Ku Klux Klan

====1950s–1960s: post-war opposition to civil rights====
After the decline of the national organization, small independent groups adopted the name "Ku Klux Klan", along with variations. They had no formal relationships with each other, and most had no connection to the second KKK, except for the fact that they copied its terminology and costumes. Beginning in the 1950s, for instance, individual Klan groups in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], began to resist social change and Black people's efforts to improve their lives by bombing houses in transitional neighborhoods. The white men worked in mining and steel industries, with access to these materials. There were so many bombings of Black people's homes in Birmingham by Klan groups in the 1950s that the city was nicknamed "[[Bombingham]]".{{sfn|McWhorter|2001}}

During the tenure of [[Bull Connor]] as police commissioner in Birmingham, Klan groups were closely allied with the police and operated with impunity. When the [[Freedom Riders]] arrived in Birmingham in 1961, Connor gave Klan members fifteen minutes to attack the riders before sending in the police to quell the attack.{{sfn|McWhorter|2001}} When local and state authorities failed to protect the Freedom Riders and activists, the federal government began to establish intervention and protection. In states such as Alabama and [[Mississippi]], Klan members forged alliances with governors' administrations.{{sfn|McWhorter|2001}} In Birmingham and elsewhere, the KKK groups bombed the houses of [[civil rights]] activists. In some cases they used physical violence, intimidation, and assassination directly against individuals. Continuing [[disfranchisement]] of Black people across the South meant that most could not serve on juries, which were [[all-white juries|all-white]] and demonstrably biased verdicts and sentences.{{sfn|McWhorter|2001}}

[[File:FBI Poster of Missing Civil Rights Workers.jpg|thumb|[[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Goodman]], [[James Chaney|Chaney]], and [[Michael Schwerner|Schwerner]] were three civil rights workers abducted and murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan.]]
According to a report from the [[Southern Regional Council]] in [[Atlanta]], the homes of 40 Black Southern families were bombed during 1951 and 1952. Some of the bombing victims were social activists whose work exposed them to danger, but most were either people who refused to bow to racist convention or were innocent bystanders, unsuspecting victims of random violence.{{sfn|Egerton|1994|pp=562–563}}

Among the more notorious murders by Klan members in the 1950s and 1960s were:
* The 1951 Christmas Eve bombing of the home of [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) activists [[Harry T. Moore|Harry and Harriette Moore]] in [[Mims, Florida]], resulting in their deaths.<ref>"[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/454.html Who Was Harry T. Moore?]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118102012/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/454.html |date=January 18, 2012 }} ''The Palm Beach Post'', August 16, 1999.</ref>
* The 1957 murder of [[Willie Edwards|Willie Edwards Jr]]., who was forced by Klansmen to jump to his death from a bridge into the [[Alabama River]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Cox |first=Major W. |title=Justice Still Absent in Bridge Death |url=http://www.majorcox.com/columns/edwards1.htm |work=[[Montgomery Advertiser]] |date=March 2, 1999  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126110805/http://majorcox.com/columns/edwards1.htm |archive-date=November 26, 2010}}</ref>
* The 1963 assassination of NAACP organizer [[Medgar Evers]] in Mississippi. In 1994, former Ku Klux Klansman [[Byron De La Beckwith]] was convicted.
* The [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]] in September 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four [[African-American|African American]] girls and injured 22 people. The perpetrators were Klan members [[Robert Chambliss]], convicted in 1977, [[Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr.]] and [[Bobby Frank Cherry]], convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth suspect, [[Herman Cash]], died before he was indicted.
* The 1964 [[murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner]], three civil rights workers, in Mississippi. Seven men were convicted of federal civil rights charges in the 1960s. In June 2005, Klan member [[Edgar Ray Killen]] was convicted of state [[manslaughter]] charges.<ref>{{cite news |last=Axtman |first=Kris |title=Mississippi verdict greeted by a generation gap |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0623/p01s03-ussc.html |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=June 23, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629153401/http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0623/p01s03-ussc.html |archive-date=June 29, 2006 |url-status=live  }}</ref>
* The 1964 murder of two Black teenagers, [[Mississippi Cold Case#Moore and Dee murders|Henry Hezekiah Dee]] and [[Mississippi Cold Case#Moore and Dee murders|Charles Eddie Moore]] in Mississippi. In August 2007, based on the confession of Klansman [[Charles Marcus Edwards]], [[James Ford Seale]], a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was convicted. Seale was sentenced to serve three life sentences. Seale, who died in prison in 2011, was a former Mississippi policeman and sheriff's deputy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.findlaw.com/usatoday/docs/crights/usseale12407ind.html |title=Reputed Klansman, Ex-Cop, and Sheriff's Deputy Indicted For The 1964 Murders of Two Young African-American Men in Mississippi; U.S. v. James Ford Seale |access-date=March 23, 2008 |date=January 24, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328042914/http://news.findlaw.com/usatoday/docs/crights/usseale12407ind.html |archive-date=March 28, 2008 }}</ref>
* The 1965 Alabama murder of [[Viola Liuzzo]]. She was a Southern-raised [[Detroit]] mother of five who was visiting the state in order to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder, Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights marchers related to the [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to Montgomery March]].
* The 1966 firebombing death of NAACP leader [[Vernon Dahmer]] Sr., 58, in Mississippi. In 1998 former Ku Klux Klan wizard [[Samuel Bowers]] was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Two other Klan members were indicted with Bowers, but one died before trial and the other's indictment was dismissed.
* In July 1966, in [[Bogalusa, Louisiana]], a stronghold of Klan activity, Clarence Triggs was found murdered.<ref>{{cite news | last=Keller |first=Larry |title=Klan Murder Shines Light on Bogalusa, La |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/klan-murder-shines-light-bogalusa-la. |url-status=live |work=Intelligence Report |date=May 29, 2009 |access-date=August 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814055432/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/klan-murder-shines-light-bogalusa-la |archive-date=August 14, 2017}}</ref>
* The 1967 multiple bombings in Jackson, Mississippi, of the residence of a [[Methodist]] activist, Robert Kochtitzky, the [[synagogue]], and the residence of [[Rabbi]] Perry Nussbaum. These were carried out by Klan member Thomas Albert Tarrants III, who was convicted in 1968. Another Klan bombing was averted in Meridian the same year.<ref>Nelson, Jack. (1993). ''Terror in the Night: The Klan's Campaign Against the Jews''. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 208–211. {{ISBN|0671692232}}.</ref>