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Leah Ledbetter Dr. Cary UH 101 March 19, 2003 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 me