During the winter of 1865 to 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, six former confederate army officers gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word "Kuklos", meaning "circle". The Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, but soon became a very serious organization which has changed the world. It's activities soon were directed against the Republican Reconstruction governments. The group had become a permanent part of history forever. Most people are familiar with the Ku Klux Klan as a secret and exclusively white group that terrorized former African American slaves following the Civil War. The "second" KKK in the 1920's was a mass movement of between 2 to 6 million members.
             In Atlanta, in 1915, the Klan of the WW 1 era allowed membership to white, native-born Protestant males, (otherwise know as 100% Americans). They were required to swear oaths to secrecy, obedience, fidelity, and klanishness. The "second" KKK was viewed as a response to growing demands for rights by women, African Americans, and the young. Discoverers found minutes from the 1920's Klan chapter of more than 3 hundred members of the La Grande, Oregon KKK records. The documents are the only complete set of Klan minutes ever to be discovered. The minutes provide a detailed account of the Klan's proceedings for more than 18 months. They offer a unique perspective into the rank and file of one of the largest mass movements in the U.S. history. The documents include summaries of Klavern discussions and gossip as well as vital information on new recruits. They also included a list of names of all the 326 members of the La Grande chapter.
             Three hundred miles east of Portland, in the Grande Ronde Valley of Oregon's Blue Mountains, La Grande served as a maintenance center for the Union Pacific Railroad. It was a huge agricultural and lumber distribution point. Close to 1,600 residents in a town of less than 8,000 were foreign-born or ...