The decline of the KKK in South Carolina

The Ku Klux Klan once had a more noticeable presence in South Carolina. But the Klan’s largest S.C. group, the Christian Knights, took a big hit in the 1990s.

The Klan group’s influence waned dramatically after the Knights and their “grand dragon,” Horace King of Lexington, were connected to the 1995 burning of the Macedonia Baptist Church in Clarendon County.

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, and the church's congregation sued King and the Klan group. A court awarded the congregation $37.8 million in a civil suit, later reduced to $21.5 million.

The lawsuit “essentially destroyed the Christian Knights,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Similar lawsuits have crippled other Klan groups across the South, he added.

What started as a veterans group in Tennessee in 1865, the Klan was “quickly hijacked by terrorists,” said Winthrop University history professor and York Mayor Eddie Lee, whose town is the county seat of what was historically a hotbed for Klan activity.

Membership, Lee added, has fluctuated over the years.

Klan membership reached its height in 1925 at about 4 million members nationwide, Potok said.

National membership was estimated at 40,000 in 1965, when Klan activity picked up during the civil rights movement.

“Today, our best estimate is there are probably fewer than 4,000 members in 23 different Klan groups” nationwide, Potok said, adding two Klan groups have a presence in South Carolina, including the N.C.-based Loyal White Knights, which will protest Saturday at the State House.

While the Klan’s “storied past” has kept it alive, the group also is “so associated with criminal violence and terrorism that not that many people are getting involved,” he added.

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 5:24 PM with the headline "The decline of the KKK in South Carolina."