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Ku Klux Klan

LEADERS: James Roesch, Ron Edwards, Jeff Berry

YEAR ESTABLISHED OR BECAME ACTIVE: 1866

USUAL AREA OF OPERATION: United States

OVERVIEW

The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK or the Klan, is one of the oldest and best-known hate groups in America. Founded by a group of Confederate Civil War veterans in 1866, the group expanded throughout the South and beyond, attracting thousands of members unhappy with Reconstruction, the post-war period when the former Confederate states were occupied by Union troops and governed by northerners. The Klan eventually swelled to more than half a million members, though national leaders actually exercised little direct control over the local chapters. As the Klan became larger, it also grew more violent, prompting national leader Nathan Forrest to formally disband it in 1869. Despite his attempt to end the organization, local Klans continued their actions, and in 1871, federal legislation outlawing the Klan was passed. The resulting legal crackdown marked the end of the Klan's first incarnation.

In 1915, William J. Simmons reorganized the Klan in Georgia, focusing its attention on African-Americans, Catholics, immigrants, and various other groups. Membership swelled to 100,000 and money flooded in. This second incarnation of the KKK spread across the nation, and the group managed to recruit numerous political leaders into its ranks. A rising tide of violence, combined with a midwestern Klan leader's conviction for a grisly rape and murder, began the Klan's decline. An IRS tax lien finished the job by bankrupting the organization in 1944. While the formal Klan no longer exists as a unified organization, various splinter groups, estimated to have fewer than 10,000 members altogether, continue to employ the name and practices of the Ku Klux Klan.

HISTORY

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six Confederate army veterans. In its earliest form, the group was largely social in nature, its members enjoying many of the rites and rituals often found in other fraternal organizations. But soon after its founding, the Klan's members became involved in racially motivated actions aimed at African-American families and organizations.

The Klan's 1867 convention created a formal structure for the group, as well as a three-item statement of purpose, called the "Prescript." This document defined the Klan's purposes: protecting the weak and defenseless, defending the U.S. Constitution, and enforcing the laws of the United States, particularly those dealing with unlawful seizure of property. While these objectives sound relatively benign to modern ears, they conveyed a clear message in the post Civil War South: the Klan existed to resist Reconstruction and impede the progress of freed slaves.

Leading the Klan in its new mission was a former Confederate general, Nathan Forrest, who was named the Klan's first Grand Wizard. Under his leadership, the Klan swiftly capitalized on Southern suffering, particularly in rural areas. The Klan was organized into various regions, with leaders creatively titled Grand Dragons, Titans, Giants, and Cyclopes. Across the rural South, Klansmen began a campaign of violence, including hundreds of lynchings. Klan violence was not restricted to freed slaves; Northern teachers, judges, and Republicans were all targeted for their perceived role in the destruction of the South's traditional way of life. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, Klan leader George Gordon issued a proclamation in 1868 reaffirming the Klan's nonviolence and disavowing any connection with violent acts carried out in its name.

At its peak in 1868, the first Klan claimed more than half a million members nationwide. Despite its rapid numerical growth, the Klan's nominal leadership lacked any real control of its widely dispersed chapters. National leaders began to complain that local Klan groups were doing as they wished, and as violence escalated, reputable citizens began leaving the group. In 1869, in the face of growing unrest and infighting within the Klan's ranks, Grand Wizard Forrest ordered the organization disbanded. Whether this order was a legitimate effort to rein in the group's excessive violence or simply a form of legal self-protection for the group's leader, it had little effect and the violence continued to escalate.

In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation making the Klan illegal and authorizing law enforcement to use force in bringing the group under control. Hundreds of Klansmen were jailed or fined as a result of the new law, and while pockets of Klan membership remained throughout the South, the organization as a whole was largely destroyed.

Despite a court ruling in 1882, which struck down the original anti-Klan legislation, the Klan's reputation had been largely destroyed, and the Klan largely disappeared for more than 30 years. In 1915, D. W. Griffith's epic film The Birth of a Nation was released. This work of historical fiction depicted the post Civil War South as a noble society, African-Americans as uneducated and violent, and Northerners as wicked interlopers. The film's heroes were the hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan, who delivered Southern white virtue from the African-American menace.

The film was a box office smash, ultimately taking in more than $10 million to become the highest grossing movie to that date. While controversial, the movie played upon the fears of many Americans, particularly working class men who were nervously watching an enormous wave of immigrants enter the U.S. workforce. In Atlanta, newspapers carrying ads for the movie also carried a small advertisement soliciting interest in a new Klan. The response was overwhelming, and later that year, Methodist pastor William J. Simmons gathered with a group of followers to launch the second Ku Klux Klan, with Simmons as Grand Wizard.

Simmons' new Klan had much in common with the original Klan, opposing Jews, Catholics, African-Americans, and immigrants. It also took positions against various illegal and allegedly immoral acts, including bootlegging, prostitution, graft, and failure to observe the Sabbath. Simmons also is credited with adding the infamous burning cross to the Klan's repertoire.

