Today In History - 12 April

12 April 1869 anti-Ku Klux Klan Law passed by North Carolina legislature. Ku Klux Kaln was founded in 1865, just after civil war and its name comes from the word Kuklos in Greek which means circle. The only reason of picking this name is it sounds mystic and scary.

Ku Klux Klan disintegrated and got together again a few times. In the first period until 1869, approximately 1000 afro-american was murdered by them.

In 1915, well marketed movie " The Birth of a Nation" caused racism and political enmity to spark and Ku Klux Klan got together again. They adopted their uniforms after seeing it in the movie. 20's were their most active years.

They developed special codes to know each other. Their handshake was deciphered at a newspaper in 1921. They gave different titles to their hierarchical levels like Dragon, Wizard, Emperor, Giant. The leader was called Grand Wizard or Imperial Wizard.

Today, it is assumed that Ku Klux Klan has about 8000 members and mostly activates with Neo Nazis.

All illustrations are drawn by hand and belongs to me. DRIMCHI_KA