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Ku Klux Klan Facts & Worksheets

In 1865, the first Ku Klux Klan chapter was established. The KKK was a white supremacist organization that promoted racial hatred, anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry.

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In 1865, a group that included several former Confederate soldiers established the first Ku Klux Klan chapter as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee. According to legend, the initial two letters of the organization’s name come from the Greek word “kyklos,” which means circle. The first head of the Klan, or “grand wizard,” was chosen as a prominent Confederate officer named Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

See the fact file below for more information about Ku Klux Klan, or you can download our 29-page Ku Klux Klan worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

FOUNDING OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

  • He oversaw a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans, and grand cyclopses. In the summer of 1867, local Klan groups gathered for a general organizational convention and created what they referred to as an “Invisible Empire of the South.”
  • The second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, which was enacted by the more severe Republicans in Congress, took place at the same time as the creation of the Ku Klux Klan.
  • Congress overrode the veto of President Andrew Johnson and approved the Reconstruction Act after rejecting his more mild Reconstruction policies, which were in force from 1865 to 1866. 
  • Each state needed to ratify the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed formerly enslaved “equal protection” under the Constitution and instituted universal male suffrage.
  • As a result, the South was separated into five military districts.

KU KLUX KLAN VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH

  •  As Black people began to win elections to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress starting in 1867, one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction in the South was the involvement of Black people in public life.
  • The Ku Klux Klan committed itself to a covert campaign of violence against Republican leaders and sympathizers (both Black and White) in an effort to reverse the consequences of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South.
  • Similar groups like the White Brotherhood and the Knights of the White Camelia, founded in Louisiana in 1867, participated in this conflict with them.
  • At least 10% of the Black lawmakers chosen at the constitutional conventions of 1867–1868 experienced violence during Reconstruction, including seven fatalities.
  • The Klan also targeted Black institutions like schools and churches—symbols of Black autonomy—as well as White Republicans (derided as “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags”).
  • The Ku Klux Klan had chapters in almost every southern state by 1870. The Klan did not have a well-organized organization or obvious leadership even at its height. 
  • Local Klan members often carried out their attacks at night, acting independently but in support of the shared objectives of destroying Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South.
  • They frequently wore masks and were attired in the group’s distinctive long white robes and hoods. 
  • While it was relatively restricted in other parts of the South, Klan activity thrived there, especially in areas where Black people made up a minority or a tiny majority of the population. 
  • In January 1871, 500 hooded men assaulted the Union county jail in South Carolina, one of the most notorious hotbeds of Klan activity, and executed eight Black inmates.

THE KU KLUX KLAN AND THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION

  • Although Ku Klux Klan members ranged from small farmers and workers to landowners, attorneys, businessmen, doctors, and pastors, the organization’s membership bridged class boundaries even though Democratic leaders would later blame its violence on impoverished southern white people.
  • Local law enforcement officers either belonged to the Klan or chose not to take action against it in the areas where the majority of Klan activity occurred.
  • Even those who apprehended alleged Klansmen found it challenging to locate witnesses who would testify against them.
  • Leading Southern whites who might have spoken out against the group’s acts instead chose to remain silent, tacitly endorsing them.  
  • Three Enforcement Acts—the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871—were passed as a consequence of Republican state governments in the South approaching Congress for assistance after 1870.
  • The Ku Klux Klan Act made several crimes committed by people for the first time federal charges, including plots to deny citizens the right to vote, serve on juries, and receive equal protection under the law. 
  • This law gave the president the power to dispatch federal soldiers to quell Klan violence, suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and imprison suspects without trial.
  • This increase in federal power infuriated Democrats and even scared many Republicans. Ulysses S. Grant swiftly deployed it in 1871 to suppress Klan activities in South Carolina and other Southern states. 
  • As support for Reconstruction declined starting in the early 1870s, white supremacy steadily re-established its dominance in the South; by the end of 1876, the entire South was again ruled by Democrats.

REVIVAL OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

  • White Protestant nativists who had a romanticized vision of the Old South as well as D.W. Griffith’s and Thomas Dixon’s 1905 novel “The Clansman,” founded a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1915. “Birth of a Nation,” a 1915 film by Griffith.
  • Along with being anti-Black, the Klan’s second generation also opposed Roman Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and organized labor. 
  • Growing opposition to the wave of immigration that America witnessed in the early 20th century, as well as worries of a communist revolution similar to the Bolshevik victory in Russia in 1917, served as its fuel. 
  • The group staged protests, marches, and parades around the nation using a burning cross as their emblem. Over 4 million individuals nationally were members of the Klan at its height in the 1920s.

GREAT DEPRESSION SHRINKS KLAN

  • The Klan’s membership levels were reduced by the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the group briefly dissolved in 1944. 
  • Local Klan participation in the South increased during the 1960s civil rights movement and activists who were Black and White were bombed, beaten, and shot. These covert but ostensibly Klansmen-led operations horrified the country and boosted support for the civil rights movement.
  • A white female civil rights worker was killed in Alabama in 1965, and President Lyndon Johnson publicly denounced the Klan and announced the arrest of four Klansmen in that year’s speech. 
  • Although sporadic incidents of Klan-related violence decreased over the ensuing decades, from the 1970s onward, fractured units allied themselves with neo-Nazi or other right-wing extremist groups.
  • The Anti-Defamation League pegged the number of Klan members in 2016 at roughly 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center put it at 6,000.

THE THREE GENERATIONS OF KU KLUX KLAN

  • The first Ku Klux Klan members originally arrived in Tennessee in the late 19th century. 
  • These individuals have been connected to various fraternal orders like Freemasonry and are the subject of numerous claims regarding their backgrounds, motivations, and sources of inspiration. 
  • The KKK has often vanished and reappeared throughout its existence, having a significant impact on American history.

