The Rest Is History – Episode 654
The Ku Klux Klan: The Rise of Evil (Part 1)
Hosts: Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook
Date: March 23, 2026

Episode Overview

In this sobering and richly detailed episode, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook plunge into the origins of the Ku Klux Klan, tracing its birth in the aftermath of the American Civil War and the turbulent early years of Reconstruction. Through vivid storytelling, historical documents, and sharp analysis, they unpack how the Klan began, its culture of white supremacy, bizarre rituals, and its transformation from a social club into a paramilitary instrument of racist terror.

The episode sets the stage for a multi-part exploration, focusing here on the "First Klan" (c. 1866–1871): its founding, its context within American history, its rapid expansion, and its methods of intimidation and violence against newly freed Black Americans and their Republican allies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Historical Context

• Post-Civil War Southern Society

  • The Klan arises amid devastation: the South’s social order, economy, and self-image shattered by Union victory and emancipation.
  • Racial supremacy was central to white Southern identity and underpinned the Confederacy.
  • Highlighted by the Confederate Vice President’s “Cornerstone Speech”:

    “The cornerstone of the Confederacy is the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition...”
    — (Dominic Sandbrook quoting Alexander Stephens, 09:10)

• Reconstruction Tensions

  • Emancipation upended social hierarchies: more than 3 million formerly enslaved people were suddenly free.
  • Former Confederates felt victimized, not vanquished, clinging to the belief in racial hierarchy as “scientific fact” (10:28).

2. Origins of the Ku Klux Klan

• Birth in Pulaski, Tennessee (1866)

  • Formed by six ex-Confederate veterans—young men of “good families”—ostensibly as a secret social club.
  • Initial names considered: “The Thespians” and “Pulaski Social Club,” before settling on the pseudo-Greek “Ku Klux Klan” for its mystique and alliteration (20:29).
  • Early activities were “slightly public school japery”—costumes, rituals, and titles (Grand Cyclops, Grand Magi, etc.), drawing from college fraternity culture (22:27).

• Is it Always Racist?

  • “It’s a racist organization insofar as all the people in it are racists... but that’s not why they’ve set this up.” (Dominic Sandbrook, 22:50)
  • From the outset, all members were white supremacists; the organization quickly became political as violence and unrest escalated.

3. Rapid Evolution into Political Force

• Social Club to Political Paramilitary

  • Widespread lawlessness and attacks on Black citizens and Republicans were commonplace as Southerners resisted Reconstruction (14:53).
  • Governor “Parson” Brownlow’s radical policies in Tennessee—stripping ex-Confederates of the vote, empowering Freedmen—intensified white backlash (17:58).

• Codification and Spread

  • The “Prescript” sets out an absurdly elaborate hierarchy: Ghouls, Grand Cyclops, Nighthawks, Grand Titan, Grand Dragon, Grand Wizard, etc. (27:10).
  • The purposes of the Klan were grandly defined as “chivalric” and “protecting the weak”—but solely white Southerners (29:23).

4. Key Figures

• Nathan Bedford Forrest

  • Former Confederate general and slave trader, became the Klan’s first—and only—Grand Wizard (30:54).
  • Seen as the movement’s figurehead and logistical facilitator, his war crimes (notably Fort Pillow) and reputation for violence lent the Klan both legitimacy and fear.

• Decentralized Structure

  • The Klan works as a loosely-linked network, with local dens and no effective centralized control.

    “It’s very decentralized, which in turn must make it hard to kind of stamp out.” (Tom Holland, 32:41)

5. Ritual, Symbolism, and Myth-Making

• Absurd Costumes and Bizarre Rituals

  • Early Klan costumes were not standardized: “No two are dressed alike…some sort of fanciful costume” (33:20).
  • Strange masks, fake languages, practical jokes (detachable hands, bottles for “drinking” gallons of water), and apocalyptic “recruitment” broadsides—mixing intimidation, buffoonery, and ghostly imagery (54:34).
  • Women’s role: They made costumes, but held no official positions in the first Klan (54:02).

• Popular Craze

  • The KKK became a “mad popular craze”: Klan songs, baseball teams, and merchandise (including “Ku Klux smoking tobacco”) (55:00).

6. Violence as Purpose

• From Practical Jokes to Terror

  • By 1868, violence—beatings, lynching, rape, murder—became central to Klan activity (58:04).
  • Targets included: politically active Black men (especially literate or property-owning), Republican white allies, Union Army veterans, teachers, and ministers (61:17).
  • “It’s bad enough meeting a practical joker, but meeting a practical joker who will kill you if you don’t laugh at his joke. That’s the worst.”
    — Tom Holland (57:55)

• Detailed Atrocities

  • Specific accounts of Klan brutality in Maury County, Tennessee: beatings, hangings, and driving Black families from their homes (58:04–61:12).
  • Klan violence radicalizes white local populations, escalates reprisals, and makes legal redress impossible due to collusion of sheriffs, judges, and juries (61:58).
  • Authorities (like Brownlow) hesitate to arm Black militias, fearing backlash; federal troops are ineffective, bound to work with hostile local governments (63:02).

