Ku Klux Klan

====Refounding in 1915====
In 1915, the film ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' was released, mythologizing and glorifying the first Klan and its endeavors. The second Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1915 by [[William Joseph Simmons]] at [[Stone Mountain]], near Atlanta, with fifteen "charter members".<ref name="time">{{cite news|title=The Various Shady Lives of the Ku Klux Klan|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|quote=An itinerant Methodist preacher named William Joseph Simmons started up the Klan again in Atlanta in 1915. Simmons, an ascetic-looking man, was a fetishist on fraternal organizations. He was already a "colonel" in the [[Woodmen of the World]], but he decided to build an organization all his own. He was an effective speaker, with an affinity for alliteration; he had preached on "Women, Weddings and Wives", "Red Heads, Dead Heads and No Heads", and the "Kinship of Kourtship and Kissing". On Thanksgiving Eve 1915, Simmons took 15 friends to the top of Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, built an altar on which he placed an American flag, a Bible and an unsheathed sword, set fire to a crude wooden cross, muttered a few incantations about a "practical fraternity among men", and declared himself Imperial Wizard of the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.|date=April 9, 1965|access-date=August 1, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806144942/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898581,00.html|archive-date=August 6, 2009}}</ref> Its growth was based on a new anti-immigrant, [[Anti-Catholicism in the United States|anti-Catholic]], [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibitionist]] and [[anti-Semitic]] agenda, which reflected contemporary social tensions, particularly recent immigration. The new organization and chapters adopted regalia featured in ''The Birth of a Nation''; membership was kept secret by wearing masks in public.

=====''The Birth of a Nation''=====
[[File:Dixonfp.jpg|thumb|left|Frontispiece to the first edition of Dixon's ''The Clansman'', by [[Arthur I. Keller]]]]
[[File:'The Fiery Cross of old Scotland's hills!'.jpg|thumb|"The Fiery Cross of old Scotland's hills!" Illustration from the first edition of ''The Clansman'', by Arthur I. Keller. Note figures in background.]]
[[File:Birth of a Nation theatrical poster.jpg|thumb|Movie poster for ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'', which has been widely credited with inspiring the 20th-century revival of the Ku Klux Klan]]
Director [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''The Birth of a Nation'' glorified the original Klan. The film was based on the book and play ''[[The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan]]'', as well as the book ''[[The Leopard's Spots]]'', both by [[Thomas Dixon Jr.]] Much of the modern Klan's iconography is derived from it, including the standardized white costume and the [[Cross burning|burning cross]]. Its imagery was based on Dixon's romanticized concept of old England and Scotland, as portrayed in the novels and poetry of Sir [[Walter Scott]]. The film's influence was enhanced by a false claim of endorsement by President [[Woodrow Wilson]]. Dixon was an old friend of Wilson's and, before its release, there was a private showing of the film at the [[White House]]. A publicist claimed that Wilson said, "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Wilson strongly disliked the film and felt he had been tricked by Dixon. The White House issued a denial of the "lightning" quote, saying that he was entirely unaware of the nature of the film and at no time had expressed his approbation of it.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Milton Cooper Jr.|title=Woodrow Wilson: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xOZVsyO4K2cC&pg=PA273|year=2011|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|pages=272–273|isbn=978-0307277909|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414055749/http://books.google.com/books?id=xOZVsyO4K2cC&pg=PA273|archive-date=April 14, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>