# What Happened To The KKK? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802 "2012-09-25T17:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/1 "2012-09-25T17:54:16Z")
It’s been awhile since I last watched the Beatles Anthology and it shows some brief film footage of a uniformed Klu Klux Klan member stating to a news reporter that they would prevent the Beatles from playing a concert there, after John Lennon’s “bigger than Jesus” comment circa 1966. When did the KKK stop operating out in the open like that, and was it due to court cases or something they decided on their own in light of public opinion? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/2 "2012-09-25T18:01:19Z")
They are still around but their numbers are small. The largest active chapters are in Indiana the last time I checked. There is nothing against the law about them dressing up and marching to this day. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union fight have fought several times to protect their right to assemble and won in court. Here is a list of active chapters: [http://www.adl.org/learn/ext\_us/kkk/active\_group\_2006.asp?learn\_cat=extremism&learn\_subcat=extremism\_in\_america&xpicked=4&item=kkk](http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/active_group_2006.asp?learn_cat=extremism&learn_subcat=extremism_in_america&xpicked=4&item=kkk) ETA: It looks like their is an active chapter in Georgia that wants to adopt a highway. Georgia said no but the ACLU is suing the state to allow them to do so based on the Constitution. > **[ACLU sues Georgia in KKK litter program fight](https://www.foxnews.com/us/aclu-sues-georgia-in-kkk-litter-program-fight)** > > The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday against the state of Georgia on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan, saying the state violated the group's right to free speech by denying its application to join a highway cleanup program. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/3 "2012-09-25T18:02:14Z")
Pretty sure they still do. They aren’t very popular where I currently live, but when I lived in Arkansas a few years back, I would see them regularly rallying at the state capitol. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/4 "2012-09-25T20:09:47Z")
David Duke, the perpetual candidate, [is still around](http://www.davidduke.com/)with his homespun tales of Zionism, the Federal Reserve Board, immigration and other favorite targets/ > [@Shagnasty](#): > > ETA: It looks like their is an active chapter in Georgia that wants to adopt a highway. Georgia said no but the ACLU is suing the state to allow them to do so based on the Constitution. A few years ago a Klan chapter in Missouri won a court case over adaopting a highway. The legislature turned around and renamed the stretch of road “The Rosa M. Parks Memorial Highway.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/5 "2012-09-25T20:13:10Z")
The KKK was driven into bankruptcy through a strategy of civil suits. That strategy continues today. 2008 and a new civil suit for a beating in 2006. [http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-12/justice/klan.sued\_1\_lawsuit-legal-system-court-papers?\_s=PM:CRIME](http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-12/justice/klan.sued_1_lawsuit-legal-system-court-papers?_s=PM:CRIME) > [@](#): > > The Klan’s campaign of hatred has spurred opposition from many fronts, including Klanwatch, an organization started by lawyer and civil rights activist Morris Dees in 1980. The group is affiliated with Dees’s SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1987, Dees won a $7 million civil suit against the Alabama-based United Klans of America for the 1981 murder of a 19-year-old man. The suit drove that Klan organization into BANKRUPTCY. In 1998, Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center won a civil suit against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, who were accused of burning down the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville, South Carolina. The center won an unprecedented $37.8 million in damages. > > Read more: Ku Klux Klan - Anti-civil Rights Involvement - Including, Won, Dees, and Kkk - JRank Articles [Law Library - American Law and Legal Information - JRank Articles](http://law.jrank.org/pages/8016/Ku-Klux-Klan-Anti-Civil-Rights-Involvement.html#ixzz27Vwu0NkW) ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/6 "2012-09-25T21:52:39Z")
Also, it was never really a continuously functioning group. The original klan was a post civil war group to intimidate newly freed slaves. It was effectively eliminated a few years after the civil war. It was resurrected in the 1920’s, grew very large then faded away around WW2. The late 50’s and 60’s version was a response to the civil rights movement. It’s still around to the extent that there are racists who meet up at the trailer park or wherever and call themselves ‘klansmen’. I imagine they’ll probably always be around in the same way you’ll always have a few bozo’s calling themselves “Nazi’s” even though the Nazi party hasn’t existed since 1945. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/7 "2012-09-26T01:38:44Z")
