The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a secret racist organization that was born in the late 19th century in the United States. It was founded in 1866, in Tennessee, as a social club that brought together Confederate veterans, that is, soldiers who had fought for the Southern states, the defeated side, in the American Civil War (1861-1865). The first two words of the organization’s name, «Ku Klux», apparently come from the Greek word kyklos, meaning «circle». The term “Klan” would have been added to give the expression a better sound, in addition to making a reference to old clans, traditional family groups. Much more than a club, the KKK became an entity of resistance to the liberal policy imposed by the states of the North after the Civil War, which ensured, among other things, that the abolition of slavery was actually carried out. In defense of maintaining white supremacy in the country, the group promoted acts of violence and intimidation against freed blacks.
Its militants adopted white hoods and ghostly robes to hide their identity and frighten victims. From 1870, the American government decided to face the organization and, in 1882, the Supreme Court of the country declared the existence of the KKK unconstitutional. “It seemed to disappear during the late 1880s, but was revived in the mid-20th century,” says American historian and journalist Patsy Sims of the University of Pittsburgh. The new KKK was created in 1915, in the state of Georgia, and was no longer moved only by hatred against black people. Its doctrine now mixed nationalism and xenophobia with a romantic sense of nostalgia for the “old South”. “During this reincarnation, the KKK targeted immigrants in its violence, as well as Catholics, Jews and blacks,” says Patsy. A burning cross became the symbol of the new organization, which grew to have 4 million members.
After the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, it lost steam again, despite having returned to activity in the 1960s, during the civil rights movements, which defended racial equality in the United States. In the late 1970s, anti-Klan groups dealt the final blow to the organization by hitting the pockets of racist leaders, demanding large compensations from the courts for victims of their violent acts. “Although the Ku Klux Klan still exists, its strength today is small. Most radical militants joined even more violent white supremacist groups, such as the Aryan Nation and other organizations linked to neo-Nazism,” says Patsy.
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