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Ku Klux Klan

 

            
             The Ku Klux Klan was formed at the end of the Civil War during the Reconstruction period. It was viewed as a vigilante group created to intimidate black people or white people who were there to help them. Over the years, the KKK has evolved into a different type of organization. The Ku Klux Klan has a very rich history and a very unusual group still in existence today. .
             In December 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, six men who were previously officers in the Civil War decided to start a club, mainly for amusement. They chose to take on the name "kuklos,"" which is the Greek word for circle. For fun, they galloped around town making a spectacle of themselves. They claimed not to have had a drink of water since the battle of Shiloh and also to live in hell. This frightened the Negroes. What began purely as a harmless, undisruptive group ended up being a violent hate assembly.
             The Klan was rapidly spreading around the country. All over the South, people formed their own "Klans- with only a loose allegiance to the "mother-Klan in Pulaski."" These six founders however gave them no restraints or discipline because they did not even mean to start this trend they did. In April 1867, representatives from each group met in Nashville, and drew up a "prescript- or constitution. Here, also is when General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a general in the Confederate army, was elected Grand Wizard. They also divided the Empire into realms, dominions, provinces and dens, headed by Grand Dragons, Titans, Giants, and Cyclopes, and everyone else in the Klan was considered a Ghoul. (Chalmers 9).
             After the Civil War, when social classes were out of order, the Klan wanted to restore it by -returning the Negro to the field "just as long as he didn't do too well there "and the prewar leaders to their former seats of power."" To do this, they used violence and intimidation. They invaded towns, most of the time at night, but when that wasn't possible, they attacked during the day.


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