The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacist hate group that has been active in the United States since the 1860s. The group has a long and violent history, and its members have been responsible for numerous acts of terrorism, including lynchings, bombings, and cross burnings.
The KKK was founded in 1865 by six Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee. The group's original goal was to resist the Reconstruction efforts of the federal government and to protect the rights of white Southerners. However, the KKK quickly turned to violence, and its members began to target black people, as well as white Republicans and Northerners.
In the years that followed, the KKK spread throughout the South, and its membership grew to include thousands of people. The Klan's activities reached their peak in the 1870s, when the group was responsible for hundreds of acts of violence, including the lynching of over 2,000 black people.