Democrats and KKK history

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1865 in Tennessee by former Confederate soldiers after the U.S. Civil War. Its original purpose was to resist Reconstruction and maintain white supremacy in the South.
• At that time, the Democratic Party was dominant in the South and was the party most associated with opposing Reconstruction, civil rights for freed Black people, and the Republican-led federal government (since Republicans were the party of Lincoln and emancipation).
• Because of this, many early KKK members were white Southern Democrats. The Klan often worked to suppress Black voters, who overwhelmingly supported Republicans in that era.
• However, it would be misleading to say “the Democratic Party created the KKK.” The Klan was not an official arm of the Democratic Party—it was a violent, secret society. But it did align with the interests of many Southern Democrats at the time.
• Over the decades, political alignments shifted. In the mid-20th century, the Democratic Party (especially under presidents like Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson) embraced civil rights. Meanwhile, many segregationist white Southerners moved toward the Republican Party.

Summary:
The KKK was created by white Southerners, many of whom were Democrats in the post-Civil War era, but it was never formally created or run by the Democratic Party. Over time, the party positions on race and civil rights changed dramatically, so the historical connections don’t map neatly onto today’s politics.