The Democratic Party’s Dark Roots: How They Made The KKK, Funded & Supported Slavery

Joe Biden featured with KKK leader Robert Byrd.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a prominent Democrat was the Klan’s first Grand Wizard. While the KKK was not directly founded by the Democratic Party, many of its early members were Southern Democrats who used the group as a violent tool to intimidate Black voters and white Republicans.

Following the war, during Reconstruction, the Democratic Party’s Southern wing became a breeding ground for white supremacist resistance, most notably through its ties to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), founded in 1865 by former Confederates, including prominent Democrat Nathan Bedford Forrest, who served as the Klan’s first Grand Wizard.

Under Forrest’s leadership, the KKK became a violent instrument of terror, targeting Black voters, white Republicans, and anyone supporting Reconstruction efforts, with the goal of restoring Democratic control in the South.

After the war, Forrest’s allegiance to the Democratic Party and its pro-Southern, white supremacist platform led him to become the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in 1867, a role he held until 1869. As a prominent Democrat, Forrest saw the KKK as a means to resist Reconstruction policies.

His political influence as a Democrat persisted, notably when he attended the 1868 Democratic National Convention as a delegate.