The Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan was a discreet organization formed in 1866 by a group of retired Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee. The first two words of the group originated from the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning circle (History). The Klan spread like a disease to almost every southern state. (pbs) The summer of 1867, all local branches of the Klan gathered in an organizing convention to establish what became known to them as an “Invisible Empire of the South.” In the 1870s, members of the Klan started an underground campaign of violence and intimidation aimed toward black and white Republican leaders. The Klan attracted retired member of the Confederate Civil War generals such as Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was named the leader …show more content…
Anyone from men and women to the aged and crippled were victims of the Klan’s mighty wrath. In Mississippi, a man by the name of Jack Dupree was a victim of the Klan. They sliced his throat and disemboweled him in front of his wife and twins. Klansmen would burn churches and schools, and lynch educated blacks and teachers. Blacks that owned land would be driven off of their property and if they refused, they were murdered. If blacks refused to work for whites, had an intimate relationship with a white person, had a job a white man wanted, read a newspaper, argued with a white person, or had a book, they were whipped. The places where most Klan activity took place, the law enforcement officers wouldn’t help or even pretend to care or notice what happened. (pbs) Northern Cummings recalls going to the police about bottles being thrown at him but, would be sent away because “the police didn’t care.” According to Cummings, he was the “fastest” kid alive. (Interview) Most of the officials though, belonged to the Klan. Then, when some officials decided to do something about it, they found it hard to find witnesses to testify to what they saw because they were terrified. White citizens whom everyone looked up to refused to speak out against the Klan, therefore giving them approval