KU KLUX KLAN (KKK)
Founders: Confederate Civil War veterans Captain John C. Lester, Major James R. Crowe, John D. Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard R. Reed, Frank O. McCord
Founded Date: December 24, 1865
Founded Location: Pulaski, Tennessee
Incorporated Date: May 06, 1866
Headquarters: Each Klan group has its own headquarters.
Background: The Klan has fragmented into more than 40 separate factions of varying sizes. There is no “one” Ku Klux Klan.
Estimated size: There are over a hundred different chapters in the various Klan organizations, with varying memberships. Overall, there may be as many as 5,000 members and associates of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan is strongest in the South and in the Midwest.
Criminal Activity: The Klan has a relatively high association with criminal activity, ranging from hate crimes to acts of domestic terrorism.
Media: Mass mailings, leafleting and the Internet
Strategy: Public rallies and protests, "adopt a highway" programs and other attention getting stunts, Internet
Ideology: White supremacist ideology not far from that of neo-Nazis, although it tends to be more Christian-oriented and to stress nativism.
Affiliations: National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations, Christian Identity groups
Financial Support: Little. Most funding comes from membership dues and sales of Klan paraphernalia.
Source: Anti-Defamation League
Founded Date: December 24, 1865
Founded Location: Pulaski, Tennessee
Incorporated Date: May 06, 1866
Headquarters: Each Klan group has its own headquarters.
Background: The Klan has fragmented into more than 40 separate factions of varying sizes. There is no “one” Ku Klux Klan.
Estimated size: There are over a hundred different chapters in the various Klan organizations, with varying memberships. Overall, there may be as many as 5,000 members and associates of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan is strongest in the South and in the Midwest.
Criminal Activity: The Klan has a relatively high association with criminal activity, ranging from hate crimes to acts of domestic terrorism.
Media: Mass mailings, leafleting and the Internet
Strategy: Public rallies and protests, "adopt a highway" programs and other attention getting stunts, Internet
Ideology: White supremacist ideology not far from that of neo-Nazis, although it tends to be more Christian-oriented and to stress nativism.
Affiliations: National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations, Christian Identity groups
Financial Support: Little. Most funding comes from membership dues and sales of Klan paraphernalia.
Source: Anti-Defamation League
Current Status: White supremacist groups are on the rise in the U.S., according to an analysis from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The number of KKK chapters nationwide grew from 72 to 190 in 2015.
A list is maintained by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL):
Other Countries: Aside from Canada, there have been various attempts to organise KKK chapters outside the United States. In Australia in the late 1990s, former One Nation member Peter Coleman established branches throughout the country, and in recent years the KKK has attempted to infiltrate other political parties such as Australia First. Recruitment activity has also been reported in the United Kingdom, dating back to the 1960s when Robert Relf was involved in establishing a British KKK.
In Germany a KKK-related group, the European White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, has organised and it gained notoriety in 2012 when it was widely reported in the German media that two police officers who held membership in the organisation would be allowed to keep their jobs. A group was even established in Fiji in the early 1870s by white settlers, although it was put down by the British who, although not officially established as Fiji's colonial rulers, had played a leading role in establishing a new constitutional monarchy that was being threatened by the Fijian Klan. In São Paulo, Brazil, the website of a group called Imperial Klans of Brazil was shut down in 2003, and the group's leader was arrested.
A list is maintained by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL):
- Bayou Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, prevalent in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and other areas of the Southern U.S.
- Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
- Imperial Klans of America
- Knights of the White Camelia
- Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by national director and self-claimed pastor Thomas Robb, and based in Zinc, Arkansas. It claims to be the biggest Klan organization in America today.
- Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a North Carolina–based group headed by Will Quigg, is currently thought to be the largest KKK chapter.
Other Countries: Aside from Canada, there have been various attempts to organise KKK chapters outside the United States. In Australia in the late 1990s, former One Nation member Peter Coleman established branches throughout the country, and in recent years the KKK has attempted to infiltrate other political parties such as Australia First. Recruitment activity has also been reported in the United Kingdom, dating back to the 1960s when Robert Relf was involved in establishing a British KKK.
In Germany a KKK-related group, the European White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, has organised and it gained notoriety in 2012 when it was widely reported in the German media that two police officers who held membership in the organisation would be allowed to keep their jobs. A group was even established in Fiji in the early 1870s by white settlers, although it was put down by the British who, although not officially established as Fiji's colonial rulers, had played a leading role in establishing a new constitutional monarchy that was being threatened by the Fijian Klan. In São Paulo, Brazil, the website of a group called Imperial Klans of Brazil was shut down in 2003, and the group's leader was arrested.
THE FOUNDING OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
1st Klan | 1865–1870s
Founded on December 24, 1865 by Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee created the original Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The name was formed by combining the Greek kyklos (κύκλος, circle) with clan. The group was known for a short time as the "Kuklux Clan".
The 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 blacks. 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, blacks 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.
