KKK “Ku Klux Klan”

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Ex-Confederate soldiers established the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866. The Klan extended into almost every southern state by 1870. They developed the first two words of their name from the Greek word kyklos, meaning circle and took the third as a variant of the word clan. The Klan soon turned to intimidating newly freed African Americans. Riding at night the Klan terrorized and sometimes murdered those it opposed. Members adopted a hooded white costume and the white costume intended to represent the ghosts of the Confederate. The costume was used to avoid identification and to frighten victims during nighttime raids. 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. It was the reestablishment of white supremacy 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, staging rallies, parades and marches expressing their hatred for 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. Shortly after the KKK's formation a man named Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave trader and Confederate general, assumed control of the organization and turned it into a militaristic group. In 1868, Forrest formally left the group after he became appalled by its growing violence. However, the KKK continued to grow and its violence worsened. The KKK may have had several hundred thousand Klan members at its height during