Which was the state of the KKK in 1899?

by titaniumjordi

I've been playing the new game "Red Dead Redemption 2" which takes place in 1899, and I'm it you can actually find KKK meetings. Of course the game doesn't show any sympathy with them and shows their meetings going horribly wrong, with several of them dying in some way in the meetings. But what caught my interest was that, if you loot one of their bodies, you can find "meeting notes" which, among other things, say that the attendance numbers to their reunions are disappointing and that they are having trouble getting new members. How accurate is this?

Vistulan

Over the period of US History, the Ku Klux Klan had three organizations which rose and fell under the leadership of different 'Grand Wizards'

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1st Klan - Founded by soldiers of the Confederate army, fell due to lack of central organization (1865-1871)

2nd Klan - Founded by William Joseph Simmons, fell due to once again, internal problems such as main leaders committing state crimes (D.C Stephenson) (1915-1944)

3rd Klan - Didn't have a specific leader or organization, the 3rd Klan is generally described as opposition to Civil Rights during the Post War period up to today. (1946-Present)

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During 1899 the KKK was nothing but militia groups, the previous group which declared itself an organization disbanded and only in 1915 William Joseph Simmons would bring it back to its feet. Despite the KKK not being organized and declared, other groups rose such as the White League or the Red Shirts. From what I know the game portrays as the Klan members being very stupid however even that wasn't the case. By the time of the 2nd Klan membership rose to 6,000,000 at its peak and your average Southern College kid was more than happy to participate in the rallies and meetings. During the time period of the game, membership wasn't exactly recorded and there are not many sources I could refer to due to the fact that as I previously said, it wasn't a registered organization and meetings were generally on a local scale. But from what we can assume, the numbers were very low and insignificant. The KKK didn't perform any real racially motivated attacks during that period, generally due to their weakness. Therefore, to answer your question, I think that what is being portrayed in the game is pretty accurate.

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Although, something that you didn't ask yet I may as well add is that the Cross Burnings being performed in the game are totally inaccurate as considering the game is based in 1899 and the KKK "handbook" which included the instructions to burn crosses was only published in 1905 under the name 'The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'. It had Scottish Origins during the Jacobite Revolts and was known as a sign of a declaration of war.

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I really hope this short answer is sufficient, mods have mercy.

Sources:

'OCR Civil Rights in the USA 1865-1992' - David Paterson, Doug Willoughby, Susan Willoughby.

'Hodder Education Civil Rights in the USA 1865-1992' - Nicholas Fellows and Mike Wells

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