The 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 blacks. 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, blacks 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.
The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous — and oldest — of American hate groups.
Although black Americans have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics.
Although black Americans have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics.
Source: University of Tennessee
Source: University of Tennessee
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Source: University of Tennessee
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In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention and established what they called an “Invisible Empire of the South.” Leading Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or “grand wizard,” of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of Grand Dragons, Grand Titans and Grand Cyclopses.
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Nathan Bedford Forrest
(1821-1877) Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate cavalry commander during the American Civil War. He and his troops were responsible for the massacre of Black Union troops stationed at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in April 1864, and he was the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
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The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson’s relatively lenient Reconstruction policies, in place from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts, and each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted “equal protection” of the Constitution to former slaves and enacted universal male suffrage.
By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. Even at its height, the Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership. Local Klan members–often wearing masks and dressed in the organization’s signature long white robes and hoods–usually carried out their attacks at night, acting on their own but in support of the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where blacks were a minority or a small majority of the population, and was relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners.
By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. Even at its height, the Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership. Local Klan members–often wearing masks and dressed in the organization’s signature long white robes and hoods–usually carried out their attacks at night, acting on their own but in support of the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where blacks were a minority or a small majority of the population, and was relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners.
Though Democratic leaders would later attribute Ku Klux Klan violence to poorer southern whites, the organization’s membership crossed class lines, from small farmers and laborers to planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians and ministers. In the regions where most Klan activity took place, local law enforcement officials either belonged to the Klan or declined to take action against it, and even those who arrested accused Klansmen found it difficult to find witnesses willing to testify against them. Other leading white citizens in the South declined to speak out against the group’s actions, giving them tacit approval. After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in the passage of three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. The act authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest accused individuals without charge, and to send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.
For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. The act authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest accused individuals without charge, and to send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.
"At its peak in the 1920's; Klan membership
exceeded 4 million nationwide”
THE REVIVAL OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
2nd Klan | 1915–1944
In 1915, white Protestant nativists organized a revival of the Ku Klux Klan near Atlanta, Georgia, inspired by their romantic view of the Old South as well as Thomas Dixon’s 1905 book “The Clansman” and D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “Birth of a Nation.” This second generation of the Klan was not only anti-black but also took a stand against Roman Catholics, Jews, foreigners and organized labor. It was fueled by growing hostility to the surge in immigration that America experienced in the early 20th century along with fears of communist revolution akin to the Bolshevik triumph in Russia in 1917. The organization took as its symbol a burning cross and held rallies, parades and marches around the country. At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide.
The Great Depression in the 1930s depleted the Klan’s membership ranks, and the organization temporarily disbanded in 1944.
The Great Depression in the 1930s depleted the Klan’s membership ranks, and the organization temporarily disbanded in 1944.
Source: University of Tennessee
A woman and children dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes are standing on a stage at a Klan ceremony. One of the flags behind them reads: Chattanooga Klan No. 48, Realm of Tennessee.
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Date: 1950 - 1970
The Klan was by no means a hidden organization in Pitt County, as can be seen with this sign at the city limits, welcoming visitors to the city. A notation on the back of the photograph indicates that it was later burned.
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Source: Houston Archives
Source: National Archives
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Close Up
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Interactive Map of the Second Ku Klux Klan
Source: Virginia Commonwealth University (External Website)
THE REEMERGENCE OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
3rd Klan | 1946–present
The civil rights movement of the 1960s saw a surge of local Klan activity across the South, including the bombings, beatings and shootings of black and white activists. These actions, carried out in secret but apparently the work of local Klansmen, outraged the nation and helped win support for the civil rights cause. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a speech publicly condemning the Klan and announcing the arrest of four Klansmen in connection with the murder of a white female civil rights worker in Alabama. The cases of Klan-related violence became more isolated in the decades to come, though fragmented groups became aligned with neo-Nazi or other right-wing extremist organizations from the 1970s onward. In the early 1990s, the Klan was estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 active members, mostly in the Deep South.
DATES OF SIGNIFICANCE
1866
May 06, 1866; The Ku Klux Klan was incorporated.
1867
Former Confederate general and noted white supremacist Nathan Bedford Forrest, architect of the Fort Pillow Massacre, becomes the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan murders several thousand people in the former Confederate states as an effort to suppress the political participation of black Southerners and their allies.
1868
The Ku Klux Klan publishes its Organization and Principles. Although early supporters of the Klan claimed that it was philosophically a Christian, patriotic organization rather than a white supremacist group, a cursory glance at the Klan's catechism reveals otherwise:
5. Are you opposed to Negro equality both social and political?
6. Are you in favor of a white man's government in this country?
7. Are you in favor of constitutional liberty, and a government of equitable laws instead of a government of violence and oppression?
8. Are you in favor of maintaining the constitutional rights of the South?
9. Are you in favor of the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights, alike proprietary, civil, and political?
