The Knights Party: Can a New Name Give the KKK New Reach?

The group formerly known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan now calls itself The Knights Party in an effort to grow its base.

The account was published on Oct. 5, 2026, under the title "Can the KKK find a new foothold in the US?" Al Jazeera correspondent Phil Lavelle travelled to Boone County, Arkansas, to report on the influence of the white supremacist organisation, a term for groups that claim white people should hold power over others Al Jazeera.

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in the 1970s by David Duke. Thomas Robb took over as head of the group in 1989. He later changed his title from grand wizard, the Klan's term for a top leader, to national director and shortened the group's title to The Knights Party Al Jazeera.

Members of The Knights Party told Al Jazeera they were trying to re-centre their message around family and faith. Robb, identified as head of the group, told Al Jazeera that a Black person would not be welcome at the group's church because it is a white nationalist church, meaning a church defined for white people only. The Ku Klux Klan has a long history of racism and violence in the US.

Earlier records show other efforts to rename and reposition the Klan. A Montana man sought in 2014 to rebrand the Ku Klux Klan as a more diverse organization that allows Black members ABC News. Reuters reported in 2007 that the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan was on the rise in the United States and was exploiting the issue of illegal immigration Reuters. Research on post-World War I Klan currents describes some members rebranding themselves as fascist.

More recent traces point to contraction rather than expansion. The Knights Party created a seven-day institute described as Klan Kamp to open in the Ozarks, according to a 2013 report. On May 20, Schoep joined the East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan's first cross-burning event in southeastern Pennsylvania, according to a 2017 report. Throughout 2025, the Ku Klux Klan continued its overall decline in influence within the broader white nationalist landscape, according to monitoring material.

The broader context here is the long use of rebranding as an organizational tactic. Name changes, title changes and shifts in stated themes can help a small group seek new audiences while keeping core membership rules. For specialists who track white nationalism, the test is not the vocabulary used in interviews but admission, ritual and authority. Who is admitted. Who leads. What doctrine governs internal institutions such as the church described in Boone County.

For coverage going forward, the questions are empirical. Whether the Knights Party label travels beyond its Arkansas base. Whether family and faith framing opens access to venues or networks that would refuse the Klan name. Whether competing actors in the white nationalist landscape treat the formation as relevant or residual. The answers will come from membership, activity and alliances, not from nomenclature alone.