Which group was a violent extremist organization dedicated to white supremacy in the post-Civil War South?

• A. American Civil Liberties Union
• B. Knights of Labor
• C. Black Panther Party
• D. Ku Klux Klan

Answer: (D)

The idea being tested is recognizing a group that used violence to enforce white supremacy in the Reconstruction South. The Ku Klux Klan fits this description: it formed almost immediately after the Civil War as a secret society of Confederate veterans that wore robes and masks and carried out terror—lynchings, beatings, arson—aimed at intimidation and suppressing Black people and Republican governments. This violent, racially targeted activity was designed to restore white dominance during Reconstruction, making the Klan the best answer for a violent extremist group in that period. The other groups don’t fit: the American Civil Liberties Union emerged later to defend civil rights; the Knights of Labor was a broad labor organization pushing reforms and not focused on racial terror; the Black Panther Party appeared in the 1960s as a Black nationalist group, well outside the post-Civil War era.