The Ku Klux Klan is America’s oldest terrorist hate group. It was founded in December 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by several well-educated exConfederate soldiers. The group took its name from the Greek word kukios meaning circle. The organization started as an adult fraternity devoted to performing weird rituals and practical jokes. It quickly evolved into a secretive regional terrorist and political organization countering new civilrights laws and the federal military occupation of the post-Civil War South.

Led by ex-Confederate general and slaveholder, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the group gained over half-a-million members throughout the South. Hooded nightriders terrorized and killed African American activists and their sympathizers in addition to transplanted Northerners, while groups, such as the Louisiana-based Knights of the White Camilla, undertook similar activities. With increased public outcry and the threat of congressional hearings and legislation looming, Forrest disbanded the group in 1869. Not all factions followed his order. The Klan withered during the 1870s after a series of high-profile prosecutions and changes in the political landscape. When northern troops withdrew, the need for terrorism against blacks became less pressing as Jim Crow laws restricting the social, economic and political activities of Southern blacks were passed.

The second incarnation of the Klan took place in 1915, spurred by the racist pro-Klan motion picture, Birth of a Nation (1915), and resurrected by a roving preacher-salesman, William Simmons. The new Klan under Simmons barely stood out from the variety of conservative organizations of the day. In 1920 two Atlanta publicists signed on and changed its tone to be much more vitriolic against “immoral whites” and minorities, particularly Catholics. By the mid-1920s, the Klan had 4.5 million members and exercised considerable political influence, particularly in Indiana. After 1925, the Klan was plagued by more internal power struggles, a loss of political influence and bad publicity over horrendous crimes.

During the Civil Rights movement, the Klan emerged anew, leading to numerous murders, assaults, arsons and bombings in the 1950s and 1960s. While never regaining their former membership or political power, these white-hooded bands remain visible symbols of hate which have appeared sporadically in the 1980’s and 1990’s northern cities and suburban rallies, as well as outbursts against ongoing changes in the South.

Using publicity as much as terror, they have sometimes claimed rights of free speech to legitimize their presence and voice their beliefs.