American Yawp Chapter 22.9 Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A white supremacist organization that emerged in the early 20th century, expanding beyond its original anti-Black politics to target various groups such as immigrants, Catholics, Jews, feminists, and others.

Leo Frank

A Jewish man who was lynched in 1915, an event that is credited with inspiring the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Birth of a Nation

A popular film released in 1915 that portrayed the Reconstruction Era Klan as a protector of white racial purity and feminine virtue, contributing to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

Colonel William Joseph Simmons

The organizer of the "second" Ku Klux Klan in Georgia in late 1915, which expanded across the country and reached an estimated five million members by 1920.

Migration of Black southerners

The movement of Black individuals from the southern states to northern cities during World War I, which led to the expansion of the Ku Klux Klan above the Mason-Dixon Line.

Women of the Ku Klux Klan

A women's auxiliary established in 1923, mirroring the KKK in practice and ideology, and attracting women who were already involved in the Prohibition movement.

Sociologist Rory McVeigh

A sociologist who surveyed the KKK newspaper Imperial Night-Hawk and found that the second Klan had a national reach, with significant activities in Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Georgia.

Klan violence

Acts of violence carried out by members of the Klan and affiliated organizations, including lynching, nightriding, and physical harassment of various groups deemed "immoral" or undesirable.

Decline of the Klan

The Ku Klux Klan experienced a decline in the late 1920s due to scandals and diminished energy, but reemerged as a diminished force during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.