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The Ku Klux Klan was originally a social fraternity, organized by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Empire, in 1867. The purpose of the KKK soon developed into a paramilitary force used to oppose the Republican governments set up in the old Confederate States and used to stop Freedmen (ex-slaves) from voting, attempting to register to vote, and from trying to hold elective offices in the southern states. When the KKK became too violent, Forrest ordered it disbanded, but the violent element in the KKK continued, until the government passed the Force Acts and the Klan was extinguished in 1872. In 1915, William Simmons founded the twentieth-century version of the KKK after viewing the film, Birth of a Nation, which glorified the history of the Klan. The new Klan was not only anti black, but anti Jewish, anti foreign, and anti-Catholic. The Klan actually became a respected part of the Democratic Party and reached its peak of political power in the 1920s, when membership may have been as high as 4.5 million, including many prominent business and political leaders. The Klan declined in power when the Grand Dragon, was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of a young women whom he had taken to Chicago with him. In an attempt to lessen his sentence, Grand Dragon David Stephenson turned over evidence to the government revealing the corruption of the Klan, the names of politicians the Klan had bribed, and other illegal activities of the organization. In the 1960s, the KKK briefly rose again to try and opposed the Civil Rights Movement. After numerous deaths and disappearance of civil rights workers in the South, and the burning of black churches, and the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, the Klan fell apart. Today, there are small splinter groups of the KKK but no one large national organization.

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16y ago
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15y ago

The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan was established in Pulaski, Tennessee, in May, 1866. A year later a general organization of local Klan's was established in Nashville in April, 1867. Most of the leaders were former members of the Confederate Army and the first Grand Wizard was Nathan Forrest, an outstanding general during the American Civil War. During the next two years they terrorised and killed black Americans, sympathetic whites and immigrants, who they blamed for the election of Radical Republicans. Between 1868 and 1870 the Ku Klux Klan played an important role in restoring white rule in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. At first the main objective of white supremacy organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan was to stop black people from voting. After white governments had been established in the South the Ku Klux Klan continued to undermine the power of blacks. Successful black business's were attacked and any attempt to form black protection groups such as trade unions was quickly dealt with. Eventually the Klan targeted anyone they disliked - Jews, Catholics etc.

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11y ago

The Ku Klux Klan started in Pulaski, Tennessee, in May, 1866 after the Civil War with a group of white Southerners who were very angry when the war ended. They were angry because the Blacks had won their freedom from slavery and they had lost their slaves. Richard R. Reed suggested the word kuklos, meaning circle and cycle then Captain John B. Kennedy, who had an ear for alliteration, added the word Clan. After some tinkering the group came up with the name Ku Klux Klan.

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15y ago

It was an amazing event in the 12th century.

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15y ago

=The Ku Klux Klan started in 1865.=

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12y ago

1865

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Q: When was the klu klux klan started?
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