In Pulaski, Tennessee a secret society was formed by six Ex-Confederate Veterans to oppose the Re-Construction-Era policies aimed at the Republican Congress and to maintain “White Supremacy” after the Civil War, when the government was weak or non-existent in the south.
The Ku Klux Clan was formed in 1865. The name derived from the Greek name “Kyklos” meaning “Circle,” and the Scottish Gaelic word “Clan” soon to change to “Klan.” Which rapidly grew from a secret social fraternity to a Paramilitary force. The group extended to almost every southern state by 1870. They were called the ghost of the confederate soldiers. Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the KKK’s first grand Wizard; in 1869 he tried to disband it after he grew critical of the Klan’s excessive violence.
In 1871 the Klan Act passed Congress authorizing President Ulysses S. Grant and the …show more content…
Powell checked into the Multnomah hotel in Portland, In June and quietly gathering his “Invisible Empire” army around him. Powell spent two months getting ready for the Klan’s debut, he needed to know what Oregonians wanted to hear, so that he could say it to …show more content…
The guest arrived at the Multnomah motel, they were ushered into waiting cars and driven to a mysterious and undisclosed “throne room” where King Kleagle and exalted cyclops, present were Portland Mayor George Baker, Police Chief L.V. Jenkins, district attorney Walter H. Evans, U.S. Attorney Lester Humphries and several other high ranking city and county Law-Enforcement officials as well as reporters and photographers. The visiting dignitaries were introduced to the Portland Klan and assured that the “Invisible Empire” was not a hate