# Third Ku Klux Klan (~1950–present) The **decentralized terrorist resistance** to the civil rights movement. Unlike the [[First Ku Klux Klan]] (a Confederate insurgency with a single command structure) or the [[Second Ku Klux Klan]] (a mass-membership fraternal organization with 4–6 million members), the Third Klan was never a single organization. It was a **constellation of independent, competing local and regional Klan groups** united only by the KKK name, white supremacist ideology, and the shared project of violent opposition to racial integration. The Third Klan matters for the KB because it is the **bridge** between historical organized white supremacy and the modern movement: David Duke's political Klan, Tom Metzger's media Klan, the Christian Identity factions, and the eventual fragmentation into the post-Klan organizations documented elsewhere in the KB (Aryan Nations, [[National Alliance]], skinhead crews, militia movement). ## Origins: Brown v. Board as Catalyst The Third Klan emerged in direct response to **[[Brown v. Board of Education]]** (1954) and the broader civil rights movement. While the White Citizens' Councils represented the "respectable" segregationist resistance (the KB covers these in the [[Civil Rights Era Backlash]] ecosystem), the Third Klan was the **terrorist wing** — the armed enforcement of segregation through bombing, murder, and intimidation. Key early organizations: | Group | Leader | Base | Active | |-------|--------|------|--------| | **U.S. Klans, Knights of the KKK** | Eldon Edwards | Atlanta, GA | 1955–1960 | | **Alabama Knights of the KKK** | Robert Shelton | Tuscaloosa, AL | 1956–1960s | | **United Klans of America (UKA)** | Robert Shelton | Tuscaloosa, AL | 1961–1987 | | **White Knights of the KKK** | Sam Bowers | Mississippi | 1964–1968 | | **Original Knights of the KKK** | Various | Louisiana | 1960s | | **Knights of the KKK** | David Duke | Louisiana | 1974–1980 | ## The Violence Campaign The Third Klan conducted a sustained campaign of **bombings, murders, and intimidation** across the South during the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the First Klan (nighttime raids) or Second Klan (parades and economic boycotts), the Third Klan's signature tactic was **dynamite bombing**. ### Major Attacks | Date | Attack | Casualties | Perpetrators | |------|--------|-----------|-------------| | **Dec 1956** | Bombing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth's home, Birmingham | Survived | Alabama KKK | | **Sep 1957** | Bombing of Hattie Cotton Elementary (integrated), Nashville | 0 killed | Local Klan | | **Jan 1957** | Bombing of Ralph Abernathy's home and church, Montgomery | Survived | Local Klan | | **Sep 15, 1963** | **16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham** | **4 girls killed** (Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Carol Denise McNair), 22 wounded | Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss + 3 KKK members | | **Jun 21, 1964** | **[[Murders of Chaney Goodman and Schwerner]]** ("Mississippi Burning") | **3 killed** | White Knights of the KKK + Neshoba County sheriff's deputies | | **Mar 25, 1965** | Murder of Viola Liuzzo (civil rights volunteer), Alabama | **1 killed** | UKA members | | **Jan 10, 1966** | Firebombing of Vernon Dahmer's home, Hattiesburg MS | **1 killed** | White Knights, ordered by Sam Bowers | | **1981** | Lynching of Michael Donald, Mobile AL | **1 killed** | UKA members Henry Hays and James Knowles | Birmingham alone earned the nickname **"Bombingham"** — 50 dynamite explosions between 1947 and 1965, targeting Black families, churches, and civil rights leaders. ### Law Enforcement Complicity A defining feature of Third Klan violence was **active collaboration with local and state law enforcement**. Klansmen served as sheriff's deputies, police officers, and investigators — creating a system where Klan crimes were investigated by Klan members: - **Birmingham:** Police Commissioner Bull Connor provided advance warning to Klansmen about Freedom Rider arrivals, giving them 15 minutes to attack before police would intervene - **Mississippi:** Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price was a Klan member who arrested Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, then released them into a Klan ambush - **Alabama:** FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe was simultaneously a Birmingham Klan member who participated in the Freedom Rider attacks while reporting to the FBI ## Organizational Structure: Decentralization as Feature The Third Klan's decentralized structure was both a weakness (no coordination, competing factions, petty rivalries) and a strength (no single leader to arrest, no single organization to shut down). This is the **prototype for the decentralized model** that [[Louis Beam]] would later theorize as [[Leaderless Resistance]]. Key structural features: - **No national organization:** Dozens of competing Klan groups, each claiming the "true" KKK mantle - **Law enforcement infiltration:** Both directions — Klansmen in police departments, and FBI informants in the Klan (COINTELPRO) - **Political connections:** Unlike the Second Klan (which openly ran candidates), Third Klan political influence was exercised through intimidation and behind-the-scenes relationships with segregationist politicians - **Christian Identity adoption:** Many Third Klan factions adopted [[Christian Identity]] theology, providing a religious framework for racial terrorism as holy war ## Decline and Fragmentation | Period | Development | |--------|------------| | **1964–1968** | FBI COINTELPRO/White Hate Groups program infiltrated and disrupted Klan organizations | | **1965** | [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] investigation exposed Klan finances and membership | | **1971** | UKA membership collapsed from ~30,000 to ~1,500 | | **1974–1980** | [[David Duke]] attempted to modernize the Klan — suits instead of robes, "white civil rights" framing | | **1981** | Michael Donald lynching → **$7M civil judgment** destroyed the United Klans of America | | **1980s** | Klan personnel migrated to post-Klan organizations: [[Aryan Nations]], [[The Order]], White Aryan Resistance, skinhead crews | | **1990s–present** | Continued fragmentation into dozens of micro-Klan groups (Loyal White Knights, Traditionalist American Knights, etc.), estimated 3,000–6,000 total members across all factions | ## The Through-Line The Third Klan is the **organizational ancestor** of the modern white supremacist landscape documented in the KB: | Third Klan element | Modern descendant | |-------------------|-------------------| | David Duke's political Klan | Electoral white nationalism; Populist Party | | [[Tom Metzger]]'s departure from Klan structure | White Aryan Resistance; media-first WN | | Christian Identity Klan factions | [[Aryan Nations]]; Identity churches | | Decentralized competing groups | [[Leaderless Resistance]]; [[Active Club Network]] | | Law enforcement complicity | [[Patriot Front]] members in LE; militia-police overlap | | Bombing campaign | Lone-wolf accelerationist attacks | ## See Also - [[First Ku Klux Klan]] — Confederate-era predecessor (1865–1871) - [[Second Ku Klux Klan]] — Mass-membership predecessor (1915–1944) - [[David Duke]] — KKK Grand Dragon who attempted electoral strategy - [[Tom Metzger]] — KKK Grand Dragon who broke with Klan for media-first WAR model - [[Aryan Nations]] — Where ex-Klansmen networked with neo-Nazis and Identity adherents - [[Christian Identity]] — Theological framework adopted by many Third Klan factions - [[Leaderless Resistance]] — Tactical doctrine emerging from Klan-era decentralization - [[Civil Rights Era Backlash]] — The broader ecosystem of anti-civil-rights resistance - [[Militias and Extremist Groups Ecosystem]]