In the spring of 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War; Six Confederate veterans formed a social club in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee. Fresh out of the war and looking for excitement they formed a secret society they called the Ku Klux Klan. The name comes from the Greek word Kuklos, meaning circle. This small group began as a harmless, fun-loving group, growing into one of the largest and most violent gangs in American history. The original group lasted only a few years and left a permanent imprint, rituals that people still use today. Supporters of the Klan saw the group as protectors of a certain way of life and the white race. The original Klan closed its doors in 1872. On Thanksgiving night 1915, the Klan struck again. Sixteen men from Atlanta, Georgia climbed to the mountaintop and prepared for a Klan ritual. They built an altar of stones, on which they placed the American flag, a Bible and a sword. Then the men erected a cross sixteen feet high and set it on fire. William Joseph Simmons was the leader of the new Klan. William, the son of a former Klansman, heard his father talk about the stories of the Klan and wanted to "Scare the Dark People" himself. In the early 1920s the Klan rode a wave of terror through the South and Southwest. As the violence spread, a pattern appeared. Most Victorians were white people who had broken some sort of moral code. Smugglers and gamblers were favorite targets. The Klan marched through the streets at night as a reminder of the constant terror with which they plagued a Southern city. By taking the law into their own hands, the Klan ensured that the laws were upheld. Hooded Klansmen sometimes took their victims in daylight, but mostly piled into cars and went "night riding." Klansmen used whips to punish those victims. Once they finished blending them, they poured hot tar on them and sprinkled feathers on them. This would add insult to injury. In 1921, the Klan was put on trial for the murder of a black man who had been a well-known drunkard in his hometown. Simmons, leader of the Klan, stood before Congress and swore on the Holy Bible that the Klan “has never been and will never be involved in violent acts.” In 1922, the Klan used its anti-Catholic appeal to take control of the Klan. Oregon St.