Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos

Ku Klux Klan: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

News •

Scott Colom Flips Red Mississippi County Named for KKK’s First Grand Wizard • Nov. 6, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (Newsweek)
El Paso police review Ku Klux Klan costume incident • Oct. 26, 2026, 5:40 PM ET (El Paso Times)
Possible teens in KKK robes spark outrage from Escobar, NAACP in El Paso • Oct. 26, 2026, 1:11 AM ET (El Paso Times)
The Ku Klux Klan was founded immediately after the Civil War and lasted until the 1870s. The second iteration of the group began in 1915 and has continued to the present. Both groups were U.S. hate organizations that employed terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda.

Facts

Also Known As KKK
Date 1866 - c. 1870 • 1915 - present
Areas Of Involvement terrorism • white supremacy • hate crime
Related People Nathan Bedford Forrest • Hugo Black

Top Questions

Is the Ku Klux Klan still active?
The Ku Klux Klan continued some of its surreptitious activities into the early 21st century, though cases of Klan violence became more isolated and its membership declined to a few thousand. The Klan became a chronically fragmented mélange made up of several separate and competing groups, some of which occasionally entered into alliances with neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups.
Who was the first Ku Klux Klan grand wizard?
Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest is believed to have been the first grand wizard.

Did You Know?

  • In 1981, Klan members launched a failed attempt to conquer the island of Dominica.
  • The KKK once hosted a recreational summer camp program called the "Kool Koast Kamp" in Rockport, Texas.
  • In 1991, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke ran for governor of Louisiana and garnered 39 percent of the vote.
  • Forrest Gump, the protagonist of the eponymous movie, was named after the first KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Photos

Ku Klux Klan members in white robes and hoods stand in a circle at night around a large burning cross in Tennessee.
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Black-and-white scene from The Birth of a Nation (1915) showing actors in Ku Klux Klan costumes on horseback charging down a street, with armed men fleeing in the foreground.
Ku Klux Klan: meeting
A man kneels before a burning cross while a hooded Ku Klux Klan member stands over him holding a chalice, surrounded by Klan members in white robes and hoods at night.
Ku Klux Klan: initiation ceremony
Ku Klux Klan member in a hooded robe sits in a car, holding a noose out the window
See All Images →

Related Topics and References

Topics