KU KLUX KLAN. - This strange name originated in America in 1865, at Pulaski in Tennessee, one of the Southern states, where, when some young men wished to establish an association among themselves and were discussing the name to choose, one of them, somewhat versed in Greek, proposed that of kuklos (circle, gathering), and one of those present added to it the Gaelic word klan (group). Thus the name K. K. K. came about.
What the original purpose of the K. K. K. was does not appear very clear. Some say that the young founders thought only of having fun; others maintain that it was to defend themselves against the arrogance of the former black slaves, recently freed after the War of Secession, and favored by the federal authorities of the North against their former Southern masters.
The movement, which at first seemed harmless, soon, through the work of political agitators and the imprudent measures of the Northern authorities, developed into a society of whites for the purpose of frightening and taking revenge on the blacks. The members of the new organization, who knew well the childlike character and primitive mentality of their former slaves, adopted effective means for their end: nighttime meetings, a long white tunic, the head covered by a pointed hood with only two holes to see through, extravagant names given to their leaders: all this to make an impression on the poor blacks. The designated victims, moreover, were seized at night, taken into the forests, stripped, thrown onto hot pitch and rolled in feathers; at other times they were flogged without mercy with whips made of strips of wet leather, or branded with a red-hot iron with the three letters K.K.K., and sometimes hanged and riddled with bullets. The crimes committed were so many and so great that the federal government had to intervene effectively, and between 1870 and 1871 the Association seemed to come to an end, but it was reborn later more active than before.
If the first K.K.K. in fact took aim only at the blacks and carried out its terrorist acts only in the Southern states, the second K.K.K. spread to many other states, and was not only anti-Negro in character, but also anti-Catholic, anti-Hebrew and anti-foreign. In 1915, when the European War had already broken out, the evangelical minister G. J. Simmons, under the pretext of fostering nationalism and of distinguishing genuine Americans from the others, promulgated the program of the new K.K.K., in which it was said among other things: "Only whites born in America may be members of the society, those who believe in the dogmas of the Christian religion, who are not subject to any foreign religious or political power and who are affiliated with some sect." The new Association showed itself similar to the preceding one, though a little more prudent in applying corporal punishments; it also adopted the system of the Knox-Nothing (v.), that is, methodical and implacable defamation against all those whom they considered not to be one hundred percent American, especially against Catholics, so that they would not be elected to public office.
This time, however, the Jews too came into play, being richer and more powerful than the Catholics, and the campaign against the K. K. K. was lively and effective; its secret machinations were revealed to the public, its calumnies were refuted, the unconstitutionality of its conduct was made clear, and the K. K. K. had to conceal itself for some time. The dangerous society seemed extinct, when on the occasion of the new war that broke out in 1939 it became known that it still existed under the same name in some parts of the United States and under the name of "Black Legion" in Detroit, where the legionnaires had changed the white tunic into a long black robe and replaced the upper part of the hood with a piece of stiff cloth, on which stood out two crossed bones with a white skull above them. If the strange clan uniform, the attraction of secrecy, the anti-Catholic spirit, and Protestant fanaticism still attract some to give their name to the K. K. K., in practice it can be said that, at least now, among serious people it is without prestige, though it always remains a danger in stormy times and times of political-religious agitation.
Bibliography4 works
Camillo Crivelli