Changes

[[Image:Artoon.jpg|right|thumb|A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic party as continuations of the Confederacy]]

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

 

The name '''Ku Klux Klan''' has been used by three entirely different organizations in the U.S.  While these copied the same name and regalia, they had very different goals and activities.  

The name '''Ku Klux Klan''' has been used by three entirely different organizations in the U.S.  While these copied the same name and regalia, they had very different goals and activities.  

==First KKK==

==First KKK==

The first KKK was an unorganized movement of white Southerners who opposed [[Reconstruction]] in the late 1860s by inflicting violence against black leaders and white Republicans.  Local Klans were entirely separate; 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 using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act). It had disappeared by 1872, although similar violent groups persisted in some localities around the South.

The first KKK was an unorganized movement of white Southerners who opposed [[Reconstruction]] in the late 1860s by inflicting violence against black leaders and white Republicans.  Local Klans were entirely separate; 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 using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act). It had disappeared by 1872, although similar violent groups persisted in some localities around the South.