re: Reasons why Tennessee is better than Alabama

quote:

---

The KKK was founded in the state of Tennessee.

---

As a fraternal organization that N.B. Forrest soon disavowed.

"The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, sometime between December 1865 and August 1866 by six former members of the Confederate army[23] as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta, from which parts of the initiation ceremony were borrowed, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan."[24] The name is probably derived from the Greek word kuklos (??????) which means circle;[25] the word had previously been used for other fraternal organizations in the South such as Kuklos Adelphon. The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski.[26]

According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907) "Beginning in April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation ... The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all—that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do."[24]

Although there was little organizational structure above the local level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name and methods.[27] Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement during the Reconstruction era in the United States. For example, Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee.[28] As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were successfully enforced in prosecuting and suppressing Klan crimes.[29]" - wiki

The things you learn, huh?

A guy in the Marines told me many years ago that the name comes from the sound made when you cock a musket: KU KLUX.