Simmons was a consummate promoter, and in the years leading up to 1921, membership swelled to 100,000, as money flooded in. In 1924, 40,000 Klansmen marched through the streets of the nation's capital in support of the Democratic National Convention. And political leaders at all levels chose to join the Klan rather than risk incurring its opposition. Future president Harry Truman was briefly a member.

The second Klan was much better organized, and far more profitable, than the first. It also managed to extend its reach beyond the South to much of the United States. But like the first Klan, the second soon found itself swimming in a rapidly rising tide of violence. As Klan leaders battled for control of the group's coffers, local Klan groups became more and more violent. The conviction of Midwest Klan leader, D. C. Stephenson, for the gruesome kidnapping, rape, and murder of a young schoolteacher, played a major role in the Klan once again falling from public favor during the 1930s. Following an IRS tax lien filing in 1944, the Klan formally dissolved for the second time.

Although the Klan formally died in the 1940s, the name continued to be used by numerous independent groups. The rapid growth of the U.S. economy following World War II, combined with the nation's resulting prosperity, reduced support for these factions. Rising interest in civil rights and victims' increased willingness to fight back during the 1960s also reduced the Klan's influence, and Klan marches were frequently met by counter-protestors. Law enforcement officials also actively worked to monitor and disrupt Klan activities.

By the 1980s, three separate umbrella Klan groups were competing for members: the Imperial Klans of America, the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Knights of the White Kamelia. A string of lawsuits has hurt these three groups; a civil suit following the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald pushed another group, the United Klans of America, into bankruptcy. The Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights groups have achieved some success in using high-dollar lawsuits to siphon off Klan resources.

While remaining one of the most widely known and most inflammatory of the nation's many hate groups, today's Ku Klux Klan is little more than a shadow of its former self, with an estimated 5,000-7,000 members scattered primarily across the South and Midwest. A 2002 report by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League concludes that, "Today, there is no such thing as the Ku Klux Klan. Fragmentation, decentralization, and decline have continued unabated."

PHILOSOPHY AND TACTICS

While the Ku Klux Klan has a lengthy history of bigotry, violence, and racism, the group's focus and tactics have proven remarkably malleable, often shifting in response to the current mood in the country. While the specific targets of Klan attacks have changed, a common theme runs throughout; in each of its incarnations, the Klan has targeted groups that are easily painted as a threat to working-class Americans. By blaming these groups for the struggles faced by blue-collar workers, the Klan has been able to tap into deep veins of frustration and paranoia, allowing it to attract new members and grow rapidly.

The original Ku Klux Klan, sprouting amid the rubble of the Reconstructionist South, quickly set its sights on those it saw as a threat to the South's way of life: freed slaves, Northern immigrants, and local judges who seized property and enforced federal equality laws. In addition, the original Klan offered defeated Confederate soldiers a second chance to battle the foes of the South. The tactics used by the first Klan were typically harassment, intimidation, and physical violence. Among the most violent acts was the practice of lynching.

Lynching, in its broadest sense, refers to any punishment administered outside the formal justice system. Lynching takes a variety of forms around the world; in the United States, the term most often refers to murder by hanging. During the late 1800s, lynchers often raided African-Americans' homes at night. In some cases, the attackers removed firearms, while in others they whipped or murdered the residents. Lynching was intended to intimidate African-Americans and prevent freed slaves from voting or owning weapons. The number of lynchings declined after the Klan was banned in 1871, but they continued to occur regularly well into the twentieth century. Thus the threat of lynching remained a potent weapon for Klan members for many years.

The revived Klan of the early twentieth century was far broader in its geographic scope, moving beyond the South and into the Midwest and other regions of the country. As the group expanded, it found itself with new resources and new techniques at its disposal. The year 1915 saw the birth of the new Klan, and along with it, the arrival of a new technique, the placement of a burning cross on property in order to terrorize the owner. Along with the burning cross, the reorganized Klan also employed violence similar to that used in the group's first incarnation.

The Klan's rapid expansion in the 1920s also provided it with significant sums of money. Klan Grand Wizard William Simmons, a former pastor, used some of this income to hire publicists to assist the Klan with advertising and recruiting, and the group's numbers swelled. With both financial resources and a large membership, the group was now able to impact the political process in ways the original Klan never could. At its peak, the Klan had the resources to elect candidates of its choosing, most notably Ed Jackson, whom the Klan aided in his successful bid for the Indiana governor's office.

Various national politicians were members or past members of the Klan. Edward White, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in the early twentieth century, was one of two Supreme Court members known to have been Klansmen. While there remains some scholarly debate on the question, evidence suggests that President Warren Harding was a member of the Klan, having supposedly taken the oath of membership in the White House. Harry Truman was advised to join the Klan to help win re-election to a judgeship in Missouri, which he did, though he later distanced himself from the group. Hugo Black, Democratic Senator and Supreme Court Justice, was a Klan member in the 1920s, but later repudiated the group. West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd was a Klansman for many years. Byrd later called his membership a mistake.

