Where did the Ku Klux Klan originate?

Answer 1

It was Christmas Eve, 1865, in the little town Pulaski, Tennessee. Six educated, middle-class young men, who also happened to be ex-Confederate soldiers, met up to start a club for fun. They were John Lester, James Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard Reed, and Frank McCord. Like university fraternities, they were going to dress up in weird costumes, have bizarre rituals, and play pranks on innocent people, all in secret. Deciding to name their club with the Greek word 'kuklos', the root of English words 'cycle' and 'circle', and 'clan' because it alliterates, they proceeded to wear sheets, masks, tall pointed hats and galloped through Pulaski, posing as dead Confederate soldier's ghosts. Their secret club grew fast, attracting white members from other Southern towns. Soon it was found that their late-night horse rides were frightening the local black people. The members, especially ones opposed to the growing power blacks had in politics, saw how this could be used to their advantage. The activity grew to include visiting black homes at late hours, intimidating the residents, and warning them to behave themselves, or else. Before long, violence broke out. The KKK slowly morphed into the terrorist society we know it as today as a reaction to the political situation at the time.