What does kkk do

Genii : The collective name for the national officers. Also known as the Kloncilium, or the advisory board to the Imperial Wizard. Hydras : The Real officers, with the exception of the Grand Dragon. Imperial Wizard : The overall, or national, head of a Klan, which it sometimes compares to the president of the United States.

Inner Circle : Small group of four or five members who plan and carry out "action. Invisible Empire : A Ku Klux Klan's overall geographical jurisdiction, which it compares to the United States although none exist in every state. Kalendar : Klan calendar, which dates events from both the origin and its rebirth Anno Klan, and means "in the year of the Klan," and is usually written "AK. Kardinal Kullors : White, crimson, gold and black.

Secondary Kullors are grey, green and blue. Klankfraft : The practices and beliefs of the Klan. Klavern : A local unit or club; also called "den. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.

If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. After the United States Civil War devastated the country, President Abraham Lincoln aimed to reunite the nation as quickly as possible. Before the war even ended he had created a plan referred to as Reconstruction.

However, a week after the war ended, Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President. Black codes were established in many states that curtailed the rights of African Americans. Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of , but that did not prevent states from passing discriminatory legislation.

Investigate this complex period of national rebuilding and retrenchment further with these resources. After the United States Civil War, state governments that had been part of the Confederacy tried to limit the voting rights of black citizens and prevent contact between black and white citizens in public places. The 15th Amendment guaranteed African-American men the right to vote. Almost immediately after ratification, African Americans began to take part in running for office and voting. By the mid s the movement was at its strongest with 5 million members.

Members of the Klan often killed black people by hanging without trial lynching — Rope Law. Sometimes the local police could not protect the victims and even took part in the killings. Even in the s, when the KKK's public persona seemed synonymous with Mississippi and Alabama , more dues-paying Klan members resided in North Carolina than the rest of the South combined. KKK leaders found the Tar Heel State fertile recruiting ground, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the state's progressive image, which enabled the Klan to claim that they were the only group that would defend white North Carolinians against rising civil rights pressures.

While this message resonated in rural areas across the state's eastern coastal plain, the KKK built a significant following in cities like Greensboro and Raleigh as well. Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports active KKK groups in 41 states, though nearly all of those groups remain marginal with tiny memberships.

So, while the KKK originated after the Civil War as a distinctly southern effort to preserve the antebellum racial order, its presence has extended well beyond that region throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Why do KKK members wear white hoods and burn crosses? Some of the most recognizable Klan symbols date back to the group's origins following the Civil War. The KKK's white hoods and robes evolved from early efforts to pose as ghosts or "spectral" figures, drawing on then-resonant symbols in folklore to play "pranks" against African-Americans and others.

Such tricks quickly took on more politically sinister overtones, as sheeted Klansmen would commonly terrorize their targets, using hoods and masks to disguise their identities when carrying out acts of violence under the cover of darkness. Fiery crosses, perhaps the Klan's most resonant symbol, have a more surprising history.

No documented cross burnings occurred during the first Klan wave in the 19th century. However, D. Dixon, Jr. The symbol was quickly appropriated by opportunistic KKK leaders to help spur the group's subsequent "rebirth. Through the s, Klan leaders regularly depicted the cross as embodying the KKK's Christian roots -- a means to spread the light of Jesus into the countryside. A bestselling 45rpm record put out by United Klans of America included the Carolina Klan's Bob Jones reciting how the fiery cross served as a "symbol of sacrifice and service, and a sign of the Christian Religion sanctified and made holy nearly 19 centuries ago, by the suffering and blood of 50 million martyrs who died in the most holy faith.

Has the KKK always functioned as a violent terrorist group? The KKK's emphasis on violence and intimidation as a means to defend its white supremacist ends has been the primary constant across its various "waves.

However, during the periods of peak KKK successes in both the s and s, when Klan organizations were often significant presences in many communities, their appeal was predicated on connecting the KKK to varied aspects of members' and supporters' lives. Such efforts meant that, in the s, alongside the KKK's political campaigns, members also marched in parades with Klan floats, pursued civic campaigns to support temperance, public education, and child welfare, and hosted a range of social events alongside women's and youth Klan auxiliary groups.

Similarly, during the civil rights era, many were drawn to the KKK's militance, but also to leaders' promises to offer members "racially pure" weekend fish frys, turkey shoots, dances, and life insurance plans.

In this sense, the Klan served as an "authentically white" social and civic outlet, seeking to insulate members from a changing broader world.