Despite attempting to like a respectable establishment that upheld law and order, the Klan's activities were made up of acts of violence. In this picture a cross burns in the background of a rally in 1925. Originally, the Klan did not burn crosses. The idea was made by Thomas Dixon Jr. in his book "The Clansmen". The cross lightings were often used to intimidate enemies of the Klan. The practice has become incredibly ingrained in racial violence. At this point, most criminal cross burnings don't even involve the Klan at all.

During the 1920s the Klan did many lynchings, floggings, and beatings. In the U.S. most people who performed lynchings were white, and the victims were black. A lot of the time, the lynchings were photographed and even used as post cards. The KKK often took it upon itself to perform these extrajudicial punishments. The U.S. government wasn't going out of it's way to target non whites like they were at the time. After the 1920's, the Klan's lynchings became less and less frequent, to the point where today they don't happen. It is an unfortunate part of our past but one that isn't representative of who America is as a whole.