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By Arturo Wallace
30/12 / 201511h02
BBC World
KKK sympathizers group meets in Alabama, in the southern US
"They try to destroy the Klan from its birth in 1865. But 150 years later still here."
Who talks like that is James Moore, or "Imperial Kludd" - title equivalent to the chaplain - the Loyal White Knights of the KKK as you head to present to a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan in rural Alabama, USA.
Soon after, Moore would say the best known white supremacist organization in the world managed 20 new members during the event.
The scene recorded in the BBC documentary "KKK: the struggle for white supremacy," was when there were still a few months to the 150th anniversary of the organization, founded in December 24, 1865.
A century and a half after his birth, the Ku Klux Klan seems to be recovering certain role.
The organization is far from the figures reached in the 1920s, but says it is recruiting more and more members to the "race war" that, 150 years after the Civil War, seems to be under way in the US.
The "Islamic threat" - to the KKK exposed to attacks such as San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people - and the arrival of non-white immigrants provided new enemies to the organization, and, with them, more and more supporters .
And many members feel legitimized by political speech as the Republican candidate for the presidency Donald Trump, who has advocated the expulsion of all illegal Latino immigrants in the country and banning the entry of any Muslim.
Many believe that the incendiary rhetoric of politicians like Donald Trump end up legitimizing racist groups like the KKK
But what the KKK, and to what extent one should take seriously this organization and its members, which tend to burn crosses dresses with white hoods?
White supremacy
Historians point out that the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee shortly after the American Civil War or Civil War (1861-1865), by a group of Confederate former soldiers (the southern region of the country, defeated in the conflict). The name was inspired by the Greek word for circle: kuklos.
Originally conceived as a recreational club, the KKK soon began acting violently to intimidate black population of the US south and ensure the supremacy of the white race residents.
The classic film "The Birth of a Nation" by DW Griffith, scored the first "renaissance" of the KKK
And, according to the organization SPLC civil rights (South Poverty Law Center), there were elements that gave mystical to the group and contributed to its popularity: "ridiculous titles" (the highest authority of the KKK receives, for example, the name "imperial wizard "), clothes with hoods, violent nocturnal actions and the idea that the group was part of an" invisible empire ".
After a short and violent period, the organization considered by the Anti-Defamation League as "America's first terrorist group" disbanded as a result of pressure from the federal government, but had secured their goals for maintaining segregationist laws in the South.
In the 1920s, however, the growing Catholic and Jewish immigration and the popularity of the film "The Birth of a Nation", 1915, when the KKK appears as "good guy" of the story, contributed to the revival of the group.
Also according to the SPLC, when the KKK organized a huge march on Washington in 1925, the group had four million members and strong influence in the southern US states policy.
The influence of the KKK in American political life was remarkable in the 1920s
"A series of sex scandals, infighting for power and journalistic investigations quickly reduced their influence," said the SPLC, founded in 1971 to fight legally the supremacist organizations.
Civil rights
The struggle for civil rights in the 1960s resulted in a renewed interest in the group's philosophy, as the name of the KKK, clothes, rituals and practices being adopted by different groups. Soon there was a new setback, the result of more internal disputes, judgments and infiltration by government agencies.
"Since its inception, the Ku Klux Klan has gone through several cycles of growth and collapse, and some of these cycles the KKK was more radical than others," says the Anti-Defamation League, known by the acronym ADL.
The KKK maintains strong presence in the southern states of the US
"But, in all its incarnations, she kept her dual heritage of hatred and violence," the organization, which estimates there are now about 40 branches of the KKK in the US, with 5,000 members
The SPLC calculates this number between 5,000 and 8,000, "divided between dozens of different organizations - and often opposing - using the name of the Klan."
According to the organization of civil rights, while some of these expressions of the KKK are openly racist, other "try to conceal their racism under the guise of 'civil rights for whites.'"
The KKK's enemies list was also expanded gradually to include not just blacks, Jews and Catholics (although the latter have been reconsidered in the 1970s), but also homosexuals and different groups of immigrants, says the ADL.
Race war
"The United States was born as a Christian nation and our Christian values are under attack," says a member of the KKK, covered by traditional white hood, in the documentary "KKK: The struggle for white supremacy."
"We are normal people, come from all sectors: one is a school teacher, another works in a hospital, several politicians," said James Moore, the "Imperial Kludd" the Loyal White Knights.
A century and a half later, the Ku Klux Klan members continue preaching his "race war" in the US
"We whites, we are unfortunately losing this war, but whites will wake up. A small military unit can defeat the dark in a matter of weeks, and most of our people comes from the military. We will resume the US," says the BBC documentary, first broadcast in October.
At first glance, the threat may seem like a simple bravado supported by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and ends up protecting the KKK and its members - since they do not promote violence.
But the fact is that this philosophy is not without real consequences.
For the KKK members as Charles Murphy - "Grand Dragon" of the KKK to South Carolina - cause this "race war" was the stated goal of the young Dylann Roof, which in June killed nine people in a church frequented by blacks in Charleston.
Roof was unrelated to the KKK, but according to Murphy, "was this (cause racial war) he said he wanted".
"If (the blacks) want a race war, we gave one of them before I die. I want to see it," the member of the KKK in the documentary.
Legitimacy
For these and other reasons, US President Barack Obama said after the attack in Charleston that the country "has not yet healed of racism."
And even though no American politician openly endorses racist acts or even the KKK, some see with concern the direction of the current presidential pre-campaign in the country.
Former KKK leader David Duke, for example, publicly celebrated the proposals for Trump, and described it as the best among all pre-Republican candidates for the White House.
In an interview published on December 23 on his YouTube channel, Duke - who left the KKK in 1980, after a failed attempt to modernize the organization - said Trump is even more radical than him.
"Many KKK groups seek to take advantage of fear and uncertainty using xenophobic feelings for recruitment and propaganda purposes," recently alerted the Anti-Defamation League.
For the founder white supremacist website Stormfront, Don Black, the incendiary speech Trump is reaching the same goal.
He said his site registers an audience increase of up to 40% every time racist remarks Trump are featured in the media.
And this phenomenon is also expressed among members of the KKK and other groups that promote white supremacy.
"The demoralization is the worst enemy (these organizations), and Trump is changing that," Black said, according to Politico.
"He made it acceptable to talk about the concerns of Americans of European origin," he added.
"And it's certainly creating a movement that will continue regardless of Trump, even if he shrinks back at some point," he concluded supremacist in a statement that sounds like a warning.
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