Ku Klux Klan on parade photograph

Members of the Ku Klux Klan parading at night in Springfield, Ohio, on September 8, 1923. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was originally founded in 1866, but was disbanded in the years after the Civil War. The Klan arose again in 1915 by the efforts of William Joseph Simmons. This new Klan not only targeted blacks, but Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. During the 1920s, Klan membership increased dramatically. In Ohio, membership is estimated to have reached 300,000. Text at top reads "KU-KLUX-KLAN ON PARADE SPRINGFIELD OHIO SEPTEMBER 8-1923." The Ku Klux Klan was especially strong in Ohio during the 1910s and 1920s. In Summit County, the Klan claimed to have fifty thousand members, making it the largest local chapter in the United States. Many of the county's officials were members, including the sheriff, the Akron mayor, several judges and county commissioners, and most members of Akron's school board. The Klan was also very popular in Licking County, where the group held its state konklave (convention) in 1923 and 1925. More than 70,000 people attended each event. The konklaves were held at Buckeye Lake, a popular tourist attraction in the early twentieth century. By the mid 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan began to decline in popularity, but saw a revival once again during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The Ku Klux Klan continues to exist in the twenty-first century. It is, however, at present quite small in both numbers and influence