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What is the history of the Ku Klux Klan?

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacist group originally formed in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, when Confederate Army veterans formed what they called a social club. The first leader (called the "Grand Wizard") was Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), a former general in the Confederate Army. On April 12, 1864, in the final days of the Civil War (1861–65), he led a massacre of three hundred black soldiers in service of the Union Army at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

The Ku Klux Klan waged a campaign of terror against blacks in the South during Reconstruction (1865–77), the twelve-year period of rebuilding that followed the war. Klan members, cloaked in robes and hoods to disguise their identity, threatened, beat, and killed many blacks. While the group deprived its victims of their rights as citizens, their intent was also to intimidate the entire black population and keep...

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