In its second incarnation, the Klan once again identified groups that it blamed for the struggles of working-class Americans. While the original Klan was largely a product of Southern frustration and had chosen its targets accordingly, the second Klan quickly spread beyond the South. Consequently, its list of targets was correspondingly longer and more diverse. The second Klan's enemy list formally included African-Americans, Jews, Catholics, and various lawbreakers, including drug dealers and prostitutes; informally, local Klan organizations were frequently willing to target anyone they perceived as threatening their chosen values. Given the general distrust of foreigners and "outsiders" prevalent in the United States at the time, the Klan's focus on opposition to these groups led to rapid growth.

The Klan's tactics against these new groups once again included traditional practices such as lynching, which became more frequent as the Klan grew. In addition, the new Klan began using the burning cross, a graphic threat that, by itself, was sometimes adequate to force victims to relocate. Klan leader Simmons also began to employ the tactics of marketing, hiring publicists to help him advertise and recruit new Klan members. The Klan's high point came in 1924, when 40,000 Klansmen converged to march in Washington, D.C. as a demonstration of the organization's growing political clout. Membership in the Klan approached 100,000 at its peak, and several top Klan leaders became wealthy.

As the Klan grew, it began to face a growing incompatibility between its public image of law and order and its private addiction to violence. With violent acts becoming more common and more extreme, the Klan's leadership found itself repeating the struggles of the first Klan's leaders, who had also tried to corral the group's increasingly radical fringe segments. This inability to exert control, combined with intense infighting over the group's profits, began to shake the Klan apart. By the late 1920s, the Klan was once again largely discredited among the general public, and its membership dissolved into dozens of competing factions, most with dwindling membership roles.

The Klan continued to decline throughout the Great Depression and World War II. With the U.S. economy rolling rapidly ahead following the war, the Klan's recruiting pleas were largely ineffective. While local Klan groups remained throughout America, efforts to reunite them into a monolithic Klan during the 1950s and 1960s failed. The coming of civil rights legislation in the 1960s did provide some new fuel for Klan fires, and membership nudged upward in response. However, the FBI and other law enforcement groups also became far more active in policing the Klan during this era, often using informants and infiltrators within the Klan to monitor and at times disrupt the group's operations. In one of the more bizarre episodes of this era, author Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Georgia Klan and began stealing Klan passwords, which were then broadcast on the weekly Superman radio show. These episodes, in which Superman battled and defeated the Klan, revealed the group's mysterious secret rituals to actually be sophomoric passwords and signs, leaving the Klan publicly humiliated.

While the Ku Klux Klan has little political influence today, Klan members have attempted to enter the political arena. David Duke joined the Klan at the age of 17, and was eventually elected Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a title he later changed to "national director." Duke ran for the Louisiana State Senate in 1976. While he later left the Klan to create the National Association for the Advancement of White People, he maintained his white supremacist position and never repudiated his involvement with the Klan. Duke later ran for statewide office as a Republican, prompting both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush to visit the state and campaign for his opponent. Duke was imprisoned in 2002 for tax and mail fraud. He was reportedly considering a new run for office following his release in 2004.

OTHER PERSPECTIVES

While the Ku Klux Klan has found its popularity dwindling in recent years, it does still have allies, primarily other white supremacist organizations which share the Klan's views.

The ACLU, whose stated purpose is to defend American individual rights from government interference, is frequently criticized for their work on behalf of groups such as the KKK. In 2002, Klan members reserved a Riverside Country, California public facility. Upon learning of the Klan's connection to the event, state officials attempted to cancel the contract. The ACLU of Southern California obtained a court order permitting the event to take place, citing First Amendment freedom of speech protection for the Klan's activities.

The ACLU often serves as a legal advocate for the Klan, not based upon the merits of Klan philosophy and thought, but rather for their Constitutional right to express their views. In a statement on the ACLU of Southern California's website, Ramona Ripston, ACLU/SC Executive Director, offered this perspective: "We defend the free speech rights of individuals and groups no matter where they fall on the political spectrum, from left to right and no matter how repugnant we find their message."

SUMMARY

In the twenty-first century, the Ku Klux Klan is in disarray. Living in an increasingly diverse America, most U.S. citizens have become more comfortable with interpersonal differences, making them less receptive to white supremacist claims. Further, the generally healthy economic climate of the recent past has left fewer Americans out of work, further limiting the Klan's appeal. Today, the Klan exists only as around 100 independent Klaverns, whose influence is largely local and, in most cases, extremely limited. The emergence of numerous other white supremacist organizations has also provided new options to potential Klan members, making recruiting even more difficult for the aging KKK.

SOURCES

Books

B'nai B'rith. Extremism in America. New York: Anti-Defamation League, 2002.

Wade, Wyn C. The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Web sites

Anti-Defamation League. "Ku Klux Klan." http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk.asp (accessed October 18, 2005).

Bartleby.com. "The Columbia Encyclopedia: Ku Klux Klan." http://www.bartleby.com/65/ku/KuKluxKl.html (accessed October 18, 2005).

SEE ALSO

National Association for the Advancement of White People