The Ku Klux Klan also called the White League, the Invisible Empire, and the Knights of the White Camelia are an American secret society. They were founded in 1866 at Pulaski, Tennessee in the southern USA after the American Civil War originally organized purposes of amusement, it soon developed into an organisation to oppose reconstruction and to maintain white supremacy. Famous for its white robes and hoods, it spread fear among blacks to prevent them from voting. Its use as a cover for petty racist persecution alienated public opinion and the Klan was supposedly disbanded in 1869 by the order of the Government. However, it wasn't disbanded and laws in 1870 and 1871 attempted to suppress the Klan. The Klan reappeared in Georgia in 1915 and during the 1920s spread into the north and mid-west. It was responsible for some 1500 racist murders by lynching. At its height, the Klan boasted four million members and elected high federal and state officials, but it also aroused intense opposition. A series of scandals and internecine rivalries sent it into rapid decline. Klan activity increased during the 1950s and 1960s, as it violently opposed the civil rights movement. It survives at the local level in the southern states and during the early 1990s there was concern that support for the Klan was increasing. Research Ku Klux Klan
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