Why Study the History of the KKK? We Are Currently Reliving It

Images of the Ku Klux Klan, forefather of the many white supremacist hate groups that are active and becoming emboldened in America today, often focus on two terror-filled epochs: the group’s genesis during Reconstruction, formed to prevent through violence the gains black Americans stood to make in the former Confederate states during the post-Civil War era, and the mid-20th century third wave that arose in the American South in backlash to the fight for civil rights.

Guns And KKK Members At Gettysburg Confederate Rally, But No Foes To Fight

GETTYSBURG, Pa. ― A few hundred armed militia group members, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Ku Klux Klaners, supporters of President Donald Trump, and other self-described patriots descended upon the Gettysburg battlefield Saturday to defend the site’s Confederate symbols from phantom activists with the violent far-left group Antifa.

Some carried semi-automatic rifles ― permitted in Pennsylvania ― as they peered out across the battlefield with binoculars, on the lookout for the black-clad, face-masked anti-fascists, anarchists and socialists they said they had heard were traveling to the national park to dishonor Confederate graves, monuments and flags.

Nancy Pelosi Isn’t Buying GOP Outrage Over Donald Trump’s KKK Comments

WASHINGTON -- When Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump didn't immediately disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, it didn't surprise House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that much.

Pelosi and other Democrats have argued this week that Republican lawmakers are responsible for the rise of Trump and the campaign he is running.

Orrin Hatch Gives Trump A Pass On The KKK

With Donald Trump exiting Super Tuesday still looking like the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, some establishment Republicans are interpreting his comments in ways that will allow them to support him despite the race-related controversies embroiling his campaign.

One such Republican is Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who backs Sen. Marco Rubio for president but has said he’ll support whoever ends up supporting whoever ends up being the GOP candidate.

Trump-Backing CNN Contributor Jeffrey Lord: KKK Had A ‘Progressive Agenda’

During a heated exchange that came on the heels of Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday victory press conference, Trump-backing CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord attempted to turn the tables on those who are criticizing Trump for not more aggressively disavowing his endorsement from former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Ted Cruz Doesn't Want To Anger Donald Trump's KKK Fans

HOUSTON -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz returned to his roots Monday night for a rally in the chapel auditorium of Houston Baptist University, where he was touted as a man of faith by his own pastor.

After laudatory speeches from former Gov. Rick Perry (R) and current Gov. Greg Abbott (R), the senator bore witness to his faith -- "I know the meaning of God’s grace through Jesus," he said -- and recited a long list of reasons why Donald Trump should not be the Republican presidential nominee.

GOP Senator: Even If Trump Meant It On The KKK, He's Still A Better Choice Than A Democrat

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) argued Tuesday that even if Donald Trump's controversial remarks about the KKK and David Duke were intentional, rather than a gaffe induced by a faulty earpiece, he's still a better choice for president than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Trump Plays Dumb On David Duke, Says He Needs To Do More Research On KKK

Two days after disavowing an endorsement from David Duke, Donald Trump suggested Sunday that he doesn’t know anything about the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard. But that was not his tune back in 2000.

“I disavow it, OK,” he said on Friday when asked about Duke urging white supremacists to support his campaign.

New York Daily News Front Page Hypes Donald Trump's KKK Connection

The New York Daily News is adding fire to its ongoing war of words with Donald Trump with a pointed front page targeting a troubling side to the GOP presidential candidate's campaign: his Ku Klux Klan supporters.

The tabloid’s Friday cover features a photograph of a hooded Klansman and the words “TRUMP FOR PREZ.”

“Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke told [his] radio audience Thursday to vote for and volunteer for fellow hatemonger Donald Trump, adding they’ll meet people on campaign with ‘same kind of mindset,’” the front page reads.

White Supremacists Mobilize For Donald Trump

As the Republican presidential primary moves into the American south, white supremacist groups are working to mobilize racists to get out the vote for Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, David Duke, the white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, encouraged his radio show listeners to volunteer for Trump's campaign. "Call Donald Trump’s headquarters [and] volunteer," he said on the "David Duke Radio Program." At Trump campaign offices, he said, "you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have.”

