The Klan's second -- and largest -- wave peaked in the s, with KKK membership numbering in the millions. Following the second-wave Klan 's dissolution in the early s, self-identified KKK groups also built sizable followings during the s, in reaction to the rising Civil Rights Movement. Various incarnations have continued to mobilize since -- often through blended affiliations with neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, and Christian Identity organizations -- but in small numbers and without significant impact on mainstream politics.
Beginning in , Jones took over the North Carolina leadership of the South's preeminent KKK organization, the United Klans of America, and by his "Carolina Klan" boasted more than 10, members across the state, more than the rest of the South combined. Jones' story illuminates our understanding of the KKK's long history generally, and in particular provides a lens to consider the questions that follow. How big a threat is the KKK in the U. In an important sense, this may be the key question about the KKK and whether we should still worry, or care, about the Klan today.
Likely for that reason, literally every discussion I've had about the Klan -- whether in classrooms, community events, radio interviews, or cocktail parties -- comes around to some version of this concern. I typically respond, in short, that a greater number of KKK organizations exist today than at any other point in the group's long history, but that nearly all of these groups are small, marginal, and lacking in meaningful political or social influence.
I might add two caveats to that reassuring portrait, however. The first is that marginal, isolated extremist cells themselves can become breeding grounds for unpredictable violence. At the peak of his s influence, Bob Jones would often tell reporters that, if they were truly concerned about violence perpetrated by Klan members, their greatest fear should be that he would disband the KKK, leaving individual members to commit mayhem free from the structure imposed by the group.
As Jones' followers committed hundreds of terrorist acts authorized by KKK leadership, his claim was of course disingenuous, but it also contained a grain of truth: Jones and his fellow leaders did dissuade members -- many of whom combined rabid racism with unstable aggression -- from engaging in violence not approved by the KKK hierarchy. In the absence of a broader organization with much to lose from a crack-down by authorities, racist violence can be much more difficult to prevent or police.
The second caveat stems from KKK's history of emerging and receding in pronounced "waves. But in each case, some "reborn" version of the KKK has managed to rebound and survive. So, while today the KKK appears an anachronism and, perhaps, less of a threat than other brands of racist hate, we still should vigilantly oppose racist entrepreneurs who seek to exploit the historical cachet of the KKK to organize new campaigns advancing white supremacist ends.
To me, this is one primary lesson from the KKK's past, and a compelling reason not to forget or dismiss the enduring relevance of that history. Has the KKK had any lasting political impact? By most straightforward measures, the KKK appears a failed social movement. Despite the Klan's political inroads during the s, when millions of its members succeeded in electing hundreds of KKK-backed candidates to local, state, and even federal office, the group proved unable to preserve its influence at the ballot box beyond that decade.
Later KKK waves have never been able to deliver on promises to rebuild this influential Klan voting bloc. And they were not just members, they were people who, through their sermons, urged people to join the Ku Klux Klan to protect white Protestant domination of the United States. And in general, I do think that people tend to believe things depending on who they hear them from.
There was also a tendency to be hostile to science. Science seemed to them to be part of this conspiracy to take America away from the people who really belong to it.
They just do not want to believe the science. The Klan went all out in its battle against evolutionary theory and teaching evolution in schools. These are fundamentalist Christians.
The Klan use this language that is almost identical to some of what you see today about people who are percent American, true American. And they believe that they represent the true essence of what is good about the United States. You mentioned that the second Klan in particular was mostly middle and upper working class. Do we see class parallels today, when it comes to the Capitol rioters and white supremacist groups more generally? In other words, really insulting their intelligence.
And we now know that they were wrong. The members of the s Klan were as educated as average Americans. They included not only many white-collar people but even professionals, middle-class businessmen. But the other thing is that kind of talk — that this was just a bunch of stupid, uneducated oafs — that just merely confirmed their view that the people who were the elites had nothing but disdain for the people who were the real salt of the earth in America.
I experience that today. But I do suspect very strongly that if we ever got a real systematic tallying of who were members of these white supremacist groups, we would probably be surprised to find that they are just as well-educated as the average American. Why is there this wrong assumption that people involved in white supremacist movements are stupid or uneducated or low-class in some way?
But I do think that one of the things that is behind this — when you look at what just happened, what we see is people who are almost hysterical with rage and willing to do things even at risk to themselves and others.
A lot of people would say, well, that rage comes through the fact that they are suffering economically. But for the s Klan, that was not the case. There was no indication that the people drawn to the Klan were people who were losing economic status.
One of the bizarre things is that the Klan, with its attacks on Catholics and Jews, was strongest in places in which there were hardly any Catholics or Jews. And furthermore, there was no evidence that these guys in the Klan were economically suffering. You almost need a kind of psychological understanding. I think people in the Klan, and people in these groups today, just like people in the Nazi movement, they really get something from their involvement in these groups.
They get a sense of community, they get a sense of affirmation. I think that is what you hear a lot in white nationalist groups, that someone is stealing the country, stealing the election, taking it away from the people it rightfully belongs to. And evidence is simply not relevant. With over 6 million Black Americans taking part in this migration, the demographics of the country shifted dramatically. With the conclusion of the Vietnam War in and the subsequent return of American soldiers, several key figures arose within the Klan.
Similarly, David Duke — founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in — maintained a distinctly antisemitic hatred that closed ideological gaps with neo-Nazis. Internal fighting and government infiltrations have led to a seemingly endless series of splits, resulting in smaller, less organized Klan chapters. However, it is fair to assume that the infighting, rigid traditions and uncouth aesthetic of the Klan are not attracting significant new membership. View all groups by state and by ideology.
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.
Here, supporters get police protection at a July Confederate flag rally in Columbia, South Carolina. Munker says his local branch of the KKK, which has recently placed recruitment flyers on car windshields on Long Island, has seen around 1, enquiries from people interested in joining since the election of Donald Trump. This picture shows a flier found in Southampton, N. Violence broke out at a white-power rally in Anaheim, California on February 27, Three anti-Klan protesters suffered stab wounds.
A Ku Klux Klan member sporting swastika tattoos takes part in a Klan demonstration at the statehouse building in Columbia, South Carolina, in July Ku Klux Klan members argue with counter-protesters at a Klan demonstration outside South Carolina's statehouse building in July
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