The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, is a white supremacist hate group that has a long and dark history in the United States. The organization was founded in the aftermath of the Civil War in 1865 by a group of Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee. The KKK sought to resist Reconstruction efforts and intimidate newly freed African Americans, as well as white Republicans who supported their rights.

The Klan's tactics included violence, intimidation, and terrorism, such as lynching, bombings, and other acts of racial violence. Thousands of African Americans were killed by the KKK in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The KKK also targeted other marginalized groups, including immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and anyone who they deemed a threat to their vision of a white, Christian America.

The KKK's influence waned in the mid-20th century, but the organization experienced a resurgence during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, as they sought to resist desegregation and equal rights for African Americans. The KKK's legacy of hatred and violence continues to impact American society to this day, and the organization remains a symbol of racism and extremism.