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Sunday, July 18, 2010



The Ku Klux Klan is one of the oldest and most famous organizations in the United States. It was originated in 1866 by a group of six confederate veterans in the small town of Pulaski, Tennessee. They got the name from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle.They turned kuklos into "ku klux" and added the work "klan"because they liked the sound of the "Ku Klux Klan."

They were originally designed for fun and differed very little from similar groups of society. For the first year, a small number of Klansman initiated new members and enjoyed the companionship offered by a social group. During this time blacks were more rights. They were allowed to own property, vote, and hold public office just like the whites. This upset a lot of people so they decided to join forces with the Republican Reconstruction. The Klan soon was organized into a military hierarchy and gained hundreds of thousands of members who were politically and emotionally driven against the blacks and equality.