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    150 years of the Ku Klux Klan

    Yahoo News Photo Staff•June 30, 2016
    • <p>Members of the Ku Klux Klan ride horses during a parade through the streets of Tulsa, Okla., Sept. 21, 1923. (Photo: AP) </p>
    • <p>Confederate Major General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, (1821-1877). He was the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, and leader from 1866-1869. Undated photograph. (Getty Images) </p>
    • <p>Three Ku Klux Klan members standing beside automobile driven by Klan members in March, 1922. (Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images) </p>
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    150 Years of the Ku Klux Klan

    Members of the Ku Klux Klan ride horses during a parade through the streets of Tulsa, Okla., Sept. 21, 1923. (Photo: AP)

    Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. Membership dwindled, a unified group fractured, and one-time members went to prison for a string of murderous attacks against blacks. Many assumed the group was dead, a white-robed ghost of hate and violence.

    Yet today, the KKK is still alive and dreams of restoring itself to what it once was: an invisible white supremacist empire spreading its tentacles throughout society. As it marks 150 years of existence, the Klan is trying to reshape itself for a new era.

    Klan members still gather by the dozens under starry Southern skies to set fire to crosses in the dead of night, and KKK leaflets have shown up in suburban neighborhoods from the Deep South to the Northeast in recent months. Perhaps most unwelcome to opponents, some independent Klan organizations say they are merging with larger groups to build strength. (AP)