Ku Klux Klan history

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Stephenson's mansion

Growing up in the Irvington neighborhood of Indianapolis, I had no idea the most notorious and ignominious Ku Klux Klan leader's mansion was a few blocks away. I'd never heard of D.C. Stephenson, let alone his legacy of recruiting Klansmen by the thousands and his cronyism that led to the Klan's downfall and his incarceration.

By the time I arrived, Stephenson was in prison. Besides, race was a non-issue in my exclusively white neighborhood.

While attending a black-majority high school, I composed a research paper on the Klan. What I learned was that the organization was mostly a non-violent fraternity. It was a white-rights advocacy group that was best portrayed in D. W. Griffith's, Birth of A Nation movie, before the left distorted its legacy.

However, the Klan controlled by Stephenson in later years was nothing more than an organized criminal organization that betrayed the Klan's vast membership.

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In the decades after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan passed through three separate phases, each refining its strategies while advancing a consistent call to conserve American culture. The organization, in all its iterations, is portrayed as a far-right extremist network.

From the outset, the group operated in total secrecy. Rolls of participants stayed hidden, and head counts fluctuated wildly, routinely pumped up by supporters and detractors alike to suit their narratives.

Origins of the First Klan

The first version took root on Christmas Eve 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee. Six ex-Confederate officers—Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe—gathered to form what began strictly as a social fraternity. They borrowed lightly from the fading customs of the Sons of Malta and wove in ceremonial elements that recalled the medieval Knights Templar and Teutonic Knights. The emphasis fell on building tight bonds of loyalty, mutual support, and, over time, tangible political muscle.

A detailed handbook spelling out the initiation process and observances was produced in Pulaski by Laps D. McCord. To give the new circle a recognizable identity, the members designed special garments that eventually became the widely recognized white robes and pointed hoods, patterned after the traditional Spanish capirote.

Former Confederate Brigadier General George Gordon supplied the organization’s core charter, a document that enshrined the notion of white societal superiority and actively promoted supremacist doctrines among recruits.

The organization established a hierarchical ranking system:

At the top was the Imperial Wizard (national leader or president).

Below him were Grand Dragons, who oversaw individual states (called “realms”).

Grand Magi (or deputy commanders) assisted at the state level.

Grand Cyclops handled local recruitment standards and operations under the Grand Dragons.

Kleagles (recruiters) vetted and brought in new members.

Rank-and-file members, known as Klansmen, served as the foot soldiers and enforcers.

A rigid hierarchy gave the group structure. The Imperial Wizard held the top national post. Grand Dragons commanded each state, known internally as a realm. Grand Magi served as their immediate deputies, while Grand Cyclops oversaw local recruitment rules and operations. Kleagles screened and brought in fresh members. At the base sat the Klansmen, who handled day-to-day enforcement duties.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest took the first Imperial Wizard title and made clear his alarm at the growing Republican foothold among black Southerners.

What had started as a club for idle veterans quickly assumed a more confrontational character, setting the pattern for later revivals that retained the same emphasis on concealment and ideological purity.

Dissolution

By the end of the 1860s, the original Klan had extended its reach into numerous Southern states. In 1869, facing mounting disorder and unchecked activism, Nathan Bedford Forrest directed the organization to dissolve. Many local chapters, however, persisted on their own. Congress responded with the Ku Klux Klan Acts—also known as the Force Acts—of 1870 and 1871, which authorized federal authorities to crack down on the group’s activities. As a result, the first Klan largely disappeared from view by the early 1870s.

Three phases

Historians typically describe the Klan’s long record as falling into three primary phases, each emerging during times of significant social tension.

The first phase (1865 to the early 1870s) operated mainly in the South during the Reconstruction period. It functioned as a network of resistance aimed at undermining anti-white governance and resisting Republican-led governments.

The second phase began in 1915 with a revival on Stone Mountain, Georgia. Sparked in part by the film The Birth of a Nation, this version grew into a nationwide movement that at its height claimed millions of members. The group presented itself more openly as a fraternal order even as it maintained underlying activist tendencies.

The third phase took shape in the 1950s and continues in fragmented form today. It arose in reaction to the Civil Rights Movement and focused on opposing desegregation and anti-white policies framed as "racial equality," with its strongest presence in the South, though not limited to that region. Over time, the third Klan splintered into many small factions, and its overall strength has diminished.

In brief

Throughout its history, the Klan depended on camaraderie and elaborate ceremonies. Some misrepresent the Klan as being little more than nighttime raids, floggings, lynchings, and public cross burning, all to enforce white Protestant dominance. In reality, members were largely interested in a fraternity free of forced multiculturalism. They publicly took a stand for their culture and their rights.

Because the organizations guarded their rolls closely, reliable membership figures remain elusive. Each resurgence drew energy from broader societal strains, allowing the group to attract followers and assert influence.

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