A bit of history I found a few years ago ; The KKK originally were a vigilante group moresolike a neighborhood watch formed to protect against the chaos and lawlessness after the civil war in the south. I believe they were around for 8 years. Nathan Bedford called for a disbandment stating that they werent needed any longer and fear of a white trash element co-opting it. and A theory I believe the second iteration was funded by govt/banks interestingly they came back soon after the federal banking system was installed . The perfect counter to the communist NAACP we now had two groups to stir up chaos seeds for the color revolution that was the civil rights movement .