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The Ku Klux Klan is a secret organization that originated in the southern states during the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War and was reactivated on a wider geographic basis in the 20th century. The original Klan was organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the winter of 1865 - 1866, by six former Confederate Army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word kuklos ("circle"). Although the Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, its activities soon were directed against the Republican Reconstruction governments and their leaders, both black and white, which came into power in the southern states in 1867. The
founders were: The Confederacy had just lost the war, carpetbaggers and scallywags came into the South to raid and pillage. They raped our women and helped blacks into the high ranks within state and local government. There was significant violence due to these events. The KU KLUX KLAN was born and the White Riders of the Night terminated the unfairness for some time. The first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan was Nathan Bedford Forrest, a high ranking Confederate general, also known as, The Wizard in the Saddle. The Klan asked Robert E. Lee to occupy this office, but he was too old and ill by this time, but he agreed with the election of Forrest as Grand Wizard. In every town there was a Klan, but not each Klan was original. After two years Forrest declared the Klan as disbanded, because of the ongoing violence. Rumors state that Forrest had an agreement with President Grant, but maybe it was just his way to make the Invisible Empire even more invisible. The Klan represented the white resistance, so the dissolution of the Klan would have been completely impossible. This historical time frame was called the First Era of the Ku Klux Klan and it was the only era in which the Klan was primarily within America. Thanksgiving 1915, Colonel William Joseph Simmons climbed Stone Mountain, Georgia, with 16 other Klansmen, to reanimate the Klan again with a cross lighting. The name of our order, since that glorious day, was known as the "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan". This was the beginning of the Second Era of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was steadily growing by leaps and bounds. Simmons held the position of Imperial Wizard from 1915 until 1922. When Hiram W. Evans was elected Imperial Wizard, William Joseph Simmons became the Emperor. The KKK had numerous members, upwards of 6 million people. The Klan also had some prestigious members, such as Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson, as well as members within the Senate and other high ranking statesmen. The Klan only needed one member to bring it down. Grand Dragon D. C. Stevenson was tried and convicted for rape and murder. After that Stevenson provided the government with two black boxes full of Klan membership information. As a result, helping the government discover the identity of many Klansmen, as well as, many members being high ranking individuals within society. As a result of this transfer of information to the government, the Klan shrunk to less than 1 million members and was disbanded again during WW II. In the 1960's, there was a real comeback for the Ku Klux Klan. This was attributed to the south being forced to open their schools and public places to blacks. Nobody in the south wanted that to happen, so a new resistance was born and the Ku Klux Klan began to increase their membership once again. There were other successful Imperial Wizards like Sam Bowers, Robert Shelton, Sam Roper, James Venable, David Duke, Bill Wilkinson and James Farrands. During this time, the Klan flourished. |
