US secret society dedicated to white
supremacy, founded 1866 in the southern
states of the USA to oppose Reconstruction
after the Civil War and to deny political
rights to the black population. Members wore
hooded white robes to hide their identity,
and burned crosses as a rite of intimidation.
It was as active in the 1960s in terrorizing
civil-rights activists and organizing racist
demonstrations. Its violence led the
government to pass the restrictive Ku Klux
Klan Acts of 1871. The society re-emerged in
1915 in Atlanta, Georgia, and increased in
strength during the 1920s as a racist,
anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, and
anti-Communist organization.