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[[File:KKKrally1946.JPG|right|300px|thumb|Ku Klux Klan rally, unknown location, August, 1951]]

[[File:KKKrally1946.JPG|right|300px|thumb|Ku Klux Klan rally, unknown location, August, 1951]]

The '''Ku Klux Klan''' had three incarnations in the USA, all racist.  

The '''Ku Klux Klan''' ("KKK") had three incarnations in the USA, all by racist Democrats. Two very prominent Democrats were members of the KKK:  Democrat [[Robert Byrd]], who was a U.S. Senator from [[West Virginia]] for more than 50 years and who had led his local KKK chapter, and Democrat [[Hugo Black]], who was appointed to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] by [[FDR]] and became the Justice most hostile to [[classroom prayer]] and [[Christianity]] in public life.

The Klan of the 1860s was a violent effort by white Southern [[Democrats]] to fight [[Reconstruction]]; it was suppressed by the federal government.

 

The Klan of the 1860s was a violent effort by white Southern [[Democrats]] to fight [[Reconstruction]] after the [[Civil War]].  Reconstruction was ended as a political compromise to resolve the exceedingly close presidential election of 1876.

The second Klan flourished nationwide for a few years in the 1920s as state and district organizers profited handsomely by signing up millions of members, selling them distinctive white-robe costumes. The Klan voiced strong support for prohibition, opposed sexual immorality and promoted racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism and immigration restriction. Dramatic scandals inside the organization and lack of organizational structure caused the Klan to collapse quickly in the late 1920s. By 1928 it was practically defunct.   

The second Klan flourished nationwide for a few years in the 1920s as state and district organizers profited handsomely by signing up millions of members, selling them distinctive white-robe costumes. The Klan voiced strong support for prohibition, opposed sexual immorality and promoted racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism and immigration restriction. Dramatic scandals inside the organization and lack of organizational structure caused the Klan to collapse quickly in the late 1920s. By 1928 it was practically defunct.