Radicalism

The world of American radicalism has changed greatly over the past century. Organizations ranging from the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1866 to more recently organized groups like the Militia Movement, only about ten years old show the transitions in American radicalism, and the different states it has endured.

It is believed that the first incarnate of the racist right, as a political position started during the French Revolution with the myth of a Jewish conspiracy. Over many years this spread into the 20th century gaining popularity in the 1920’s. This was an added inspiration for the Ku Klux Klan, and added to their anti-black and anti-catholic agendas.

The Ku Klux Klan was started by six young men who organized a fraternal club where they would wear costumes and ride around after dark. They soon realized they were instilling fear into the community, but predominantly in the areas where the former slaves were living. Seeing this effect they quickly gained members, and within a year they began to structure rules for their organization. Inciting terror was their first goal, but it didn’t take long for them to act out further by harassment, arson and even murder of not just Blacks, but also Northern teachers, judges, politicians, or anyone they felt went against their code.

From 1915 until 1924 the Ku Klux Klan enjoyed a huge growth in membership. At one point they claimed more then 100,000 members, and at one point 40,000 of them marched in Washington D.C. during a Democratic National Convention. The Klan was so influential that it actually attracted new allies and members from the political body, primarily in the Mid-West. As the Klan grew it became increasingly violent and uncontrollable. This went against the image they were trying to present of “Law and Order.” Shortly after, in 1929 the Ku Klux Klan dissolved into many dozens of smaller, local groups.

Though currently suffering its greatest decline since the 1940s, with its three most prominent national units of the era: the United Clans of America, the Invisible Empire Knights of the KKK and the Knights of the KKK, either defunct or factionalized, America's oldest hate group, the codes of the Ku Klux Klan continues to operate on a local level, in some instances still engaging in illegal acts of violence and intimidation.

The Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1985 by Virgil Griffin and based in Mount Holly, North Carolina. The Christian Knights are active in North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. A suspect in two June 1995 arsons of predominately Black South Carolina churches, part of an apparent epidemic of church arsons occurring throughout the country since January 1995 carried a card identifying him as a member of the Christian Knights.

The Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are a breakaway faction from the now-defunct Invisible Empire Knights of the KKK; the Keystone Knights was founded by Barry Black in 1992 and is based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Keystone Knights publishes an anti-Jewish, anti-Black newsletter called The Keystone American.

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Texas Realm and the Knights of the White Camellia, a Texas Klan group led by Charles Lee, along with the Texas chapter of Thom Robb's Knights of the KKK, has been linked to a number of incidents of racial intimidation and harassment in Vidor, Texas. These incidents, which occurred in 1992 and 1993, involved efforts to prevent the desegregation of an all white federally assisted housing project in Vidor. Among the reported acts of intimidation was the threat to blow up a housing unit to prevent its integration; residents of the project additionally alleged that the White Camellia Knights carried automatic weapons on a bus they drove through the housing complex and that one Klan member offered white children $50 to beat up African-American children. The Texas Commission on Human Rights has brought a civil suit against both Klan groups in response to these incidents.

The left over factions of the Ku Klux Klan are not the only group that is still actively pursuing it endeavors to instill its’ initiatives in the United States. Other radical groups consist of the afore mentioned Militia Movement, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. In fact, according to a project called The Klanwatch, which began monitoring hate related crimes in 1981, there are over 700 hate groups in the nation.

The Aryan Nation is a group that is interested in “preserving the Aryan race” and claims to be proactively doing this for over 25 years. They are operating by dispersing literature and leaflets to anyone of the Aryan race that will take them. They seem to be particularly preoccupied with the “Jewish Problem,” not that that is where the movement stops. They publish anti-Mexican immigration flyers that not only go in the face