Ku Klux Klan

=====Current developments=====
The modern KKK is not one organization; rather, it is composed of small independent chapters across the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default.asp |title=About the Ku Klux Klan&nbsp;– Extremism in America |publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]]  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725122657/http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default.asp |archive-date=July 25, 2010 }}</ref> According to a 1999 ADL report, the KKK's estimated size then was "No more than a few thousand, organized into slightly more than 100 units".<ref name=adl-ak-kkk>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/american_knights_kkk.asp |title=Church of the American Knights of the KKK |access-date=July 28, 2010 |date=October 22, 1999 |publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]]  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100901094652/http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/american_knights_kkk.asp |archive-date=September 1, 2010}}</ref> In 2017, the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] (SPLC), which monitors extremist groups, estimated that there were "at least 29 separate, rival Klan groups currently active in the United States, and they compete with one another for members, dues, news media attention and the title of being the true heir to the Ku Klux Klan".<ref name="Stack">{{cite news |first=Liam |last=Stack |date=February 13, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/kkk-leader-death-frank-ancona.html |title=Leader of a Ku Klux Klan Group Is Found Dead in Missouri |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215102320/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/kkk-leader-death-frank-ancona.html |archive-date=February 15, 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> The formation of independent chapters has made KKK groups more difficult to infiltrate, and researchers find it hard to estimate their numbers. Analysts believe that about two-thirds of KKK members are concentrated in the [[Southern United States]], with another third situated primarily in the lower [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]].<ref name=adl-ak-kkk /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp |title=Active U.S. Hate Groups |website=Intelligence Report |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]]  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050406181750/http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp |archive-date=April 6, 2005 }}</ref><ref name=adl-kkk>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default.asp |title=About the Ku Klux Klan&nbsp;– Extremism in America |publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |access-date=July 28, 2010  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725122657/http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default.asp |archive-date=July 25, 2010 }}</ref>

For some time, the Klan's numbers have been steadily dropping. This decline has been attributed to the Klan's lack of competence in the use of the [[Internet]], their history of violence, a proliferation of competing [[hate group]]s, and a decline in the number of young [[racism|racist]] activists who are willing to join groups at all.<ref name="Slate 2012">{{cite news|last=Palmer|first=Brian|title=Ku Klux Kontraction: How did the KKK lose nearly one-third of its chapters in one year?|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/03/ku_klux_klan_in_decline_why_did_the_kkk_lose_so_many_chapters_in_2010_.html|access-date=March 25, 2012|newspaper=[[Slate Magazine]]|date=March 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325030239/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/03/ku_klux_klan_in_decline_why_did_the_kkk_lose_so_many_chapters_in_2010_.html|archive-date=March 25, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2015, the number of KKK chapters nationwide grew from 72 to 190. The SPLC released a similar report stating that "there were significant increases in Klan as well as [[Black separatist]] groups".<ref name="splc2016" />

A 2016 analysis by the SPLC found that hate groups in general were on the rise in the United States.<ref name="splc2016">{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2016/year-hate-and-extremism|title=The Year in Hate and Extremism|publisher=Southern Poverty Law|access-date=April 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402041946/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2016/year-hate-and-extremism|archive-date=April 2, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The ADL published a report in 2016 that concluded: "Despite a persistent ability to attract media attention, organized Ku Klux Klan groups are actually continuing a long-term trend of decline. They remain a collection of mostly small, disjointed groups that continually change in name and leadership."<ref name="TatteredRobes" />

