The Ku Klux Klan: A Warning for America
- Morris Patrick III
- Oct 26
- 5 min read
Fox News 5 in Atlanta, Georgia on April 25, 2022:
The Klan Never Died
The Ku Klux Klan is not part of history. It is still here in America today. According to U.S. News & World Report (2017), the Klan continues to exist in twenty two states. Their message of hate, racism, and white power is alive. They changed their masks, but not their mission.
The Klan started after the Civil War to keep white control over Black Americans. It used violence, fear, and lies to divide people. More than one hundred years later, that same mindset still moves through our politics, laws, and media.
Fred Trump and the Klan Connection
Historian Oliver Ayers (2021) revealed that Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested during a Ku Klux Klan rally in Queens, New York, in 1927. The rally turned violent, and several men wearing Klan robes were arrested. Fred Trump lived in the same neighborhood where the Klan operated.
Ayers explained that the Klan’s influence in Queens helped shape racial segregation in housing and redlining practices. These policies kept Black families out of white neighborhoods and created the foundation for racist housing discrimination across America (Ayers, 2021).
Donald Trump grew up in that world. He learned racism at home and in business. He later brought that same hate into politics.
Trump’s Racism Is Not New
Legal scholar Kevin R. Johnson (2024) wrote in the UC Law Journal that the Ku Klux Klan’s anti immigrant beliefs live on through Donald Trump. The Klan’s slogan “America First” was used to justify hatred toward immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and anyone who was not white. Trump used that same slogan during his campaign.
Johnson (2024) explained that Trump’s racist policies were built on the same ideas that once guided the Klan. His Muslim travel ban, his call for a border wall, and his family separation policy at the U.S. Mexico border all repeated the Klan’s message of exclusion. Trump’s speeches targeted immigrants and people of color, spreading fear and division. He was not subtle. He was proud.
Trump praised white nationalists as “very fine people.” He called immigrants “animals.” He attacked Black athletes, judges, and politicians for speaking out. Every one of those acts carried the same racist energy that the Klan used to destroy lives.
The Klan and Trump’s Attack on the LGBTQ+ Community
The Klan’s hatred doesn’t stop at race. Their flyers — including the one found in Georgia — openly target “homosexuals” alongside racial slurs. This shows that LGBTQ+ people have long been part of the Klan’s list of enemies.
Today, Donald Trump and his political allies carry that same torch of hate into policy. Trump and the far-right movement are actively trying to destroy same-sex marriage, erase transgender rights, and silence LGBTQ+ voices. His administration’s efforts to roll back protections, ban transgender people from the military, and restrict healthcare access mirrored the Klan’s crusade against equality.
Just like the KKK used religion and “morality” as weapons of control, Trump’s followers use “traditional values” as a disguise for discrimination. Their goal is the same: to create fear, division, and obedience.
The Language of White Supremacy
Professor James Chase Sanchez (2018) studied how Trump and the Klan use coded racist language. He called it “rhetorical versatility.” It means they say one thing to the public but send secret messages to white supremacists.
Trump often used words like “patriotism,” “heritage,” and “security.” The Klan used those same words to recruit new members. Sanchez (2018) showed that when Trump spoke about “making America great again,” white supremacists heard something deeper. They heard, “make America white again.”
After Trump became president, the Klan and other hate groups grew fast. Their leaders said openly that Trump made them proud to be white again. His campaign gave them permission to show their hate in public.
White Resentment and Fear
Sociologist Francesca Polletta (2020) compared Trump supporters to Klan members in the 1920s. Both groups were mostly white Americans who felt angry and afraid of change. They believed they were losing power, jobs, and identity. Trump used that fear.
Polletta (2020) wrote that Trump’s voters were not all poor or working class. Many were middle class people who felt that their whiteness no longer gave them special status. Trump told them it was okay to blame immigrants and minorities for their problems. That message came straight from the same racial resentment that the Klan once used to grow millions of followers.
Why We Must Speak Out
The Klan has always thrived when people stay silent. Today, hate groups do not just march in the streets. They post online. They join school boards, police departments, and even run for office. They use social media to recruit new members, spread lies, and pretend to be patriots.
Donald Trump created the modern wave of racism in America. He brought it out from the shadows and made it acceptable again. He used the same lies, fear, and hate that the Ku Klux Klan used to control people. He turned racism into a political weapon and gave white supremacy new life inside government and media. That is why speaking the truth matters now more than ever.
The Klan’s dream is a divided nation. Our duty is to expose it.
Truth Is Power
The Klan hides behind the American flag and uses faith to excuse its hate. Trump did the same. But history teaches us this: silence helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. When we name racism for what it is, we take away its power.
The fight against hate is not only about the past. It is about now. It is about protecting the next generation from lies and fear. It is about standing up when a leader promotes racism.
Donald Trump carried the torch of white supremacy from the Klan into modern politics. America must never let that fire burn again.
My Duty to Warn BIPOC Parents
As the founder of Stolen Children by CPS, I know firsthand how systems built on racism can destroy families. My duty is to warn BIPOC parents—Black, Indigenous, and People of Color—who face unfair treatment and discrimination.
Racism does not only live in the streets. It lives in courtrooms, schools, police departments, and child welfare agencies. The same ideology that built the Klan built those systems of control. They target families of color, especially when they are vulnerable.
When Donald Trump brought the language of hate back into politics, it empowered people inside those systems to act without accountability. It reminded us that racism is not gone—it has changed shape.
I write this as a warning to all BIPOC parents: protect your children, know your rights, and never be silent. Every parent deserves safety, dignity, and justice. Speaking truth is our strongest defense.
References
Ayers, O. (2021). Fred Trump, the Ku Klux Klan, and grassroots redlining in interwar America. Journal of Urban History, 47(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144219858599
Johnson, K. R. (2024). The KKK, immigration law and policy, and Donald Trump. UC Law Journal, 75(6), 1645–1666. HeinOnline.
Polletta, F. (2020). Trump supporters and the boundaries of the “I.” Contemporary Sociology, 49(2), 115–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306120902417
Sanchez, J. C. (2018). Trump, the KKK, and the versatility of white supremacy rhetoric. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 8(1/2), 44–56. https://contemporaryrhetoric.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sanchez8_1_2_4.pdf
U.S. News & World Report. (2017, August 14). The KKK is still based in 22 states in the U.S. in 2017. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2017-08-14/the-kkk-is-still-based-in-22-states-in-the-us-in-2017
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