10. Do you believe in the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power?
The "inalienable right to self-preservation" is a clear reference to the Klan's violent activities - and its emphasis, even at this early stage, is clearly white supremacist.
1868
The Ku Klux Klan was imported to South Carolina from Tennessee
1870
The Unites States Congress passed the Enforcement Act, which attempted to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from violating citizens constitutional protections but the law produced little result.
1870
The South Carolina Republican Governor Robert Scott (1826-1900) was reelected on the strength of the African American vote, enraging members of the KKK. A wave of terror began that following day.
1871
Congress passes the Klan Act, allowing the federal government to intervene and arrest Klan members on a large scale. Over the next several years, the Klan largely disappears and is replaced by other violent white supremacist groups.
1871
President Grant sent Federal troops to South Carolina to suppress violence instigated by the KKK.
1871
President Grant suspended writ habeas corpus in South Carolina in response to violence by the KKK. It applied to all arrest made by the U.S. Marshals and Federal troops in the states western counties. By the end of November some 600 arrests were made.
1871
KKK trials begin in Federal District Court in Columbia, South Carolina.
1905
Thomas Dixon Jr. adapts his second Ku Klux Klan novel, The Clansman, into a play. Although fictional, the novel introduces the burning cross as a symbol for the Ku Klux Klan:
"In olden times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was sent by swift courier from village to village. This call was never made in vain, nor will it be to-night in the new world."
Although Dixon implies that the Klan had always used the burning cross, it was, in fact, his invention. Dixon's fawning adoration for the Klan, presented less than a half-century after the American Civil War, begins to revive the long-dormant organization.
1915
D.W. Griffith's wildly popular film Birth of a Nation, an adaptation of Dixon's The Clansman, revives national interest in the Klan. A Georgia lynch mob led by William J. Simmons - and including numerous prominent (but anonymous) members of the community, such as former Georgia governor Joe Brown — murders Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank, then burns a cross on a hilltop and dubs itself the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
1920
The Klan becomes a more public organization, and expands its platform to include Prohibition, anti semitism, xenophobia, anti-Communism, and anti-Catholicism. Spurred on by the romanticized white supremacist history portrayed in Birth of a Nation, bitter whites throughout the country begin to form local Klan groups.
1925
Indiana Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson is convicted of murder. Members subsequently begin to realize that they may actually face criminal charges for their behavior, and the Klan largely disappears - except in the South, where local groups continue to operate.
1942
Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia began winning the election when his local chapter of the KKK picked him as its leader. He was elected as U.S. Senator in 1959.
1951
Members of the Ku Klux Klan firebomb the home of NAACP Florida executive director Harry Tyson Moore and his wife, Harriet, on Christmas Eve. Both are killed in the blast. The murders are the first high-profile Southern Klan killings among many during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s - most of which either go unprosecuted, or result in acquittals by all-white juries.
1957
Murder of Willie Edwards, Jr. Klansmen forced Edwards to jump to his death from a bridge into the Alabama River.
1963
Assassination of NAACP organizer Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was convicted.
1963
Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four African-American girls. The perpetrators were Klan membersRobert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died before he was indicted.
1964
The Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan firebombs twenty predominantly black churches, and then (with the aid of local police) murders civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
1964
Murders of three civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, in Mississippi. In June 2005, Klan member Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter.
1964
Murder of two black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. In August 2007, based on the confession of Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards, James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted. Seale was sentenced to serve three life sentences. Seale was a former Mississippi policeman and sheriff's deputy.
1964
In Mississippi, Charles Moore (19) and Henry Dee (19) were beaten and killed by local members of the KKK. Their mutilated bodies were later found in the Mississippi River. Charles Marcus Edwards and James Ford Seale were arrested for the crime but neither were tried. In 2007, James Ford Seale (71) was arrested and charged with two counts of Kidnapping. In 2008, an appear court ruled that the Statute of Limitations had expired overturning the conviction.
1965
Alabama murder of Viola Liuzzo. She was a Southern-raised Detroit mother of five who was visiting the state in order to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights Marchers. 4 Klansmen were arrested in March 1966 (See Below Statement from President Johnson.
1966
The firebombing death of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr., 58, in Mississippi. In 1998 former Ku Klux Klan wizard Sam Bowers was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Two other Klan members were indicted with Bowers, but one died before trial, and the other's indictment was dismissed.
1979
On November 3, 1979, five communist protesters were killed and 8 were wounded by KKK and American Nazi Party members in the Greensboro massacre in Greensboro, North Carolina. This incident took place during the Death to the Klan rally sponsored by the Communist Workers Party, in their efforts to organize predominantly black industrial workers in the area.