Recent KKK membership campaigns have stimulated people's anxieties about [[illegal immigration]], urban crime, [[civil union]]s, and [[same-sex marriage]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Knickerbocker |first=Brad |title=Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Fuel Ku Klux Klan Resurgence |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0209/p02s02-ussc.html |url-status=live |website=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=February 9, 2007 |access-date=April 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327201821/http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0209/p02s02-ussc.html |archive-date=March 27, 2008}}</ref> In 2006, J. Keith Akins argued that "Klan literature and propaganda is rabidly [[homophobic]] and encourages violence against [[gays]] and [[lesbians]].&nbsp;...Since the late 1970s, the Klan has increasingly focused its ire on this previously ignored population."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Akins |first1=J. Keith |title=The Ku Klux Klan: America's Forgotten Terrorists |journal=Law Enforcement Executive Forum |issue=January 2006 |page=137 |url=https://iletsbeiforumjournal.com/images/Issues/FreeIssues/ILEEF%202006-5.7.pdf#page=144 |access-date=November 30, 2020 |publisher=Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Executive Institute |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001232934/https://www.iletsbeiforumjournal.com/images/Issues/FreeIssues/ILEEF%202006-5.7.pdf#page=144 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Klan has produced [[Islamophobia|Islamophobic]] propaganda and distributed anti-Islamic flyers.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rink|first=Matthew|date=September 25, 2020|title=KKK-supportive notes dropped in Erie County driveways|work=[[Erie Times-News]]|url=https://www.goerie.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/25/kkk-supportive-notes-dropped-in-erie-county-driveways/42691653/|access-date=March 10, 2021|archive-date=March 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302191520/https://www.goerie.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/25/kkk-supportive-notes-dropped-in-erie-county-driveways/42691653/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU) has provided legal support to various factions of the KKK in defense of their [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights to hold public rallies, parades, and marches, as well as their right to field political candidates.<ref>{{cite news|title=A.C.L.U. Lawsuit Backs Klan In Seeking Permit for Cross |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 16, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/us/aclu-lawsuit-backs-klan-in-seeking-permit-for-cross.html  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006202846/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/us/aclu-lawsuit-backs-klan-in-seeking-permit-for-cross.html |archive-date=October 6, 2010}} The [[American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU]] professes a mission to defend the constitutional rights of all groups, whether [[left-wing politics|left]], [[centrism|center]], or right.</ref>
{{anchor|Frank Ancona}}

The February 14, 2019, edition of the [[Linden, Alabama]], weekly newspaper ''[[The Democrat-Reporter]]'' carried an editorial titled "Klan needs to ride again" written by [[Goodloe Sutton]]—the newspaper's owner, publisher and editor—which urged the Klan to return to staging their night rides, because proposals were being made to raise taxes in the state. In an interview, Sutton suggested that Washington, D.C., could be "clean[ed] out" by way of lynchings. "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them," Sutton said. He also specified that he was only referring to hanging "socialist-communists" and compared the Klan to the [[NAACP]]. The editorial and Sutton's subsequent comments provoked calls for his resignation from Alabama politicians and the Alabama Press Association, which later censured Sutton and suspended the newspaper's membership. In addition, the [[University of Southern Mississippi]]'s School of Communication removed Sutton—who is an alumnus of that school—from its Mass Communication and Journalism Hall of Fame, and "strongly condemned" his remarks. Sutton was also stripped of a distinguished community journalism award he had been presented in 2009 by [[Auburn University]]'s Journalism Advisory Council.<ref>Criss, Doug and Burnside, Tina (February 20, 2019). "[https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/media/alabama-newspaper-klan-trnd/index.html The editor of an Alabama newspaper is calling for the return of the Ku Klux Klan's infamous night rides]" ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222070832/https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/media/alabama-newspaper-klan-trnd/index.html |date=February 22, 2019}}). [[CNN]].</ref> Sutton expressed no regret and said that the editorial was intended to be "ironic", but that "not many people understand irony today."<ref>Gore, Leada (February 21, 2019). "[https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/goodloe-sutton-writer-of-kkk-editorial-not-sorry-says-hed-do-it-all-over-again.html Goodloe Sutton, writer of KKK editorial, not sorry, says he'd 'do it all over again']" ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222053000/https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/goodloe-sutton-writer-of-kkk-editorial-not-sorry-says-hed-do-it-all-over-again.html |date=February 22, 2019}}). [[AL.com]].</ref>