The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is officially considered a "subversive terrorist organization" by the United States government.[1] This designation primarily refers to the third iteration of the Klan, which emerged in the mid-20th century as a reaction to the growing civil rights movement.[1]

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The U.S. government's classification of the KKK as a terrorist organization is rooted in its history of violence, intimidation, and acts aimed at undermining civil rights and societal order. The first Klan, founded in 1865, was characterized by historians as America's first terrorist group, using violence and intimidation to suppress politically active Black people and their white allies during Reconstruction.[2] Federal law enforcement began taking action against it around 1871, and a federal grand jury in 1870 determined the Klan was a "terrorist organization."[2]

The third and current iteration of the Klan, which formed in the mid-20th century, has continued this legacy of violence. Members of the Third Klan have been convicted of murder in the deaths of civil rights workers and in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.[1] In April 1997, FBI agents arrested four members of the True Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for conspiracy to commit robbery and to blow up a natural gas processing plant.[1] Furthermore, in 1999, the city council of Charleston, South Carolina, passed a resolution declaring the Klan a terrorist organization.[1]

Various government actions and legal proceedings underscore this classification:

• Enforcement Acts (1870-1871): These federal laws were passed to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes during the Reconstruction era.[2]
• Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871: This act allowed the president to suspend habeas corpus to combat Klan violence. President Ulysses S. Grant used this legislation to station federal troops in South Carolina and prosecute Klansmen in federal court.[2]
• FBI Investigations and Arrests: The FBI has actively investigated and arrested Klan members for terrorist activities, such as the 1997 arrests of True Knights of the Ku Klux Klan members.[1]
• Civil Lawsuits: Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have successfully sued Klan groups for damages resulting from their violent acts, leading to financial forfeitures and the dismantling of some Klan assets, such as the sale of the United Klans of America's national headquarters after the lynching of Michael Donald.[2] [3]

While the KKK is not a single, unified organization today, but rather a collection of independent groups, their historical and ongoing use of violence and intimidation to achieve their objectives aligns with the definition of a terrorist organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) continue to monitor these groups, classifying them as hate groups due to their white supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, and Islamophobic ideologies, which often manifest in violent or threatening actions.[1] [4]

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