Card signifying membership in the Ku Klux Klan, c. 1925.
While the KKK had its roots in the Reconstruction era, it was successfully repressed in the 1870s. The modern Klan emerged during the 1910s as a backlash to rising immigration from eastern Europe and black resistance to segregation. It was strongest in the North and had the tacit approval of the government. Virulently racist, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic, it reached its zenith of power and influence during the 1920s, when it boasted over two million members (men and women).
We offer an authentic membership card from that period, facsimile signed by the Grand Dragon. (Note: The KKK was a secret order, and the card is deliberately cryptic in appearance; AKIA stands for "A Klansman I Am.")