State Rep. Praises KKK, Wants New Holiday To Honor Confederacy

The Ku Klux Klan has gotten a bad rap, according to one Georgia lawmaker. He says the terror group “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order” that “made a lot of people straighten up.”

That leader is now hellbent on stopping the “cultural cleansing” of the South’s heritage. So far this year, State Rep. Tommy Benton (R) has co-sponsored two bills to preserve the Confederate’s legacy.

The KKK Understands Exactly What the Confederate Flag Symbolizes: White Power

The controversy over the Confederate flag keeps threatening to devolve into a seminar in semiotics. What does the flag really symbolize—racism or “Southern heritage?” Should we be fighting over symbols or is that a diversion from real issues, like actual, institutional racism? “Quit looking at the symbols,” South Carolina State Representative John Graham Altman said in an earlier iteration of these debates in 1997. A Ku Klux Klan group's decision to schedule a rally in support of the flag flying at the state capitol has the merit of clarifying the debate.

KKK Plans Pro-Confederate Flag Rally In South Carolina

Members of the Ku Klux Klan have announced plans to rally next month in South Carolina in support of the Confederate flag.

State officials confirmed to The Washington Post that the Loyal White Knightschapter of the KKK got permission to meet at the statehouse in Columbia on July 18. The group's website says it is the largest Klan in America.

The white Confederates defending the south's honor in Selma

As thousands marched across Selma’s Edmund Pettus bridge this weekend, a small band of white people were less than a mile away, mourning the loss of the Confederacy and guarding a memorial to a white supremacist.

Live Oak cemetery is a burial site for Confederate soldiers in the civil war and contains the grave of Edmund Winston Pettus, the general – and member of the Ku Klux Klan – after whom the town’s bridge was named.

KKK Was Terrorizing America Decades Before Islamic State Appeared

When Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) returned home from a trip to the Middle East in October, he offered a reflection on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, to the Bangor Daily News:

"My characterization of ISIS is that they have 14th century ethics and 21st century weapons," he said.

King and others who have reached into the Middle Ages for an apt Islamic State comparison may be going back further than they need to. The 19th and 20th centuries work just as well.

KKK Forms Neighborhood Watch Group In Pennsylvania

In response to a string of recent break-ins, the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has given a local Pennsylvania chapter the go-ahead to form a neighborhood watch group.

KKK Distributes Recruiting Fliers In Historically Black Florida Neighborhood

Residents of a predominantly black neighborhood in Florida say they were shocked when they woke up to find Ku Klux Klan fliers scattered across their yards on Monday.

"I am absolutely and totally offended that someone at a time like this would come into this community and distribute this type of literature," a local pastor told WOFL of the disturbing discovery.

"Terrorism is Part of Our History": Angela Davis on ’63 Church Bombing, Growing up in "Bombingham"

Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a watershed moment in the civil rights movement. On Sept. 15, 1963, a dynamite blast planted by the Ku Klux Klan killed four young girls in the church — Denise McNair, age 11, and Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, all 14 years old. Twenty other people were injured. No one was arrested for the bombings for 14 years. We hear an address by world-renowned author, activist and scholar Angela Davis, professor emerita at University of California, Santa Cruz. She spoke last night in Oakland, California, at an event organized by the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of Law.

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Source: democracynow.org
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'The Andrew Show,' Hosted By Pint-Sized Andrew Pendergraft, Markets Klan's Racist Message To Kids

Andrew Pendergraft is the grandson of Thomas Robb, the modern-day Ku Klux Klan's national director. As a young boy with floppy blond hair and a slight speech impediment, Pendergraft hosted a number of short episodes of his very own amateur talk show, "The Andrew Show," which presents the Klan's ideology in a format aimed at kids -- more specifically, white kids.

Viewable on YouTube, the first episodes of the series were apparently filmed several years ago when Pendergraft was around 9 or 10 years old. The segments use pop culture references to relay advisories against race-mixing and other controversial beliefs promoted by the KKK.

KKK Memphis Rally Profiled In VICE Documentary 'Triple Hate'

In March 2013, a gathering of Ku Klux Klan members rallied in Memphis to protest the renaming of the renaming of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park.

The Memphis City Council received backlash after voting to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, originally named for a man who was the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, a Confederate general in the Civil War and a slave trader.