---
title: "Ku Klux Klan (KKK) — APUSH Definition & Exam Guide"
description: "The KKK was a white supremacist terror group founded during Reconstruction to destroy Black political power. Key evidence for why Reconstruction failed in APUSH Topic 5.11."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/apush/key-terms/ku-klux-klan-kkk"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP US History"
unit: "Unit 5"
---

# Ku Klux Klan (KKK) — APUSH Definition & Exam Guide

## Definition

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a white supremacist terrorist organization founded in the South during Reconstruction that used violence and intimidation against African Americans and their white allies to restore white political control, undermining the 14th and 15th Amendments in practice.

## What It Is

The [Ku Klux Klan](/apush/key-terms/ku-klux-klan "fv-autolink") was founded in Tennessee in 1866, right as [Reconstruction](/apush/unit-5/reconstruction/study-guide/DiWHCM2v4Drc73iIcfDS "fv-autolink") was getting underway. Its goal was simple and brutal. Use terror to undo what the Civil War and the Reconstruction amendments had just accomplished. Klan members attacked Black voters, Black officeholders, teachers in freedmen's schools, and white Republicans (the people Southerners called carpetbaggers and scalawags). The violence wasn't random. It was political, timed around elections and aimed at anyone exercising or supporting Black citizenship.

For [APUSH](/apush "fv-autolink") purposes, the Klan is your best concrete example of the essential knowledge in KC-5.3.II.E, which says segregation, **violence**, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics progressively stripped away African American rights. The Klan is the "violence" in that sentence. The 14th and 15th Amendments granted citizenship and voting rights on paper, but extralegal terror made those rights nearly impossible to use in much of the South. That gap between constitutional promise and lived reality is the core story of Topic 5.11, the Failure of Reconstruction.

## Why It Matters

The KKK lives in **[Unit 5](/apush/unit-5 "fv-autolink"), Topic 5.11 (Failure of Reconstruction)** and directly supports learning objective **APUSH 5.11.A**, which asks you to explain how Reconstruction produced both continuity and change in what it meant to be American. The Klan is your evidence for *continuity*. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were huge legal changes, but Klan terror helped make sure [white supremacy](/apush/key-terms/white-supremacy "fv-autolink") continued on the ground. When you write about why Reconstruction failed, you need causes, and the Klan gives you the violence piece alongside Supreme Court rollbacks, the Compromise of 1877, and the rise of Jim Crow. It also connects to the Politics and Power (PCE) and American and National Identity (NAT) themes, since the fight was literally over who got to vote and who counted as a full citizen.

## Connections

### [Black Codes (Unit 5)](/apush/key-terms/black-codes)

[Black Codes](/apush/key-terms/black-codes "fv-autolink") and the Klan were two tools aimed at the same goal of controlling freedpeople. Black Codes did it through law, passed by Southern legislatures in 1865-1866. The Klan did it through extralegal violence after federal Reconstruction blocked the legal route. Think of the Klan as what white supremacists turned to when the statute books were taken away.

### [Jim Crow Laws (Unit 5)](/apush/key-terms/jim-crow-laws)

Klan terror during Reconstruction helped drive Republicans and Black voters out of Southern politics, and once "Redeemer" governments took power, they wrote white supremacy back into law as [Jim Crow segregation](/apush/key-terms/jim-crow-segregation "fv-autolink"). The sequence matters for essays. Violence came first, then the legal system locked the results in place.

### [Compromise of 1877 (Unit 5)](/apush/key-terms/compromise-of-1877)

Klan violence and the [Compromise of 1877](/apush/key-terms/compromise-of-1877 "fv-autolink") worked together to end Reconstruction. Terror weakened Republican governments in the South, and the compromise pulled the last federal troops protecting them. After 1877, there was no one left to stop the kind of intimidation the Klan had pioneered.

