The Civil Rights Movement was a legal, political, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for black Americans and to reach racial equality. It was a fierce challenge to segregation. During the civil rights movement, individuals and civil rights organizations challenged segregation and discrimination with a lot of different activities, including protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to go by segregation laws. The Ku Klux Klan was a challenge to this movement. Before and during the movement's peak from 1955-1965, the Klan downcast all the Civil Rights Movement encouraged.
             The Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization all for white supremacy. It was involved during three different eras. It was originated during the Reconstruction era, and was re-established during World War I and in the 1960's during the Civil Rights Movement. It was first founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in the winter of 1865 to 1866 by six former Confederate army officers. The members gave the society a name adjusted from the Greek word, kuklos, which means circle. The English word klan was added later to this name of Ku Klux. It began as a "prankish" social club who protested but still did not to anything violent. However, soon its activities were focused on opposing the Reconstruction acts of the Republican Congress. They thought the Reconstruction governments to be aggressive and unfair. The group also was against blacks, and all Northerners because of their governments and social developments. It soon became a feared institution where midnight rides and murdering were the norm.
             Most Klan rituals and regulations were very unique to their organization. One ritual frequently performed was burning of a cross. It was done to frighten people then disliked, such as blacks, Jews, or others who were for racial equality. They tried to cover their reasons up by telling officials the burnings were religious ceremonies. To hide their personal ...