The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist hate group which first emerged at the start of reconstruction as a fraternity in Pulaski, Tennessee. Many former confederate soldiers joined the organization and began to target individuals in the South who were either Republican or African American. The Klan committed many acts of terror including rape, murder, and lynching, often wearing masks and traveling at night to disguise their identities. Members of the Klan intimidated or killed several African Americans in Caswell and Alamance county in 1870, motivating Governor William W. Holden to declare martial law and order the Klansmen arrested in an attempt to stop the violence.