1980
Three KKK members shot four elderly black women (Viola Ellison, Lela Evans, Opal Jackson and Katherine Johnson) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, following a KKK initiation rally. A fifth woman, Fannie Crumsey, was injured by flying glass in the incident. Attempted murder charges were filed against the three KKK members, two of whom—Bill Church and Larry Payne—were acquitted by an all-white jury, and the other of whom—Marshall Thrash—was sentenced by the same jury to nine months on lesser charges. He was released after three months. In 1982, a jury awarded the five women $535,000 in a civil trial.
1981
After Michael Donald was lynched in 1981 in Alabama, the FBI investigated his death and two local KKK members were convicted of having a role, including Henry Francis Hays, who was sentenced to death. With the support of attorneys Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Donald's mother, Beulah Mae Donald, sued the KKK in civil court in Alabama. Her lawsuit against the United Klans of America was tried in February 1987. The all-white jury found the Klan responsible for the lynching of Donald and ordered the Klan to pay US$7 million, but the KKK did not have sufficient funds to pay the fine, and had to give up their national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa. After exhausting the appeals process, Hays was executed for Donald's death in Alabama on June 6, 1997. It was the first time since 1913 that a white man had been executed in Alabama for a crime against an African American.
1995
Don Black and Chloê Hardin, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke's ex-wife, began a small bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront. Today, Stormfront has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, racism, and antisemitism. Duke has an account on Stormfront which he uses to post articles from his own website, as well as polling forum members for opinions and questions, in particular during his internet broadcasts. Duke has worked with Don Black on numerous projects including Operation Red Dog in 1980.
2005
Edgar Ray Killen, architect of the 1964 Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner murders, is convicted on manslaughter charges and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
May 06, 1866; The Ku Klux Klan was incorporated.
1867
Former Confederate general and noted white supremacist Nathan Bedford Forrest, architect of the Fort Pillow Massacre, becomes the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan murders several thousand people in the former Confederate states as an effort to suppress the political participation of black Southerners and their allies.
1868
The Ku Klux Klan publishes its Organization and Principles. Although early supporters of the Klan claimed that it was philosophically a Christian, patriotic organization rather than a white supremacist group, a cursory glance at the Klan's catechism reveals otherwise:
5. Are you opposed to Negro equality both social and political?
6. Are you in favor of a white man's government in this country?
7. Are you in favor of constitutional liberty, and a government of equitable laws instead of a government of violence and oppression?
8. Are you in favor of maintaining the constitutional rights of the South?
9. Are you in favor of the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights, alike proprietary, civil, and political?
10. Do you believe in the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power?
The "inalienable right to self-preservation" is a clear reference to the Klan's violent activities - and its emphasis, even at this early stage, is clearly white supremacist.
1868
The Ku Klux Klan was imported to South Carolina from Tennessee
1870
The Unites States Congress passed the Enforcement Act, which attempted to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from violating citizens constitutional protections but the law produced little result.
1870
The South Carolina Republican Governor Robert Scott (1826-1900) was reelected on the strength of the African American vote, enraging members of the KKK. A wave of terror began that following day.
1871
Congress passes the Klan Act, allowing the federal government to intervene and arrest Klan members on a large scale. Over the next several years, the Klan largely disappears and is replaced by other violent white supremacist groups.
1871
President Grant sent Federal troops to South Carolina to suppress violence instigated by the KKK.
1871
President Grant suspended writ habeas corpus in South Carolina in response to violence by the KKK. It applied to all arrest made by the U.S. Marshals and Federal troops in the states western counties. By the end of November some 600 arrests were made.
1871
KKK trials begin in Federal District Court in Columbia, South Carolina.
1905
Thomas Dixon Jr. adapts his second Ku Klux Klan novel, The Clansman, into a play. Although fictional, the novel introduces the burning cross as a symbol for the Ku Klux Klan:
"In olden times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was sent by swift courier from village to village. This call was never made in vain, nor will it be to-night in the new world."
Although Dixon implies that the Klan had always used the burning cross, it was, in fact, his invention. Dixon's fawning adoration for the Klan, presented less than a half-century after the American Civil War, begins to revive the long-dormant organization.
1915
D.W. Griffith's wildly popular film Birth of a Nation, an adaptation of Dixon's The Clansman, revives national interest in the Klan. A Georgia lynch mob led by William J. Simmons - and including numerous prominent (but anonymous) members of the community, such as former Georgia governor Joe Brown — murders Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank, then burns a cross on a hilltop and dubs itself the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
1920
The Klan becomes a more public organization, and expands its platform to include Prohibition, anti semitism, xenophobia, anti-Communism, and anti-Catholicism. Spurred on by the romanticized white supremacist history portrayed in Birth of a Nation, bitter whites throughout the country begin to form local Klan groups.
1925
Indiana Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson is convicted of murder. Members subsequently begin to realize that they may actually face criminal charges for their behavior, and the Klan largely disappears - except in the South, where local groups continue to operate.
1942
Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia began winning the election when his local chapter of the KKK picked him as its leader. He was elected as U.S. Senator in 1959.
