KU KLUX KLAN. There have been two distinct organiza tions of this name in American history. The first Ku Klux Klan was an outgrowth of the tense feeling in the South during the reconstruction period succeeding the Civil War; the second was organized during the World War and attained its greatest strength in the period of social and economic readjustment which followed the restoration of peace.
The first organization was a secret association of Southern whites united for self-protection against the recently emancipated negroes and to oppose the reconstruction measures (1865-76) of the U.S. Congress. The name Ku Klux Klan is generally ap plied not only to that order, but to other similar societies that existed at the same time, such as the Knights of the White Camelia, a larger order than the Klan, the White League, the Invisible Circle, Pale Faces and numerous smaller societies that sprang up in the South after the Civil War. The result of the whole movement was a more or less successful revolution against the reconstruction and an overthrow of the governments based on negro suffrage or "Carpetbag" government.
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tenn., as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally dis covered that the fear of it had a great influence over the law less but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighbourhood police. The White Camelia was formed in 1867 in Louisiana and spread rapidly over the States of the late Confederacy. The period of organization and development of the Ku Klux Klan movement was froth 1865 to 1868; the period of greatest activity was from 1868 to 1870, after which came the decline. Nearly all Southern whites (except "scalawags"), whether member's of the secret societies or not, in some way took part in the Ku Klux move ment. As the work of the societies succeeded, they gradually
passed out of existence. In some communities they fell under the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical as pects of the movement excited the North to vigorous condem nation. Congress in 1871-72 enacted a series of "Force Laws" intended to break up the secret societies and to control the Southern elections. Several hundred arrests were made and a few convictions secured. Violence was checked and the elections were controlled for a few years, but the Ku Klux movement went on until it accomplished its object by giving protection to the whites, reducing the black vote, replacing the whites in control of government, expelling the worst of the carpet-baggers (q.v.) and scalawags, and nullifying laws of Congress which had resulted in placing the Southern whites under the control of a party supported principally by ex-slaves.
In organization the Klan was modelled after the Federal Union. Its Prescript or constitution, adopted in 1867, and revised in 1868, provided for the following organization : The entire South was the Invisible Empire under a Grand Wizard, Gen. N. B. Forrest ; each State was a Realm under a Grand Dragon; several countries formed a Dominion under a Grand Titan; each county was a Province under a Grand Giant ; the smallest division being a Den under a Grand Cyclops. The staff officers bore similar titles, relics of the time when the order existed only for amuse ment : Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, Night Hawks, Magi, Monks and Turks. The private members were called Ghouls. In 1869 the central organization was disbanded and the order then gradu ally declined. The White Camelia, with a similar history, had a similar organization, without the queer titles. Its members were called brothers and knights, and its officials commanders.