KKK dead? Don’t let the SPLC hear you say that. It eats into their profits. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/8 "2012-09-26T02:30:14Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > KKK dead? Don’t let the SPLC hear you say that. It eats into their profits. There is **SO** much money to be made in tracking hate groups. Clearly profit motive is the SPLC’s reason for existing:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/9 "2012-09-26T02:43:02Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > Also, it was never really a continuously functioning group. The original klan was a post civil war group to intimidate newly freed slaves. It was effectively eliminated a few years after the civil war. > > It was resurrected in the 1920’s, grew very large then faded away around WW2. > > The late 50’s and 60’s version was a response to the civil rights movement. > > It’s still around to the extent that there are racists who meet up at the trailer park or wherever and call themselves ‘klansmen’. I imagine they’ll probably always be around in the same way you’ll always have a few bozo’s calling themselves “Nazi’s” even though the Nazi party hasn’t existed since 1945. This. The KKK of the 50’s and 60’s even then wasn’t the organized group it was from the 1920’s. There were multiple organizations with no central leadership outside the KKK that still called themselves the KKK. The KKK of the 50’s and 60’s was a resurgence that attracted those afraid of the coming change. When that battle was lost and the government got around to prosecuting KKK members for crimes they committed most their members fled like rats from a sinking ship. Having no place in either political party they’ve been marginalized to a lunatic fringe. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/10 "2012-09-26T02:47:01Z")
News article from 2011 showing the KKK suing the town of Martinsville, IN. > **[Fox 59](https://fox59.com/)** > > Indianapolis News, Indiana Weather, Indiana News, Indiana Traffic, Indiana Local News, Indiana Sports, Community, Entertainment ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/11 "2012-09-26T03:18:18Z")
In the modern context, there is no such thing as _the_ KKK. The First and Second Era Klans (that’s what the Klan calls the Reconstruction and interwar periods) were singular organizations with centralized leadership. The Third (1950ish to the mid-70s) and Fourth (1970s to present) Era Klans are basically a whole bunch of separate groups related only by (some) ideology and the desire to piggyback on the historical groups. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/12 "2012-09-26T15:27:07Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > There is **SO** much money to be made in tracking hate groups. > > Clearly profit motive is the SPLC’s reason for existing:rolleyes: Their current endowment is 223 million dollars, that is probably enough to give every Klan member in the US their own personal tracker. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/13 "2012-09-26T15:55:17Z")
The Susan Komen foundation has _annual_ earnings of over $400 million. Does that mean they are only interested in profits? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/14 "2012-09-26T16:28:43Z")
For an interesting take on hanging out with the Klan, you might try reading Jon Ronson’s 2002 book _Them_. At that time the Klan was trying to redo their image by banning the robes and not using ethnic slurs in public. The book is about all sorts of fringe groups, and a fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/15 "2012-09-26T18:17:32Z")
Violent racists nowadays don’t join a Klan group, there are lots of militias and Christian Identity and Aryan whatever groups instead. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/16 "2012-09-26T18:46:32Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > This. The KKK of the 50’s and 60’s even then wasn’t the organized group it was from the 1920’s. There were multiple organizations with no central leadership outside the KKK that still called themselves the KKK. > > The KKK of the 50’s and 60’s was a resurgence that attracted those afraid of the coming change. When that battle was lost and the government got around to prosecuting KKK members for crimes they committed most their members fled like rats from a sinking ship. > > Having no place in either political party they’ve been marginalized to a lunatic fringe. I’ve heard that the Superman radio show had a part to play in “de-mystifying” the Klan, and as a result drastically reducing their membership. Being a Superman villain, at the very height of his popularity, couldn’t have been a good thing. Here’s an article on the subject: [http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/39296](http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/39296) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/17 "2012-09-26T18:52:17Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A few years ago a Klan chapter in Missouri won a court case over adopting a highway. The legislature turned around and renamed the stretch of road “The Rosa M. Parks Memorial Highway.” I was skeptical about this, but [snopes says it’s true,](http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/rosapark.asp) and the story started about 1994. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/18 "2012-09-26T18:56:29Z")
[They took my baby away.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KKK_Took_My_Baby_Away) ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/19 "2012-09-26T23:47:04Z")
If the Klan is dead, someone should let David [Duke know](http://www.davidduke.com/). Maybe when the Klan disappeared his campaign funds dried up and that’s why we never had a US Representative in the KKK make it to the Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kkk/635802/20 "2012-09-27T02:00:31Z")
Duke renounced his Klan affiliations a long time ago, claiming that he saw the light when he became a born-again Christian. Like many former open political racists, he now cloaks his views in slightly more palatable terms: “heritage” and so on.