Ku Klux Klan Southern Poverty Law Center. , the Anti-Defamation League puts total Klan membership nationwide at around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) puts it at 6,000 members total. The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to America's "Anglo-Saxon" blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism. Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, virtually every Christian denomination has officially denounced the KKK. The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, sometime between December 1865 and August 1866 by six former officers of the Confederate army as a fraternal social club inspired at
USS Tennessee (1865) USS Tennessee (1865) USS "Tennessee, originally USS "Madawaska, was a screw frigate built of wood at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, and launched as "Madawaska" on 8 July 1865. Powered by two Ericsson vibrating-lever engines, "Madawaska" departed New York City for sea trials 14 January 1867, Commander Francis A. Roe in command. Remaining at sea for one week, she steamed nearly 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 statute miles; 1,852 km) before returning when her supply of coal was exhausted. She was renamed "Tennessee" 15 May 1869 and timbered up to the necessary height to allow a spar