KKK Violence against blacks: The former slaves also suffered from attacks by whites. In 1865 and1866, whites murdered about 5,000 Southern blacks. During race riots in 1866, white mobs killed 46 blacks in Memphis and 34 in New Orleans. In 1865 or 1866, a secret white organization called the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee. Klan members wore white robes and hoods and draped white sheets over the horses. The Ku Klux Klan grew rapidly and spread terror across the South. Klan members beat and even murdered blacks and their white sympathizers to keep them from exercising their rights.