Ku Klux Klan

[rangerrebew]

 

Ku Klux Klan

    History.com Editors

Contents

    Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
    Ku Klux Klan Violence in the South
    The Ku Klux Klan and the End of Reconstruction
    Revival of the Ku Klux Klan

Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for black Americans. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of black schools and churches and violence against black and white activists in the South.
Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

 
https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

[PeteS in CA]

The article gives rather short shrift to the early 20th Century and post-WW1 KKK 2.0, which spread considerably into northern states and in which Klan ties were often keys to political success for Dem pols (Wilson oversaw the purge of blacks from Federal employment and had "Birth of a Nation" screened in the White House).