On Tuesday, May 16, 2000 -- 37 years after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which 4 young black girls were murdered in Birmingham, Alabama -- the last two suspects, Thomas E. Blanton, Jr. 61, and Bobby Frank Cherry, 69, were indicted for murder.

The two men, along with the other two suspects, Robert Chambliss, who was convicted of murder and died in prison in 1985, and Herman Cash, who was never convicted and died in 1994, were all members of the Ku Klux Klan organization known as The United Klans of America, one of the most violent hate groups in American history

The United Klans of America, Inc. (UKA), was the largest Klan organization of the 1960s and 1970s. During the era of the civil rights revolution, it was notorious for its many brutal acts of violence, including a number of murders. Headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, it was led by Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton, who had spent time in Federal prison in the late 1960s for contempt of Congress. (He refused to produce Klan membership lists for the House Committee on Un-American Activities.) The UKA of the 1980s was much smaller than its 1960 precursor which had tens of thousands of members. The official organ of the UKA was The Fiery Cross, published in Swartz, Louisiana.

As Blanton and Cherry are brought to trial, it is important to understand the hateful legacy of the UKA.

Next: Emergence of the UKA