Most people have heard of the KKK, but do some know who they really were, what they did, and what impact they made on our society? The KKK, short for the "Ku Klux Klan", was a Christian Protestantism society that targeted against the African American race during the Civil Rights movement. The group is one of the most well-known American hate groups in history, as for their lust for a white-supremacy country clear of non-whites and non-Christians. The KKK was mainly active in the Southern part of the United States. During the 1920s, the Klan membership had already exceeded over 4 million people nationwide at the peak of the Klan's activity. Despite the large numbers, the society merely started as a simple social club in Pulaski, Tennessee. Founded by a group including many former Confederate veterans in 1866, more KKK groups eventually were planted around the southern area. In 1867, local branches of the Klan came together at a convention and established an "invisible empire of the south", hence the name Ku Klux, apparently derived from the Greek word "kyklos", meaning circle. During the gathering, leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, also known as "The Grand Wizard", was chosen to be the first leader of the KKK. According …show more content…
The Klan regularly gathered to protest while burning crosses and swastikas as a symbol of their "faith in Christ" and white supremacy (Klan members were careful to refer to burning crosses as cross lighting instead of cross burning). A long history of violence is also prominent in the society. Acts of violence and discrimination against the black race and others who tried to help them included regular beatings, name calling, lynching, setting buildings on fire, bombings, hangings, even murder, and yet these were not the only methods of bullying the Ku Klux Klan