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The Past and Present Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan was formed at the end of the Civil War during the Reconstruction period. It was viewed as a vigilante group created to intimidate black people or white people who were there to help them. Over the years, the KKK has evolved into a different type of organization. The Ku Klux Klan has a very rich history and a very unusual group still in existence today. In December 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, six men who were previously officers in the Civil War decided to start a club, mainly for amusement. They chose to take on the name “kuklos,” which is the Greek word for circle. For fun, they galloped around town making a spectacle of themselves. They claimed not to have had a drink of water since the battle of Shiloh and also to live in hell. This frightened the Negroes. What began purely as a harmless, undisruptive group ended up being a violent hate assembly. The Klan was rapidly spreading around the country. All over the South, people formed their own “Klans” with only a loose allegiance to the “mother-Klan in Pulaski.” These six founders however gave them no restraints or discipline because they did not even mean to start this trend they did. In April 1867, r