By which I mean the KKK’s hierarchy being called Grand Wizards, Dragons and if wiki is to be believed there are even Giants and Goblins (!) in there.
Wiki says that they were inspired by pre-war fraternities, but where did they get it from and why did the Klan adopt it? These days it just reminds me of either D&D or Lord of the Rings, and I doubt that was what they were going for. Where they just trying to, for want of a better term, sound cool or is there a significance?
The way I’ve understood it is that it was for fun - the KKK was founded by a bunch of bored Confederate veterans that wanted to have fun and engage in activism. Hence the bizarre ranks and elaborate costumes. They wore masks to hide their identity as a practical choice, but they went further for fun and as an identity thing.
In effect they were a fraternity that had a political bent.
Also, neither D&D nor LoTR existed at the time the KKK was founded, but the classic Celtic and Germanic lore that D&D and LoTR were inspired by certainly existed, and some of the early members might have been in to Arthurian lore or Viking tales and pulled goblins and whatnot out of that.
Oh, it’s even better than that. According to Wikipedia, at one time or another, they have had Cyclops and Titans, Genii and Furies, Magi and Monks, Hydras and Centaurs. And some of them called themselves Yahoos.
Oh those crazy fun loving boys! Riding around in sheets that hid there identity, burning crosses on the neighbors lawn and hanging an occasional dark skinned fellow from a tree now and then. I guess it’s because they didn’t have TV or the internet back then and boys will be boys after all.
ISTR seeing/reading somewhere recently that they were actually fairly benign at the very beginning–mostly just a sort of Confederate Veterans of Civil Wars thing where the boys would get together, have silly rituals, and drink. Was only when a particular leader came in (J.E.B. Stuart, as I recall) that they took the turn towards being more of a guerrilla/terrorist organization.
There’s no actual evidence that Nathan Bedford Forrest (who stated publically that he had no problem with Blacks holding political power) was actively involved in the Klan. It’s true that his name was used, but it’s unclear as to whether Klan leaders had permission to use his name. Forrest may have written a letter supporting them, but it was early on and Forrest was addressing their fight against carpetbaggers.
Of course that version of the Klan didn’t have the sort of organization; it was just a mob. That Klan died out around 1900. The second version of the Klan came into existence after World War I and was basically a multilevel marketing scheme for racists: members made money by recruiting more members and selling KKK merchandise to them. They also modeled themselves like more respectable service clubs like Rotary, the Lions, and Kiwanis, where there was a hierarchy (though in the Klan the higher up you were, the bigger cut of sales you got).
Even the Scottish Wiki disagrees, including cites from his biographer. Saying he was or was not “actively involved” is meaningless in any case; he is on the record throughout the later part of his life speaking in favor or support of the Klan.
That, and the small matter of Fort Pillow, pretty much says it all.
In the 19th century, most men belonged to some sort of “secret” fraternal order. They functioned as everything from social clubs to networking organizations to welfare organizations. The orders and rituals of the KKK were no odder than say the Masons or any given college fraternity; it’s just the ugly nature of the Klan gives them a more sinister bent.
IIRC the original KKK of the postbellum period was soon forced to disband, though its campaign of hate and violence was carried on by other groups.
The organizer of the second KKK in 1915 consciously emulated the organizational structure of fraternal organizations like the Elks or Shriners; the idea was that prospects who were already familiar with such lodges might be more comfortable with the idea of joining the Klan. They might have been hitting the bad hooch in private but their public position on alcohol was violent opposition, expressed by the beating and killing bootleggers and other alcohol violators, just as they went after people of color and non-Protestant whites. I’ve always thought the thing about alcohol to be perplexing, but there it is. A likely explanation is that it provided them with additional opportunities for violence and intimidation in the name of upholding the dry laws.