White supremacist ideals of Ku Klux Klan 'still active' in US: Historian

The ideals of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a notorious US white supremacist group dating back to the 1800s, remain active in the country, according to an American historian.

“The KKK is still active as an organisation, though it's much diminished in strength and influence. Its long history of public violence, discrimination and intimidation has made it highly visible in the US, and even for organised hate groups, it carries a bad reputation,” Sam Bock from the History Colorado Historical told Anadolu news agency.

“The Klan's white supremacist, anti-Semitic, Christian nationalist ideals are thriving in America today. Their modern forms are represented by groups like the Proud Boys and the many neo-Nazi and militia groups that are thriving online and in the real world all across America," Bock added.

He pointed out that political figures like former US president Donald Trump have "emboldened these hate groups", and many are finding audiences with the incitement to come out of the shadows.

Bock noted that the ideals that the KKK embodies have also influenced other previous US presidents.

He pointed as an example President Woodrow Wilson, who allowed the 1915 screening at the White House of the film Birth of a Nation, which promotes the KKK.

"Other presidents have certainly held racist views over time, though few in recent memory have embraced the rhetoric and logic of white Christian nationalism in such a public manner as Donald Trump."

Trump has often been accused of espousing racist ideas and policies, including trying to appeal to white supremacists, but he has consistently denied this.

Bock said the first of the three separate Klans that emerged at different times was active from 1865-1871 and the second from 1915-1944, pointing out that the second wave of Klans was not only more ruthless towards African Americans but also towards Jews, unionists, communists and all immigrants, including in the western state of Colorado.

“In Colorado, the second coming of the KKK in the 1920s won political power in places of great religious and ethnic diversity by sending the message to white Protestants that their place at the top of society was being threatened," he explained.

Bock said that despite the organisation's dissolution twice in 1871 and 1944, it was revived in the 1950s, and the third Klan was established.

“The KKK tends to rear its head in times of economic uncertainty and social change, and it was the social conditions of the 1950s and 60s that led to a resurgence of the Klan at that time.”

Touching on the History Colorado centre’s digitisation of the Ku Klux Klan's history for the years 1924-1926, Bock noted how a wide cross-section of society represented the group's membership.

"They were nearly all white middle and upper-class Protestants living in Denver. Many were employed in trades, but nearly every profession was represented, from teachers and lawyers to politicians, bankers and labourers.”

With the Klan's ideals making another comeback, an effort has emerged in the US pushing for it to be declared a terrorist group.

Bock said that the KKK has been thoroughly repudiated, so naming them a terrorist group "is probably both too late and ineffective".