Decline of the First Ku Klux Klan

  • The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) has been accused of being an “appendant body” of Freemasonry on various occasions. 
  • There are also allegations that Confederate General Albert Pike was the brainchild of the KKK and the Knight of the Golden Circle, an earlier and more secret organization that supported the perpetuation of slavery through Southern secession.
  • There are other claims that the first Ku Klux Klan emerged as a result of Republican governors and federal military leaders’ failure to stop the bloodshed in the post-war South. However, the original Klan lacked organization and coherence.

Emergence of the Second Ku Klux Klan

  • Despite its disarray, the original KKK served as the model for the US’s first anti-terror legislation. 
  • The first KKK was no longer around by 1872. The Klan’s spirit, however, continued to live on in new groups like the Red Shirts, Knights of the White Camelia, and Democratic rifle clubs because secret societies never die. 
  • In 1915, the second Klan was established as a result of being motivated by a book, a movie, and even a murder.

A Murder that Helped Establish the Ku Klux Klan

  • Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, factory worker who had been brutally killed, was discovered in 1903. 
  • Leo Frank, Phagan’s Jewish employer, was the main suspect. Frank was a well-known member of the Jewish B’nai B’rith fraternal organization. 
  • He received the death sentence after being proven guilty.
  • This injustice was so stunning that B’nai B’rith established a brand-new organization called the Anti-Defamation League.
  • Frank’s death sentence was commuted to a life in prison term in June 1915. 
  • In retaliation, a brand-new covert organization known as the Knights of Mary Phagan kidnapped him from jail and executed him.
  • William J. Simmons, a failing businessman from Georgia, was inspired by both this murder and the birth of a nation’s visual spectacular. 
  • He joined various underground organizations before deciding to create his own. On Thanksgiving Day 1915, he and his 15 colleagues climbed Stone Mountain, which is close to Atlanta. 
  • They set a crucifix on fire and announced the founding of the Ku Klux Klan Invisible Empire. They said that “the betterment of man” was their goal.

Difference Between the First and Second Klans

  • Significant distinctions existed between the first and second Klans. 
  • The second Klan was not entirely Southern, unlike the first Klan was founded solely on Confederate revanchism. 
  • The original Klan had no interest in advancing humanity and loathed both Americans and black freedmen. 
  • However, the second Klan expanded its list of hated organizations in response to the social militancy, moral superiority, and xenophobia that World War I had unleashed. 
  • The new Klan added Prohibition to its list of ideals; however, relatively few of its members abstained from alcohol. The number of Klan members had reached millions by the middle of the 1920s.

The Third Ku Klux Klan

  • Ironically, a second murder led to the destruction of the second Klan. Madge Oberholtzer, a young woman, was abducted, violently raped, and tortured in 1925. 
  • Later on, she passed away. David C. Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan, was the one responsible for this horrible episode. One of the largest Klan chapters in the nation was in Indiana. As Grand Dragon, Stephenson presented himself as a moral exemplar. 
  • In open court, he exposed the Klan’s dirty laundry, shattering his illusion that he was untouchable. 
  • As a result, the Klan’s reputation suffered.
  • After World War I, the third KKK emerged and is still going strong. It was only a collection of secret societies without unity or organization when it was founded in response to desegregation and the Civil Rights movement.
  • A wave of more politically astute and youthful leaders, like the white nationalist David Duke, gave the Klan new life and attention in the 1980s and 1990s. 
  • Younger Klansmen joined up with Skinheads and neo-Nazis simultaneously, which would have shocked William Simmons and his xenophobic comrades.

Ku Klux Klan Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the Ku Klux Klan across 29 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about the Ku Klux Klan. According to legend, the initial two letters of the organization’s name come from the Greek word “kyklos,” which means circle. The first head of the Klan, or “grand wizard,” was chosen as a prominent Confederate officer named Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Ku Klux Klan Facts
  2. Word For The Day
  3. Recognize the Right
  4. Timeline of KKK
  5. Explore the Generation
  6. Cause and Effect
  7. Then vs Now
  8. Watch and Learn
  9. Symbol to Recognize
  10. Symbol of Awareness
  11. Video to Teach

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Ku Klux Klan?

The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organization that originated in the United States in the late 1860s. The KKK promotes racial hatred, anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry. It has historically targeted African Americans, immigrants, Jews, and other minority groups, using intimidation, violence, and terrorism to advance its agenda.

What are the beliefs and ideologies of the Ku Klux Klan?

The KKK advocates for white supremacy, which is the belief that white people are superior to people of other races. They promote a distorted interpretation of history, embrace xenophobia, and advocate for segregation and the preservation of what they perceive as the “white race.” Their ideologies are rooted in hate, discrimination, and the exclusion of non-white individuals from society.

Has the Ku Klux Klan been active recently?

While the KKK experienced its peak influence in the 1920s and during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, it has remained active in some capacity throughout its history. However, it is important to note that the KKK is now significantly diminished compared to its earlier prominence. Today, there are multiple factions and splinter groups claiming to be affiliated with the KKK, but their overall influence is limited.

Is the Ku Klux Klan illegal?

The Ku Klux Klan, as an organization, is not illegal in the United States. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech, including hate speech, unless it incites violence or poses a direct threat to public safety. However, individual members of the KKK can be prosecuted for criminal activities such as hate crimes or acts of violence.

How have efforts been made to combat the Ku Klux Klan?

Various efforts have been made to combat the Ku Klux Klan and its ideologies. Legislation has been enacted to protect civil rights and ensure equality for all individuals, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent laws. Law enforcement agencies have worked to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Additionally, civil rights organizations, educational institutions, and communities at large engage in promoting tolerance, diversity, and inclusivity to counter the KKK’s messages of hate.

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