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United Klans of America Inc. (UKA), based in Alabama, was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States.〔Arthur Gerringer. ''Terrorism: From One Millennium to the Next''. iuniverse, inc, 2002. pages 221-222〕 Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in membership in the late 1960s and 1970s,〔Abby Ferber. '' White Man Falling: Race, Gender, and White Supremacy''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. page 176〕 and was the most violent Klan organization of its time.〔Ted Robert Gurr. '' Violence in America: The History of Crime''. Sage, 2004. pages 142-143〕 Its headquarters was the ''Anglo-Saxon Club'' outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama.〔"Lawsuits prove to be a big gun in anti-Klan arsenal," ''The Boston Globe'', June 17, 1993〕 The organization was linked to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young girls;〔Stephen Atkins. '' The Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremist Groups''. Greenwood Press, 2002. page 302〕 the murder of Viola Liuzzo near Selma in 1965,〔William Wines. ''Ethics, Law, and Business''. Routledge, 2005. page 158〕 and the lynching of teenager Michael Donald in Mobile in 1981.〔 Some of the UKA’s most well-known members because of murder charges and convictions included Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Cash, Robert Chambliss, Bennie Hays, Henry Hays, and James Knowles. Robert Shelton died at the age of 73 in 2003 in Tuscaloosa from a heart attack.〔 In 1987 the UKA was sued for civil damages in the murder of Michael Donald; the damages awarded by the jury bankrupted the organization. Many former members of the group now purportedly belong to other Ku Klux Klan organizations such as The True Ku Klux Klan. ==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 resist and suppress change. In July 1961,〔 Robert Shelton, the son of a member of the KKK,〔 settled in Alabama after his discharge from the Air Force.〔〔 He rose to become the dominant figure, or the Imperial Wizard, of the UKA after his "Alabama Knights" group merged with "Invisible Empire, United Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, Inc.", Georgia Knights, and Carolina Units, forming the United Klans of America (UKA).〔 The increase in activism in the 1960s resulted in the UKA reaching a peak of active members and sympathetic support, with numbers estimated at 26,000 to 33,000 throughout the South in 1965. It was the largest KKK faction in the world, in a highly decentralized organization.〔 The organization was most popular in North Carolina, where by 1966 over half of all UKA members resided. The UKA 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.〔 Some members continued to enact violence. By the 1980s, membership dropped to around 900.〔 In the 1990s the UKA experienced a resurgence of activity of members who returned to teachings of the Imperial Wizard, Col. William Joseph Simmons, who had founded and led the second Ku Klux Klan from 1915 to 1939. Simmons taught a kind of fraternal organization that is practiced by the UKA in the 21st century. It has several Klaverns active in twenty nine states, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. UKA membership is not known precisely. The leadership is believed to be weak and the activity of the UKA is limited to ceremonial practices with no clear political agenda. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United Klans of America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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