"Two Members of the Ku Klux Klan in Their Disguises," engraving from Harper's Weekly, December 19, 1868
     Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Klan was soon transformed into an organization of terror against African-Americans and white Republicans.

Between 1868-71, a wave of Klan violence swept over the South. Although state officials tried with varying degrees of success to repress the Klan, the violence continued, prompting Congress to enact the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871.
 
"Two Members of the Ku Klux Klan in Their Disguises," engraving from Harper's Weekly, December 19, 1868

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