### 1920s Klan Revival and Nativism (Unit 7)

The Klan was refounded in 1915 and exploded in the 1920s, but the second Klan widened its target list to immigrants, Catholics, and Jews, and it spread far beyond the South. This is a classic APUSH continuity-and-change setup. Same name and same white supremacist core, but a different context (postwar nativism instead of Reconstruction).

## On the AP Exam

No released FRQ has used "Ku Klux Klan" verbatim in its prompt, but the Klan is prime outside evidence for any question about why Reconstruction failed or how African American rights were stripped away after the Civil War. Multiple-choice stems often pair an excerpt describing Reconstruction-era violence (or a Thomas Nast cartoon) with questions about its political effects. In an LEQ or DBQ on Reconstruction, name the Klan as a specific example of the violence in KC-5.3.II.E, then explain its *effect*, that terror suppressed Black voting and helped Democrats "redeem" Southern states. For a complexity or continuity point, contrast the first Klan (Reconstruction-era, anti-Black political terror) with the 1920s revival (broader nativist targets, national reach). Just naming the Klan earns nothing. Connecting it to the collapse of federal enforcement and the gap between the 15th Amendment on paper and voting in practice is what scores.

## Ku Klux Klan (KKK) vs Black Codes

Both restricted African American freedom during Reconstruction, but they worked through opposite channels. Black Codes were official laws passed by Southern state governments in 1865-1866 to control Black labor and movement. The Klan was a secret, extralegal organization that used terror precisely because Congressional Reconstruction had stripped white Southerners of legal control. If the question is about legislation, say Black Codes. If it's about violence and intimidation, say the Klan.

## Key Takeaways

- The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee in 1866 as a white supremacist terrorist organization aimed at restoring white political control in the Reconstruction South.
- The Klan targeted Black voters, Black officeholders, and white Republican allies, making its violence political rather than random.
- Klan terror is the "violence" in KC-5.3.II.E, one of the forces (alongside segregation, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics) that stripped away African American rights after the Civil War.
- The Klan shows the gap between law and reality in Reconstruction, because the 14th and 15th Amendments granted rights on paper that terror made unusable in practice.
- Congress responded with the Enforcement Acts, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which temporarily suppressed the Klan but lost force as Northern will to enforce Reconstruction faded.
- A second Klan, revived in 1915 and peaking in the 1920s, broadened its targets to immigrants, Catholics, and Jews, making the Klan a useful continuity-and-change example across Units 5 and 7.

## FAQs

### What was the Ku Klux Klan in APUSH?

The KKK was a white supremacist terrorist group founded in Tennessee in 1866 that used violence and intimidation to suppress Black voting and destroy Republican Reconstruction governments in the South. In APUSH it appears in Topic 5.11 as key evidence for why Reconstruction failed.

### Did the KKK end after Reconstruction?

No. Federal prosecution under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 broke up the original Klan, but a second Klan was founded in 1915 and reached millions of members in the 1920s, expanding its targets to immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. APUSH treats these as two distinct waves in Units 5 and 7.

### How is the KKK different from the Black Codes?

Black Codes were actual laws passed by Southern state governments in 1865-1866 to control freedpeople, while the Klan was a secret organization using extralegal violence. The Klan rose largely because Congressional Reconstruction had blocked the legal path the Black Codes represented.

### What did the federal government do about the KKK during Reconstruction?

Congress passed the Enforcement Acts of 1870-1871, including the Ku Klux Klan Act, which let the federal government prosecute Klan violence and even use military force. The crackdown worked short-term, but once federal commitment faded and troops left after the Compromise of 1877, violence and disenfranchisement returned.

### Why does the KKK matter for the question of Reconstruction's failure?

The Klan shows that constitutional change alone couldn't transform the South. Even with the 14th and 15th Amendments in place, organized terror suppressed Black political participation, which is exactly the continuity-versus-change argument learning objective APUSH 5.11.A asks you to make.

## Related Study Guides

- [5.11 Failure of Reconstruction](/apush/unit-5/failures-reconstruction/study-guide/v760MdiOJXB3TCLYZBZ5)

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