1951
Members of the Ku Klux Klan firebomb the home of NAACP Florida executive director Harry Tyson Moore and his wife, Harriet, on Christmas Eve. Both are killed in the blast. The murders are the first high-profile Southern Klan killings among many during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s - most of which either go unprosecuted, or result in acquittals by all-white juries.
1957
Murder of Willie Edwards, Jr. Klansmen forced Edwards to jump to his death from a bridge into the Alabama River.
1963
Assassination of NAACP organizer Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was convicted.
1963
Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four African-American girls. The perpetrators were Klan membersRobert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died before he was indicted.
1964
The Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan firebombs twenty predominantly black churches, and then (with the aid of local police) murders civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
1964
Murders of three civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, in Mississippi. In June 2005, Klan member Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter.
1964
Murder of two black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. In August 2007, based on the confession of Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards, James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted. Seale was sentenced to serve three life sentences. Seale was a former Mississippi policeman and sheriff's deputy.
1964
In Mississippi, Charles Moore (19) and Henry Dee (19) were beaten and killed by local members of the KKK. Their mutilated bodies were later found in the Mississippi River. Charles Marcus Edwards and James Ford Seale were arrested for the crime but neither were tried. In 2007, James Ford Seale (71) was arrested and charged with two counts of Kidnapping. In 2008, an appear court ruled that the Statute of Limitations had expired overturning the conviction.
1965
Alabama murder of Viola Liuzzo. She was a Southern-raised Detroit mother of five who was visiting the state in order to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights Marchers. 4 Klansmen were arrested in March 1966 (See Below Statement from President Johnson.
1966
The firebombing death of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr., 58, in Mississippi. In 1998 former Ku Klux Klan wizard Sam Bowers was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Two other Klan members were indicted with Bowers, but one died before trial, and the other's indictment was dismissed.
1979
On November 3, 1979, five communist protesters were killed and 8 were wounded by KKK and American Nazi Party members in the Greensboro massacre in Greensboro, North Carolina. This incident took place during the Death to the Klan rally sponsored by the Communist Workers Party, in their efforts to organize predominantly black industrial workers in the area.
1980
Three KKK members shot four elderly black women (Viola Ellison, Lela Evans, Opal Jackson and Katherine Johnson) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, following a KKK initiation rally. A fifth woman, Fannie Crumsey, was injured by flying glass in the incident. Attempted murder charges were filed against the three KKK members, two of whom—Bill Church and Larry Payne—were acquitted by an all-white jury, and the other of whom—Marshall Thrash—was sentenced by the same jury to nine months on lesser charges. He was released after three months. In 1982, a jury awarded the five women $535,000 in a civil trial.
1981
After Michael Donald was lynched in 1981 in Alabama, the FBI investigated his death and two local KKK members were convicted of having a role, including Henry Francis Hays, who was sentenced to death. With the support of attorneys Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Donald's mother, Beulah Mae Donald, sued the KKK in civil court in Alabama. Her lawsuit against the United Klans of America was tried in February 1987. The all-white jury found the Klan responsible for the lynching of Donald and ordered the Klan to pay US$7 million, but the KKK did not have sufficient funds to pay the fine, and had to give up their national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa. After exhausting the appeals process, Hays was executed for Donald's death in Alabama on June 6, 1997. It was the first time since 1913 that a white man had been executed in Alabama for a crime against an African American.
1995
Don Black and Chloê Hardin, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke's ex-wife, began a small bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront. Today, Stormfront has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, racism, and antisemitism. Duke has an account on Stormfront which he uses to post articles from his own website, as well as polling forum members for opinions and questions, in particular during his internet broadcasts. Duke has worked with Don Black on numerous projects including Operation Red Dog in 1980.
2005
Edgar Ray Killen, architect of the 1964 Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner murders, is convicted on manslaughter charges and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
KU KLUX KLAN IDENTIFIERS
The insignias of the Klan often include a cross, sometimes with a drop of red blood in the center.
Ku Klux Klan Logo
M.I.O.A.K. (Mystic Insignia Of A Klansman) is a red, round patch worn over the left breast of a Klansmans robe. It has a large "X" in the middle with a "K" in each corner of the "X" for Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The symbolism behind the insignia, according to various KKK groups, is that the blood drop in the center of the cross represents the blood shed by Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion, for the white Aryan race, whom they see as God's master race or chosen people. It is more commonly referred to as the "Blood Drop" Cross.
Ku Klux Klan Robes
Members of the original Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s and 1870s wore masks or hoods and sometimes robes, but it was the second Ku Klux Klan, which started in 1915, which really established the consistent "look" of the hooded and robed Klansmember that is still seen today. Indeed, the image of a hooded Klansman has become a popular hate symbol itself, displayed on t-shirts and tattoos by white supremacists around the world.
