As everyone has mentioned, the KKK was strongly linked to the Democratic party. I found it interesting that many members came from upper-class respectable families. It seems like an organization that a bunch of blood thirsty backcountry people would be affiliated with. Doctors, merchants, and even ministers belonged to the underground group. The article even says, "every unmarried young man of respectability in the town" was in the KKK. This leads me to believe there was a certain amount of pressure for whites to join the group in order to maintain status in their community. It sounds like a case of you are either with them, or against them. In order to not be terrorized, men joined out of fear. This is precisely how the KKK worked, by using scare tactics. I had always thought the KKK was a group of drunk racist guys who burned crosses, yelled obscenitites, and committed sporadic murders, but it turns out they were racist guys trying to control politics with violence.