Cross Burnings

The Klan started to have a religious nature in 1915 during the reign of Imperial Wizard Joseph Simmons who was a former minister and head of the Klan. Simmons began to mimic the Klan's rituals religious ceremonies (Ridgeway). The Ku Klux Klan is often affiliated with the ritual of cross-burnings which became a part of regular meetings and ceremonies. The burnigs of the cross was often used to excite the members and the public, raise their morale, remind them to serve the Klan. With the linkage to the Protestant religion, some Klan members believed they were God's army against the enemies of God's chosen people. The KKK regularly incorporated religion into it's beliefs and actions.The Klan was tied to religion very closely through ministries to the point that the Klan would be called upon by the church to give announcements to the public about different issues.

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.