The Church, the Klan, and the Police
Their Long-Intertwined History
I don’t know whether the chicken came before the egg, but the order is clear regarding the Klan, the police, and the church in America. The church came first, and although Europeans who arrived in America claimed to be seeking religious freedom. Many states had official religions until the 1830s. The police came second, with forces springing up in Boston in 1838 and New York in 1845. By the 1880s, every major city had an organized police force, although there existed private part-time cops in several of those cities previously. The Ku Klux Klan originated just after the Civil War in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. The Klan arrived after the other two groups but depended heavily on them for support.
At some point during this story, I’m going to have to issue a disclaimer, so I might as well get it out of the way. I will refer to the Klan, which has always been a splintered organization with various names when I’m speaking of any whit…
