K nown for its garb of flowing white gowns, masks and pointed hoods, the Ku Klux Klan has been a symbol of racial intolerance and fear for well over a century. As an organisation it has had several distinctive periods in its history; the first of which thrived in the American south following the Civil War.

The original Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 as a social club by a group of six Confederate Army veterans, reputedly of Scottish descent, in Pulaski, Tennessee. The group adopted the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle, and the English word clan. Several local groups sprang up soon after and these were formally unified in April 1867 in Nashville, Tennessee, where former Confederate cavalry leader General Nathan Bedford Forrest, became the Klan's first Grand Wizard.

With its philosophy of white supremacy, the Klan was opposed to black people gaining rights during the reconstruction which followed the American Civil War. Many blacks were threatened, beaten or murdered during this period. By 1869, internal conflict led to problems as different factions struggled for control. Many prominent citizens dropped out and as local chapters became increasingly difficult to control, a disgusted Forrest disbanded the group. In 1871, the Force Bill was passed by Congress giving the US president authority to use federal troops against the Ku Klux Klan if deemed necessary. Shortly after, the Klan all but faded away.

In 1915 it was given its first revival by a former Methodist preacher, William J Simmons, in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Although the organisation adopted the name, rituals and attitudes of the original Klan, it was now a patriotic, fraternal group which directed its activity not just against blacks,

but any group it considered a threat to the traditional American way of life, including immigrants, Jews and Roman Catholics. The organisation grew rapidly and by

1924 had more than three million members across the US. The Klan became a political force with elected public officials, although some factions reverted to the violence of previous years. Internal disagreements about leadership, coupled with growing public criticism of Klan violence, weakened the organisation and by 1944 it had virtually disappeared again.

When the Civil Rights movement began in the 1960s, a new wave of Ku Klux Klan violence began. Flashpoints included Mississippi, where three civil rights leaders were killed, and Birmingham, Alabama, where a church was bombed, killing four young black girls. But by the early 1970s, public outrage prevailed and Klan membership dwindled once more. The organisation tried to create a more respectable image by accepting female members and setting up youth groups but it became increasingly fragmented. During the early 1980s, membership again experienced a brief boom, rising to around 10,000, but fell towards the end of the decade amid violent activity and prosecutions for illegal activities.

Today the organisation, no longer known as just the Ku Klux Klan, consists of several groups, including the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Kamelia, co-exist. Membership across these groups is estimated to be around 5,000. The Klan's recent history has not been without incident.

In October 1999, less than two dozen members of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan faced up to almost 6,000 protesters on the streets of Manhattan. Five anti-Klan protesters were arrested after scuffles broke out. Closer

to home a Scottish Knight of the Klan was jailed in March 1998 for sending racist hate mail to the Lord Provost

of Dundee.

Susan Swarbrick