Invisible empire PDF book; the story of the Ku Klux klan, 1866-1871 by Stanley Horn (1939)





What is Ku Klux Klan according to Wikipedia?

The Ku Klux Klan commonly called the KKK or the Klan is an American white supremacist hate group, whose primary target is African Americans. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalism, anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism and anti-Catholicism. Historically, the first Klan used terrorism – both physical assault and murder – against politically active blacks and their allies in the South in the late 1860s, until it was suppressed around 1872. All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society and all are considered right-wing extremist organizations In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both friends and enemies.





The book Contains illustrations

Excerpt from the book introduction

story of the Ku Klux Klan. It is historically accurate (at least every precaution has been taken to make it so), but it is told in narrative form because that seems to be the clearest and most vivid way of presenting this incredible chapter in American history.An organization such as the Ku Klux Klan could have been organized and sustained only in such circumstances as prevailed in the South following the War Between the States. Its birth, its life, and its death were shrouded in mystery; no complete story of its existence has ever before been told. It is the purpose of this book to tell that story, to clear away some of the mystery which hangs about the Ku Klux name.To avoid interruption to the flow of the narrative, there are no distracting footnotes. Every statement, however, is fully substantiated. In the Appendix is a bibliography of basic works of reference, the reading of which has been supplemented by intensive personal research throughout the South over a period of several years, including the painstaking scanning of old newspaper files and numerous interviews with surviving members of the Klan.An acknowledgment and an expression of appreciation are due to all those who have so generously assisted me in preparing this work, but they are so many in number that an enumeration of their names might weary the reader. Among the institutions and organizations to which I owe thanks are the National Archives and Library of Congress at Washington; the New York Public Library; the Department of Archives and History of Tennessee, also the similar department of Alabama; the Tennessee Historical Society; the Buffalo Historical Society; the Nashville (Tennessee) Public Library; the Howard Library, New Orleans, Louisiana; the Cossitt Library, Memphis; the Virginia Historical Society; the Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; and many others.