The second Ku Klux Klan was heavily influenced by fraternal societies of the early 20th century and as a result developed a bewildering array of titles, rituals, codes, signs, and gear. However, when the second Klan collapsed in the 1940s, and a variety of independent Klan groups followed in its wake, consistency faded away and customs diverged. Today, then, there is no universal set of meanings behind Klan robes and their colors and symbols; Klans can very greatly from one to the next. With most Klan groups, the general membership wear white robes. In some cases, Klan officers also wear white robes, but with colored stripes on them to indicate rank. In other Klan groups, Klan officers are allowed to wear robes of other colors: black, green, purple, etc. What color indicates indicates a particular rank can vary from one group to the next.
Generally speaking, white robes tend to indicate a rank-and-file member, unless all members wear such robes. Green robes indicate state leaders (Grand Dragons) in many Klan groups, while black robes often indicate Knighthawks, a sort of Klan security position. The leaders, or Imperial Wizards, of different Klan groups have chosen a variety of different colors of robes to wear. Klan groups may also use a variety of stripes (in different colors and numbers), sashes, and emblems on their robes.
Some Klan groups require that members wear robes at all Klan events, while other Klan groups mandate robes only at certain ceremonial functions. Some Klan groups may not use robes any more, preferring instead military-style uniforms or simple casual wear.
Source: Anti-Defamation League
Some klans use all-white robes regardless of rank. For those that use robes of different colors most use:
The Knighthawk's black robe is usually shorter so as to allow easier movement.
Ku Klux Klan Logo
M.I.O.A.K. (Mystic Insignia Of A Klansman) is a red, round patch worn over the left breast of a Klansmans robe. It has a large "X" in the middle with a "K" in each corner of the "X" for Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The symbolism behind the insignia, according to various KKK groups, is that the blood drop in the center of the cross represents the blood shed by Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion, for the white Aryan race, whom they see as God's master race or chosen people. It is more commonly referred to as the "Blood Drop" Cross.
Ku Klux Klan Robes
Members of the original Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s and 1870s wore masks or hoods and sometimes robes, but it was the second Ku Klux Klan, which started in 1915, which really established the consistent "look" of the hooded and robed Klansmember that is still seen today. Indeed, the image of a hooded Klansman has become a popular hate symbol itself, displayed on t-shirts and tattoos by white supremacists around the world.
The second Ku Klux Klan was heavily influenced by fraternal societies of the early 20th century and as a result developed a bewildering array of titles, rituals, codes, signs, and gear. However, when the second Klan collapsed in the 1940s, and a variety of independent Klan groups followed in its wake, consistency faded away and customs diverged. Today, then, there is no universal set of meanings behind Klan robes and their colors and symbols; Klans can very greatly from one to the next. With most Klan groups, the general membership wear white robes. In some cases, Klan officers also wear white robes, but with colored stripes on them to indicate rank. In other Klan groups, Klan officers are allowed to wear robes of other colors: black, green, purple, etc. What color indicates indicates a particular rank can vary from one group to the next.
Generally speaking, white robes tend to indicate a rank-and-file member, unless all members wear such robes. Green robes indicate state leaders (Grand Dragons) in many Klan groups, while black robes often indicate Knighthawks, a sort of Klan security position. The leaders, or Imperial Wizards, of different Klan groups have chosen a variety of different colors of robes to wear. Klan groups may also use a variety of stripes (in different colors and numbers), sashes, and emblems on their robes.
Some Klan groups require that members wear robes at all Klan events, while other Klan groups mandate robes only at certain ceremonial functions. Some Klan groups may not use robes any more, preferring instead military-style uniforms or simple casual wear.
Source: Anti-Defamation League
Some klans use all-white robes regardless of rank. For those that use robes of different colors most use:
- Purple (or sometimes blue) – Imperial Wizard
- Green (or sometimes red) – Grand Dragon
- Reddish-purple – Great Titan
- Gold - Exalted Cyclops
- Black – Knighthawk (security)
- Red – Kleagle
The Knighthawk's black robe is usually shorter so as to allow easier movement.
KU KLUX KLAN STRUCTURE
Ku Klux Klan nomenclature has evolved over the order's nearly 160 years of existence. The titles and designations were first laid out in the original Klan's prescripts of 1867 and 1868, then revamped with William J. Simmons' Kloran of 1916. Subsequent Klans have made various modifications.
First Klan Era
Second Klan Era
Local "Dens" were replaced by "Klaverns" and had their own ranks and titles. The Ku Klux ritual was called the "Kloran." The investigative committee was called the "Klokann." National conventions were called "Klonvokations." A delegate to a Klonvokation was a Klepeer.
The national council was called the "Imperial Kloncilium."
First Klan Era
- Grand Wizard - national head of the Invisible Empire
- Grand Dragon - ruler over a state known as a "Realm."
- Grand Titan - ruler of a "Dominion" within a state or Congressional District.
- Grand Giant - head of a province or a county.
- Grand Cyclops - president or presiding officer of a meeting or "Den."(Den: Basic level of organisation for the Klan)
- Grand Magi - second officer in authority of the Den.
