Ku Klux Klan remains active in 33 states but is 'small and fractured'

New York Daily News/June 22, 2017

By Elizabeth Elizalde

The Ku Klux Klan movement, despite its low membership, remains active in 33 states — a slight increase from last year, a new Anti-Defamation League report reveals.

“The Ku Klux Klan movement is small and fractured, but still poses a threat to society,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in the report titled “Despite Internal Turmoil, Klan Groups Persist.”

“These hardened racists and bigots are looking to spread fear, and if they grow dissatisfied with the Klan, they move on to other groups on the extreme far-right,” he continued. “There’s lots of instability and unpredictability in the Klan movement.”

In 2017, there are 42 groups active in 33 states, compared to 2016, which has 37 to 42. 

Groups have formed in Mississippi, Alabama, and other southern and eastern states within the last three years, the report says.

It also found that “heavy infighting” was the “clearest sign of decline” for the movement. The Klan members continue to invoke racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic activity as well as distribute Islamophobic fliers, according to the report.

Some Klan groups have joined forces with other white supremacist, which the report says, have been connected to criminal and violent activity.

“For a number of years, the Klan has tried to regain its standing among the hodgepodge of hate groups but have largely failed to maintain the notorious status they once had,” the ADL’s Director of Center on Extremism Oren Segal said in the report.