ABSTRACT
KU KLUX KLAN Like many secret societies, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) has incorporated special initiations, ceremonial titles, rituals, dress, gestures, signals, symbols, and speech into an organizational folklife that marks an identity for its members. The Klan is the best known of a number of white supremacy organizations that evolved immediately after the American Civil War. Others included the Knights of the White Camelia, the White Brotherhood, the Men of Justice, and the Constitutional Union Guards. The primary objective of these secret white supremacy groups was to oppose the exercise of African American rightsincluding the franchise, ownership of land, job and work opportunities, and educational advancement-through terror and violence.