- Grand Monk - third officer in authority of the Den.
- Grand Turk - the marshal, executive officer to the Grand Cyclops, and master of ceremonies of the Den.
- Grand Sentinel - incharge of the Grand Guards
- Grand Guards also Lictors - guards, usually two, for the Den.
- Genii - assistants to the Grand Wizard, usually ten
- Grand scribe - the correspondence secretaries for the Grand Wizard, Grand Dragons, Grand Titans, Grand Giants, and Grand Cyclops.
- Grand Exchequer - the treasurers for the Grand Wizard, Grand Dragons, Grand Titans, Grand Giants, and Grand Cyclops.
- Hydras - assistants to the Grand Dragon, usually eight.
- Furies - assistants to the Grand Titan, usually six.
- Goblins - assistants to the Grand Giant, usually four.
- Night-hawks - assistants to the Grand Cyclops, usually two.
- Ghouls - Individual member
Second Klan Era
- Imperial Wizard - national head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan often referred to in documents as president.
- Imperial Klonsel - Supreme attorney
- Imperial Kleagle - executive, recieves reports from the Grand Goblins.
- Grand Goblin - ruler over a "Dominion" which is now defined as a multi-state area.
- King Kleagle - manager of state known as a "Realm."
- Kleagle - field organizer over a certain territory or part of a "Realm."
Local "Dens" were replaced by "Klaverns" and had their own ranks and titles. The Ku Klux ritual was called the "Kloran." The investigative committee was called the "Klokann." National conventions were called "Klonvokations." A delegate to a Klonvokation was a Klepeer.
The national council was called the "Imperial Kloncilium."
- Exalted Cyclops - president of the Klavern
- Terrors - officers of the Exalted Cyclops which consists of:
- Klaliff - vice president of the Klavern
- Klokard - lecturer
- Kludd - the Chaplain
- Kligrapp - secretary
- Klabee - treasurer
- Kladd - the conductor of ceremonies
- Klarogo - inner guard
- Klexter - outer guard
- Klokan - Head of the three-man Klokann Board which investigates prospective members.
- Night-Hawk - Custodian of the fiery cross and person incharge of new candidates or "aliens"
KU KLUX KLAN GLOSSARY
311, 3x11 or 3-11: 11th letter of the alphabet (K) - 3 Ks (KKK)
Alien: A person who does not belong to the Klan.
AYAK?: A password meaning "Are You a Klansman?" to be answered with below.
AKIA or Akia: "A Klansmen I am"; these were code words for Klansmen meeting in strange surroundings. They would be inserted into common conversation, for instance "Does a Mr. Ayak live in this neighborhood" to be responded by "No, but a Mr. Akia does." The password would then be accompanied by a secret handshake or other sign of recognition.
Banished: Expelled from the Klan
CA BARK: A password meaning "Constantly Applied By All Real Klansmen."
CLASP: A password meaning "Clannish Loyalty A Sacred Principle."
Citizen: A Klan member
Degree Teams: A group which performs the task of initiation.
Genii: The collective name for the national officers. Also known as the Kloncilium, or the advisory board to the Imperial Wizard.
Hydras: The Real officers, with the exception of the Grand Dragon.
Imperial Giant: Former Imperial Wizard.
Imperial Wizard: The overall, or national, head of a Klan, which it sometimes compares to the president of the United States.
Inner Circle: Small group of four or five members who plan and carry out "action." Its members and activities are not disclosed to the general membership.
Invisible Empire: A Ku Klux Klan's overall geographical jurisdiction, which it compares to the United States although none exist in every state.
I.S.T.U.B. - "In the sacred unfailing bond"
Kalendar: Klan calendar, which dates events from both the origin and its 1915 rebirth Anno Klan, and means "in the year of the Klan," and is usually written "AK."
Kardinal Kullors: White, crimson, gold and black. Secondary Kullors are grey, green and blue. The Imperial Wizard's Kullor is Skipper Blue.
K.B.I.: Klan Bureau of Investigation. Pioneered by the Mississippi White Knights, these groups investigate the Klans enemies and check leaks.
KIGY!: A password meaning "Klansman, I greet you!"
Klankfraft: The practices and beliefs of the Klan.
Klanton: The jurisdiction of a Klavern.
Klavern: A local unit or club; also called "den."
Kleagle: An organizer whose main function is to recruit new members. In some Klans, he gets a percentage of the initiation fees.
Klectokon: Initiation fee.
Klepeer: Delegate elected to Imperial Klonvokation.
Klonkave: Secret Klavern Meeting.
Klonverse: Province Convention.
Kloran: Official book of Klan rituals.
Klorero: Realm convention.
L.O.T.I.E or LOTIE: Lady Of The Invisible Empire
Naturalization: The Klan initiation ceremony
Non Silba Sed Anthar: Not for self, but for others
O.R.I.O.N.: Our Race Is Our Nation.
