The Ku Klux Klan.

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A cult is a type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society.  These groups often have a charismatic leader and they create their own radical beliefs.  A cult that is very widespread in the United States and claims to be largely apparent throughout the world is the Ku Klux Klan or the “KKK”.

        The Ku Klux Klan is a cult that claims to be promoters of white Christian civilization. The original Ku Klux Klan was organized to oppose the Reconstruction policies of the radical Republican Congress and to maintain white supremacy. After the Civil War, when local government in the South was weak or nonexistent and there were fears of black outrages, informal armed patrols were formed in almost all communities. The KKK was organized at Pulaski, Tenn., in May 1866. Its strange disguises, silent parades, midnight rides, mysterious language and commands, were useful in playing upon fears and superstitions. Members dressed in flowing white sheets, their faces covered with white masks and skulls at their saddle horns, posed as spirits of dead Confederate soldiers returned from the battlefields.  The Klan was effective in keeping black men away from the polls, so that the ex-Confederates gained political control in many states. Congress in 1870 and 1871 passed legislation to combat the Klan.

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The second Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1915 by William J. Simmons. The new Klan had much more intense views than the Klan before it, for it added to white supremacy an intense nativism and anti-Catholicism.  The Klan controlled politics in many communities and in 1922, 1924, and 1926 elected many state officials and a number of Congressmen. Its power in the Midwest was broken during the late 1920s when David C. Stephenson, a major Klan leader, was convicted of second-degree murder. Evidence of corruption also surfaced led to the indictment of the governor of Indiana and the mayor ...

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