The Klu Klux Klan

Started as a social club in Pulaski, Tennesse in 1866. the first branch of the Klu Klux Klan included many former Conferderate veterans. Klu Klux, the first two parts of the clans name derive from the greek word "klyklos" which means circle.
As blacks won elections the Klan ingrossed itself with underground violence aimed towards black and white voters.
Efforts to reverse the "fall of white supremacy" and the Radical Reconstrution
Two other similar groups, the Knight of the White Camelia, and the White Brotherhood joined the Klan in these efforts.
10% of the black legislators elected during the 1867-68 constitutional conventions were victims of violence, 7 of them were even killed. White Republicans, institutions for blacks such as churches and schools were also targets fo violence. The Klan usually carried out thier acts in the night. Members wore long white robes, and hoods.
By 1970 every southern state had branches of the Klan. Small farmers, lawyers. merchants, ministers, doctors, could be found in it's membership. In the regions of the Klans strong holds, local law enforcment was either with them or against them. This helped them get away with crimes. One of the most infamous regions of Klan activity was in South Carolina. Here in January, 1871, five-hundred masked men attacked a Union county jil and lynched, killed, eight black prisoners.

Thomas Dixon's book "The Clansman" along with D.W. Griffith's 1915 film "Birth of a Nation" romantic views of the Old South assistedi n reviving the Klu Klux Klan. This second generation of Klansmen wasn't just anti-black but also stood against Roman Catholics, jews, foreigners, and organized labor. At this time fear of communism from Russia and immigrations surges in American fueled the group. This is when they adopted the burning cross symbol, and held rallies and parades around the country. At the peak of Klan power in the 1920's membership exceeded 4 millions people nationwide. The Great Depression in the 1930's cripled their numbers and eventually they disbanded in 1944.

The power the KKK had over the law in the south was wickedly strong.
In area the Klan had the seat of power members accused of federal offenses (such as conspiracies of keeping people from holding office), unfair juries, conviction of blacks for crimes with no evidence or real court hearing, got the protection of the curropted law.
To supress Klan violence President Ulysses S. Grant passed an act allowing the arrest of accused members without charge and was capable of sending federal forces to stop Klan violence. This shocked and angered many in the south. Unfortunetly from then on white supremacy took it's hold again, support of Reconstruction weakened, and by the end of 1876 the South as a whole was under Democratic control.

The 1960's civil rights movement witnessed a book of local Klan activity. Black and white activists were under fire from the Klu Klux Klan.
Bombings
Beatings
Shootings
Their actions during this time outraged the nation and helped win support for the civil rights. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson gave a speech which publically condemed the Klan and announced the arrest of four Klansmen who had connections to a murdered white female rights worker in Alabama. Over the next decades activity became isolated and the group merged in with neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups from the 1970s forward. The early 1990's it was estimated the Klu Klux Klan has a mere 6,000 to 1,000 members mainly in the Deep South.