" To accomplish this goal the Klan used horrific tactics to intimidate blacks and anyone else who got in their way of a white-government. The Klan would murder whole families in the middle of the night, burn down homes, hold public lynchings and beatings, and conduct other tortures to keep their power. "A lad whipped with branches until his back was ribboned flesh: a Negress beaten and left helpless to contract pneumonia from exposure and dies; a white girl, divorcee beaten into unconsciousness in her home; a naturalized foreigner flogged until his back was pulp because he married an American woman; a Negro lashed until he sold his land to a white man for a fraction of its value."2 These inhuman acts should not have been tolerated and should have been put to an end as soon as reported, but they were not. This was a result of the Klan accomplishing its objective of white supremacy in the south. By 1870, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, where Klan support and membership were highest, were governed by completely white governments. With its objective achieved and the passing of the Ku Klux Act in 1871, the Klan virtually disappeared, but only temporarily. .
With the outbreak of World War I and the constant fear of a communist revolution, the Klan was reestablished and brought back into power in 1915, this time targeting more than African Americans. The Klan now fought against African-Americans, foreigners, Jews, socialists, Roman Catholics, and communists, with its main opponent being the NAACP. "All hyphenated groups - whether they be Negro-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Catholic-Americans, Italian-Americans or whatever must become American-Americans, or leave the country! The Ku Klux Klan is an American-American organization. As the Army of the Klan we Klavaliers are dedicated to saving America for Americans!"3 .
Under the leadership of Hiram Evans in 1922, the Klan quickly regained power and the organization spread quickly.