History
During the African American Civil Rights Movement in the Southern United States, members of the United States Klan and the KKK joined forces in 1960 to suppress change. In July of 1961, Robert Shelton, the son of a member of the KKK, went to Alabama after his discharge from the Air Force, and became the dominant figure, or the Imperial Wizard, of the UKA after Shelton's "Alabama Knights" merged with "Invisible Empire, United Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, Inc.", Georgia Knights, and Carolina Units.
Eventually the UKA peaked with active members and sympathetic support, and reached numbers from around 26,000 to 33,000 throughout the South in 1965, making it the largest Klan faction in the world. The organization disseminated its messages through a newsletter known as The Fiery Cross, which was printed in Swartz, Louisiana. But, membership began to slip once the group was linked to criminal activity, and after Shelton served a one-year term in prison for contempt of the United States Congress in 1969. In the early 1970s, UKA membership dropped from tens of thousands to somewhere between 3500 and 4000, but that did not keep violent acts from continuing. By the 1980s, membership dropped to somewhere around 900.
Read more about this topic: United Klans Of America
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