# Straightforward KKK question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172 "2000-01-07T03:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/1 "2000-01-07T03:00:00Z")
I’ve searched for, and found, quite a number of tracts and other publications relating to the Ku Klux Klan. Most of what I’ve dug up is early in the recently passed century (I don’t want to argue that here, OK?); i.e., 1900-1928. I found the Klan manual and several exposes. A few of them even had chapter entitled along the lines of ‘What does the Klan mean?’ Nothing I’ve found as yet actually gives a definition for “Ku Klux Klan;” does it mean anything in any language, or, failing that test, what did it mean to the originators of the appellation? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/2 "2000-01-07T03:05:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Where does the name Ku Klux Klan come from? It seems the men who founded the original Klan were tossing out ideas for a name when somebody came up with kukloi, plural of the Greek kuklos, circle. Somebody else had the bright idea of twisting kuklos into Ku Klux. Klan was added later for alliteration, and they spelled it with a K rather than a C so as not to confuse the rank and file. Courtesy of Cecil; full article at: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_196.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_196.html) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/3 "2000-01-07T03:06:00Z")
The original name supposedly came from a Greek word “kuklos” meaning “circle.” It was changed to “Ku Klux” and “Klan” given for alliteration. * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/4 "2000-01-07T03:36:00Z")
Right handily answered, gents. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/5 "2000-01-07T07:59:00Z")
One thing Cecil didn’t mention in his column was that the revived KKK in the 1920’s and 1930’s was predominently run as a money-making scam. The white trash recruits who were being signed up were required to buy “official” Klan paraphenalia like robes, manuals, initiation fees, etc. The handful of “authorized” dealers who ran the Klan sold these items with a several hundred percent markup. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/6 "2000-01-07T14:58:00Z")
Ahhhh…like the Boy Scouts! Yeah, the 20s were the boom years for the Klan. The focus shifted from attacking black Americans to attacking recent immigrants and Catholics and other non-100% American types. They were probably at their most visible during that decade because they all got together and wore the same crap, as Nemo says. * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![StrTrkr777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@StrTrkr777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrTrkr777)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/7 "2000-01-07T16:55:00Z")
They obviously targeted the stupid, otherwise they member would just grab any old bedsheet and put it over their head and cut a couple of eye holes in it. Course, I guess you have to be an idiot to join such a group anyway. Jeffery ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/8 "2000-01-08T11:58:00Z")
According to David Duke the Klan saved white civilization in the South after the civil war. The Klan was formed to protect white women from being raped by the freed black slaves, DD believes this so it must be true. The use of the KKK’s was also an attention grabber for the groups they hated such as Katholics, Koons and Kikes as such. A sad example of how hate is blossoming in the country, Duke was on one of our local talk radio programs last week. He spoke of the low IQ of blacks the Jewish controlled media the works, out of a dozen callers only two challenged Duke ate rest agreed with him!! Has talk radio drifted so far to the right even a nazi klansman is a hero? I still can’t believe what I heard! ---
**Author:** ![RobRoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@RobRoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobRoy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/9 "2000-01-08T19:39:00Z")
KKK is short for KANKAKEE ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/10 "2000-01-08T20:20:00Z")
[quoteThe Klan was formed to protect white women from being raped by the freed black slaves[/quote] My, how noble of them. I’m sure this was a rampant problem. * * * Yer pal, Satan ---
**Author:** ![RobRoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@RobRoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobRoy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2000, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightforward-kkk-question/6172/11 "2000-01-15T07:18:00Z")
I understand that in Indiana in the 20-30’s 25% of adult white (in their limited sense) males were in the clan.