as being three different Klans--the specific features of which vary somewhat--but with a constant ideology of white supremacy and nationalism. The KKK has been implicated in acts of violence and other crimes, and has in the past been investigated by the FBI.
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History
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The Ku Klux Klan, whose name is taken from the Greek word for circle (kuklos) and a respelling of clan, was founded by a group of Confederate war veterans in 1865, although the group itself erroneously claims that the original Klan was an organization whose mission was to fight federal troops. There were a number of white supremacy organizations that were founded directly following the Civil War, and racial violence was common. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes that the group's membership swelled as racist opposition to the policies of Reconstruction spread, and the first Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, was elected in 1867. The KKK was a secret organization that terrorized former slaves and carpetbaggers, but a federal crackdown on KKK crime as well as internal division led to the group's demise starting in 1870. The Klan has since been revived twice, once in 1915 (lasting until 1944) and again in 1946 (and still operates today); in the second incarnation, as many as five million people may have been involved in the organization.
Function
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KKK ideology holds that the allegedly White and Christian roots of American life are constantly under attack, and that they have been since the Civil War. Although the first Klan was composed mostly of Southern veterans of the Civil War, subsequent Klans have used racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Immigrant, anti-Catholic and other ideas to recruit increasingly wide segments of the population. The second Klan, for instance, which had by far the biggest membership of any Klan incarnation and was organized fraternally, exploited World War I tensions as well as anti-alcohol sentiment popular at the turn of the twentieth century--according to the ADL, even President Truman was briefly a member of the Klan. The group has evolved today, as it has in the past, to include fear tactics surrounding new social issues like gay marriage to increase membership, and, although the group's website insists that the Klan is a "love group" (as opposed to a hate group), they continue to use incendiary hate language to promote what it calls "white Christian revival."
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Time Frame
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Most divide the group's history into three time frames: first, from its founding as a secret organization in late 1865 to its dissolution around 1870, next, its activities from 1915 to 1944 as a fraternal club, during which the group committed many of its most heinous crimes and lastly from 1946 to the present, which includes the Civil Rights era investigation of the group by the FBI. As defined by its "What is 33?" page, the KKK itself divides its own history into six periods, the sixth being the current, and others being largely divided along changes in leadership style.
Features
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The KKK is identified by the ADL and others, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as a terrorist organization. Klan members have been convicted in a number of arms-related crimes, which reflect the group's tradition of intimidating African Americans and other minorities through tactics like cross-burning and lynching, which were employed especially during the first two Klans.
Misconceptions
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Although the KKK today asserts that it only wants white people to be able to have the same sense of pride that other groups feel in their heritage, the group's website asserts that they will never accept rule by African Americans or Jews, and both leaders and members of the KKK have made threats against the life of President Barack Obama.
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