Kelly J. Baker: A Kinder, Gentler Ku Klux Klan?

Kelly J. Baker is a lecturer in religious studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the author of the book Gospel According to the Klan. She blogs at www.kellyjbaker.com.

Last week, a local chapter of the International Keystone Knights of Ku Klux Klan proposed adopting one-mile stretch of highway in north Georgia. The possibility of Klan members picking up roadside litter and getting credit on a highway sign provoked as much confusion as outrage. One reporter asked, "Is the latest effort to adopt a highway an introduction of a new era of a kinder, gentler Klan or merely an effort to gain attention?"...

...The Ku Klux Klan is the oldest hate group in the United States. It emerged between 1865 and 1870 in response to the trauma of the South's war loss and the supposed threat posed by newly freed slaves. Founded by Civil War veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Reconstruction Klan began as a social organization, but soon raided homes, committed acts of violence, and interfered with elections....

In between these two eras [the 1860s and the post-civil rights Klans], however, there was another Klan. It rose half a century after the first Klan had faded away, spurred into existence by D.W. Griffith's film Birth of Nation and the efforts of minister William Simmons. Along with 15 others, including two elderly men from the original Klan, Simmons officially resurrected the movement on Thanksgiving night of 1915, borrowing the image of the burning cross from Griffith's film. Members of the new Klan emphasized Protestant virtues alongside white supremacy, declaring themselves superior to Catholics, Jews, and African-Americans. The second Klan boasted four million members in 1924, proof of the powerful appeal of both white racial pride and Christian nationalism in early 20th century America....