The Ku Klux Klan organized a little while after the American Civil War. There are many theories that the Ku Klux Klan was established years ago in but was never a violent group. The Ku Klux Klan manly consisted of old Confederate Army Officers. The Confederate Army officers were not too happy with the outcome of the Civil War thus the organization of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was originally just a group who went to African American homes to scare them but eventually became violent and African Americans began to get killed. What all started as harmless fun turned into a torturing nightmare for all African Americans.
The Ku Klux Klan's original purpose in the South was to scare African Americans out of voting. Many Southerners believed voting gave African Americans some kind of power. The first Klan branch was established in Pulaski, Tennessee, in May 1866. Then about a year later another branch was born in Nashville in April 1867. The first Grand Wizard to rule over the Klan was Nathan Forrest. Forrest was an outstanding general during the Civil War. Nathan Forrest disbanded the organization since his original ideas for the Klan was to aid Confederate Army families who's love ones had been lost and to end segregation. Forrest stated the Klan had become to violent and that was why he left. .
Many Congressmen urged Ulysses S. Grant; President at the time, to take charge against the Klan. In 1870 Grant investigated the organization. Grants investigation proved what many had already known and on April 20,1871 Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act. This act gave the president the power to intervene in troubled states where disturbances occurred. This did not stop the growth of the Klan. Grant also passed the Enforcement Act. This act considered the Klan and illegal terrorist group.He thought this would end the Klan's operations.
By 1915 the Ku Klux Klan was reformed by a preacher named William J. Simmons.