Passport: Membership Card
SAN BOG: A password meaning "Strangers Are Near, Be On Guard."
S.A.N.B.O.G. or Sanbog: "Strangers are near, be on guard"
SOR: "Sign of Recognition.
Terrors: The Exalted Cyclops' officers.
Wrecking Crew: An action squad commissioned to take physical action against enemies and wayward members of the Klan. Depending on time and organization, these groups consisted of 5 to 8 members and were authorized either by the klokann, the Exalted Cyclops and/or the Kludd. Sometimes led by the Nighthawk. An action taken by the crew is wrecked. Some names used by wrecking crews include "Secret Six", "Ass-tear Squad" and "Holy terrors".
Yellow Dog: A hazing ritual similar to the type used in college fraternities; when practiced by imperial officers
Alien: A person who does not belong to the Klan.
AYAK?: A password meaning "Are You a Klansman?" to be answered with below.
AKIA or Akia: "A Klansmen I am"; these were code words for Klansmen meeting in strange surroundings. They would be inserted into common conversation, for instance "Does a Mr. Ayak live in this neighborhood" to be responded by "No, but a Mr. Akia does." The password would then be accompanied by a secret handshake or other sign of recognition.
Banished: Expelled from the Klan
CA BARK: A password meaning "Constantly Applied By All Real Klansmen."
CLASP: A password meaning "Clannish Loyalty A Sacred Principle."
Citizen: A Klan member
Degree Teams: A group which performs the task of initiation.
Genii: The collective name for the national officers. Also known as the Kloncilium, or the advisory board to the Imperial Wizard.
Hydras: The Real officers, with the exception of the Grand Dragon.
Imperial Giant: Former Imperial Wizard.
Imperial Wizard: The overall, or national, head of a Klan, which it sometimes compares to the president of the United States.
Inner Circle: Small group of four or five members who plan and carry out "action." Its members and activities are not disclosed to the general membership.
Invisible Empire: A Ku Klux Klan's overall geographical jurisdiction, which it compares to the United States although none exist in every state.
I.S.T.U.B. - "In the sacred unfailing bond"
Kalendar: Klan calendar, which dates events from both the origin and its 1915 rebirth Anno Klan, and means "in the year of the Klan," and is usually written "AK."
Kardinal Kullors: White, crimson, gold and black. Secondary Kullors are grey, green and blue. The Imperial Wizard's Kullor is Skipper Blue.
K.B.I.: Klan Bureau of Investigation. Pioneered by the Mississippi White Knights, these groups investigate the Klans enemies and check leaks.
KIGY!: A password meaning "Klansman, I greet you!"
Klankfraft: The practices and beliefs of the Klan.
Klanton: The jurisdiction of a Klavern.
Klavern: A local unit or club; also called "den."
Kleagle: An organizer whose main function is to recruit new members. In some Klans, he gets a percentage of the initiation fees.
Klectokon: Initiation fee.
Klepeer: Delegate elected to Imperial Klonvokation.
Klonkave: Secret Klavern Meeting.
Klonverse: Province Convention.
Kloran: Official book of Klan rituals.
Klorero: Realm convention.
L.O.T.I.E or LOTIE: Lady Of The Invisible Empire
Naturalization: The Klan initiation ceremony
Non Silba Sed Anthar: Not for self, but for others
O.R.I.O.N.: Our Race Is Our Nation.
Passport: Membership Card
SAN BOG: A password meaning "Strangers Are Near, Be On Guard."
S.A.N.B.O.G. or Sanbog: "Strangers are near, be on guard"
SOR: "Sign of Recognition.
Terrors: The Exalted Cyclops' officers.
Wrecking Crew: An action squad commissioned to take physical action against enemies and wayward members of the Klan. Depending on time and organization, these groups consisted of 5 to 8 members and were authorized either by the klokann, the Exalted Cyclops and/or the Kludd. Sometimes led by the Nighthawk. An action taken by the crew is wrecked. Some names used by wrecking crews include "Secret Six", "Ass-tear Squad" and "Holy terrors".
Yellow Dog: A hazing ritual similar to the type used in college fraternities; when practiced by imperial officers
Miscellaneous Documentaries
Additional Research Sources
Wikipedia: Ku Klux Klan
Souther Poverty Law Center: Ku Klux Klan
Anti-Defamation League: Ku Klux Klan
Wikipedia: Ku Klux Klan
Souther Poverty Law Center: Ku Klux Klan
Anti-Defamation League: Ku Klux Klan
Disclaimer: The content of these gang profiles are compiled from years of investigations, training, gang member and subject matter expert interviews, confiscated gang paraphernalia, historical research, etc. Information within these profiles may vary from region-to-region and should not be used to 100% document gang membership, activity and/or gang crimes. However, it can be used as a guideline during investigations, strategy development, police development and officer safety awareness briefings. ~ In Omnia Paratus, Gang Command
