Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is an American white supremacist movement that dates in its original form back to 1865. The first Ku Klux Klan, active in during the Reconstruction era, engaged in widespread terrorist and hate crime activities in its opposition to Reconstruction state governments. Decades later, in the early 20th century, the Klan was revived as a nativist, antisemitic and anti-Catholic organization with many elements borrowed from fraternal organizations. The Second Klan grew to millions by the early 1920s and was very influential, but infighting and scandals caused a decline in the 1930s and it fell apart by the 1940s. After World War II, the Ku Klux Klan was revived once more--though as a number of independent Klan groups rather than a single group--in opposition to the civil rights movement and desegregation efforts. Its failure to stop integration, combined with the rise of other types of white supremacist groups that acted as competition, began a long, slow decline of Ku Klux Klan groups that has lasted from the 1970s through the 2020s. In the 2020s, there aren't many Klan groups and the ones that do exist are quite small and often shortlived.