History of the Ku Klux Klan

By Belrose53

  • Birth of ku klux klan

  • First Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

    Former Confederate general and noted white supremacist Nathan Bedford Forrest, architect of the Fort Pillow Massacre, becomes the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

  • Organization and Principles

    The Ku Klux Klan publishes its Organization and Principles

  • Klan Act

    Congress passes the Klan Act, allowing the federal government to intervene and arrest Klan members on a large scale

  • The Clansman

    Thomas Dixon Jr. adapts his second Ku Klux Klan novel, The Clansman, into a play.

  • Ku Klux Klan becomes public organization

    The Klan becomes a more public organization and expands its platform to include Prohibition, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, anti-Communism, and anti-Catholicism.

  • Grand Dragon D.C Stephenson convicted of murder

    Indiana Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson is convicted of murder. Members subsequently begin to realize that they may actually face criminal charges for their behavior, and the Klan largely disappears -- except in the South, where local groups continue to operate.

  • House of NAACP executive director firebombed

    Members of the Ku Klux Klan firebomb the home of NAACP Florida executive director Harry Tyson Moore and his wife, Harriet, on Christmas Eve.

  • Baptist Church Bombing

    Members of the Ku Klux Klan bomb the predominantly black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four little girls.

  • Ku Klux Klan Bombs 20 predominantly black churches

    The Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan firebombs twenty predominantly black churches, and then murders civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

  • Edgar Ray Killen sentenced to 60 years

    Edgar Ray Killen, the architect of the 1964 Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner murders, is convicted on manslaughter charges and sentenced to 60 years in prison.