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Line 1: − The '''Ku Klux Klan''' ('''KKK''') is a racist social and political organization in the [[United States]]. It aims at the suppression of [[African-American]], [[Jewish]], [[Homosexual]], and [[Catholic]] interests. [[Violence]] and [[intimidation]] are historically the means used to achieve these ends. The group reached the zenith of its power in the 1920s, boasting membership of one million, but has been in decline since the late 1960s.<ref>http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/birmingham_church/2.html</ref> Its current active membership is estimated to be less than 10,000 in the United States. The Klan presents itself as a Christian organization, but most Christians who are not members deem it to be inherently un-Christian if not anti-Christian. + + + + + + + − A notable former member of the KKK is [[West Virginia]] Democratic Senator [[Robert Byrd]]. This occurred before the [[Dixiecrat|Dixiecrat Revolt]], prior to which the [[Democratic Party]] was overwhelmingly the party of the South, and affiliated with [[Jim Crow]] laws. Another, whose membership in the Klan is more recent, is [[David Duke]], who was a Democrat at the time of his official membership with the Klan, and after leaving served as a [[Louisiana]] Republican Representative and as chairman of the party in St. Tammany Parish while maintaining his ties to white supremacist organizations like the NAAWP, which he founded. Despite being in the minority, Duke authored the anti-Affirmative Action House Bill 1013 (1990) which was passed by + − − ==Further reading== − *John Edgerton, ''Poverty Palace: How the Southern Poverty Law Center got rich fighting the Klan,'' The Progressive (July, 1988). − *[http://nypress.com/15/39/news&columns/mediapolitics2.cfm Best Source of Misplaced Paranoia ], New York Sun. − *[http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/events/conferences/watchdog2/4th_panel_nonprof.html Nieman Watchdog Project. Nonprofit Organizations. Spring 1999 Conference]. − *Raymond A. Schroth, [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_44_36/ai_66888046 HATE.COM - Morris Dees and HBO documentary receive negative assessment], National Catholic Reporter, Oct 13, 2000. Line 19:
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[[Image:Artoon.jpg|right|thumb|A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic party as continuations of the Confederacy]]
[[Image:Artoon.jpg|right|thumb|A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic party as continuations of the Confederacy]]
There have been three entirely different '''Ku Klux Klan''' organizations in the U.S. They copied the same name and regaalia, but hads very different goals and activities.
==First KKK==
The first KKK was an unorganized movement of white Southerners who opposed [[Reconstruction]] iinm the late 1860s by violence against black leaders and white sympathizers. Local Klans were entirely separate and there was no organization or coordination above the county level, and no county or state officers. The Klan was broken up by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the U.S> Army and had disappeared by 1872.
==Second KKK: The 1920s==
The second KKK was a nonviolent membership organization in the 1920s that reached hundreds of thousands--possibly millions--of men in every state. It was mostly a [[Ponzi scheme]] whereby the organizers took all the money (for initiation fees and costumes); when they had organized an area they moved on, leaving local chapters without money or leadership. No prominent American admitted he was a member at the time, but state organizers claimed vast powers. In tecenty years historians have found enough records to show that local chapters were discussion groups, often with speakers who denounced Catholics, Jews, crime and violation of the prohibition laws. A series of scandals ruined the reputation and the group faded away after 1925, except for some remote areas like West Virginia. Robert Byrd, now a Senator, was an organizer in West Virginia in the 1940s, and has apologized repeatedly for it. Supreme Court Justice [[Hugo Black]] admitted in 1939 that he had been a memeber in the 1920s.
==Third Klan==
The third Klan curfrently exists and comprises a few thousand members in local chapters. There is no real organization, and the group sponsors vehement hate talk, and occasional violent threats and actions. I is racist and aims at the suppression of [[African-American]], [[Jewish]], [[Homosexual]], and [[Catholic]] interests. The current Klan presents itself as a Christian organization, but all denominations have rejected it as inherently un-Christia.
[[David Duke]], who was a Democrat at the time of his official membership with the Klan, and after leaving served as a [[Louisiana]] Republican Representative and as chairman of the party in St. Tammany Parish while maintaining his ties to white supremacist organizations like the NAAWP, which he founded. Despite being in the minority, Duke authored the anti-Affirmative Action House Bill 1013 (1990) which was passed by
the Democratic majority controlled Louisianna State Legislature.
the Democratic majority controlled Louisianna State Legislature.
==References==
==References==
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]