Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A secret society organized in the South after the Civil War to reassert white supremacy by means of terrorism.
- n. A secret fraternal organization of similar intent founded in Georgia in 1915.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In United States history, a secret oath-bound organization, also called simply Kuklux, which arose in the Southern States after the civil war of 1861-65, among the participants in or sympathizers with secession, the members of which (or persons passing as members) perpetrated many outrages, by whipping, expelling, or murdering persons obnoxious to them, especially negroes and new-comers from the north. Such outrages, by this and similar organizations called “the Invisible Empire,” “the White League,” etc., continued with more or less frequency for more than ten years after the war.
Wiktionary
- n. A secret society that uses terrorism to promote white supremacy. It primarily operated in the southern United States of America during the mid-1900s.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a secret society of white Southerners in the United States; was formed in the 19th century to resist the emancipation of slaves; used terrorist tactics to suppress Black people
Etymologies
- Probably based on Ancient Greek κύκλος (kuklos, "circle") and clan. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps alteration of Greek kuklos, circle; see cycle + alteration of clan. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Ku Klux Klan still had some impact, not much in San Antonio, because this is a Catholic town, but it took a little spine to run Al Smith's campaign.”
“Before the 9/11 era and the ubiquitous fear of large-scale terrorism by angry jihadists, if the subject of “hate groups” came up most people would think reflexively of domestic organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.”
“In those days, before my mother told me her Kweilin story, I imagined Joy Luck was a shameful Chinese custom, like the secret gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or the tom-tom dances of TV Indians preparing for war.”
“The anti-209 manager called me in September to report that David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan leader who’d become nationally notorious as the Republican nominee for governor of Louisiana, had agreed to debate in favor of 209 at California State University at Northridge.”
“Now suppose the postcard carried the return address of the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party.”
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