Ku Klux Klan Founded in Pulaski, Tennessee

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in December 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by six former Confederate officers including Nathan Bedford Forrest, who became its first Grand Wizard. Initially presented as a social fraternity, the KKK rapidly evolved into a paramilitary terrorist organization targeting Black voters, officeholders, educators, and community leaders across the South. By 1867–1868 it was conducting coordinated night-riding, flogging, arson of Black churches and schools, and murder across multiple states to destroy Republican Reconstruction governments.