7. National Developments and Klan Expansion

• Radical Reconstruction

  • Passage of the 14th Amendment: citizenship and “equal protection” for all born in the U.S. (41:39).
  • The entire former Confederacy (except Tennessee) put under martial law for new elections ensuring Black suffrage.

• Klan’s Paramilitary Ascendancy

  • Klan and similar groups (White Brotherhood, Invisible Empire, Knights of the White Camellia) rapidly expand under new political context (46:42).
  • Southern press glorifies Klan violence as heroic resistance to “tyranny.”

• Strategic Use of Violence

  • The Klan’s aims:
    • Intimidate Black people away from voting
    • Destroy Republican organizations
    • Make Northern overseers give up on Reconstruction (45:00)
  • “The more violent you are, the more it will persuade people in the north to give up.” (Dominic Sandbrook, 45:00)

8. Class and Membership

• Klan membership cuts across social classes: farmers, laborers, professionals (lawyers, doctors) all participated (51:32).
• Youth, thrill, camaraderie—alongside bitter commitment to restoring white supremacy—fueled recruitment.

9. Escalation to National Crisis

• State Response and Limits

  • Governor Brownlow, under pressure, pushes state anti-Klan legislation and authorizes militias—a move that startles ex-Confederates (64:32).
  • Nathan Bedford Forrest and Klan leaders temporarily promise to halt violence, but expansion and violence in other states continues apace.

• Election of 1868

  • Approaching the first postwar presidential election, the stakes are enormous: Ulysses S. Grant stands for civil rights; Democrats run on explicit white supremacy under the slogan:

    “This is a white man’s country. Let white men rule.”
    — (Horatio Seymour campaign, 67:03)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• The “Comic Absurdity” of Evil
  • “There’s almost something comic… because it’s such a bad thing to be saying the Great Grand Cyclops… what's all that about?”
    — Tom Holland (04:16)
• On the Klan’s Bizarre Hierarchy
  • “If you’re an ordinary member…you are a ghoul, and you belong to a den. Each den is headed by a Grand Cyclops and two Nighthawks…”
    — Dominic Sandbrook (27:10)
  • “It’s people who hate Tolkien…what they think Lord of the Rings is like.”
    — Tom Holland (28:21)
• Centrality of Victimhood
  • “We are the victims is so central to…well, to all three clans, actually.”
    — Dominic Sandbrook (29:58)
• On the Spread of Violence
  • “What the Klan is really about is violence. Not the dressing up, not the jokes, but because of the beating and shooting and rape and murder of thousands of people, the vast majority of them black.”
    — Dominic Sandbrook (58:04)
• On Black Resistance and Power Dynamics
  • “If you've been freed, when you get out of prison, your first instinct is not usually I want to go and kill the jailer. It's I want to taste the fruits of freedom.”
    — Dominic Sandbrook (15:08)
• On Legal Impunity
  • “They cannot get a sheriff to arrest, they can’t get a grand jury to indict, they can’t get attorneys to prosecute, and they can’t get juries to convict.”
    — Dominic Sandbrook (61:58)

Important Timestamps

• Founding of the Klan & Early Rituals: 20:29 – 23:24
• The “Prescript” & Klan Hierarchy Explained: 27:10 – 29:23
• Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Role: 30:54 – 32:45
• First Parade/Costuming: 33:20 – 34:11
• Escalation and Spread (Klan Virus; Political Violence): 39:32 – 49:28
• Nature of Membership & "Fun" Factor: 51:32 – 54:02
• Klan Japery/Practical Jokes: 54:34 – 57:55
• Transition to Full-Scale Terror: 58:04 – 61:17
• Black Resistance & Failures of Justice: 61:17 – 63:05
• State Response & 1868 Election Lead-In: 64:30 – 67:03

Conclusion & Lead-In

The episode concludes as the Klan—now a violently effective arm of white supremacist backlash—sets the stage for a crucial showdown in the 1868 presidential election. The hosts tease the coming expansion of the story, including the Klan’s further terrorism across the South and its later incarnations, which listeners can access in future or club-only episodes.

A chilling account of social transformation, reactionary terror, and the weaponization of victimhood and nostalgia, this episode meticulously lays out the roots of the Klan’s evil—exposing both its absurdities and its profound danger.