Which came first: the Klu Klux Klan derived from the Democratic Party, or the Democratic Party derived from the Klu Klux Klan?

I don't know, but both of the parties have changed considerably since they were created.

"At the time of Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency, white supremacists were conducting a reign of terror throughout the South. In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power.

The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. Originally founded as a social club for former Confederate soldiers, the Klan evolved into a terrorist organization. It would be responsible for thousands of deaths, and would help to weaken the political power of Southern blacks and Republicans."


https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kkk/

This post was edited by Zack at June 21, 2018 4:49 AM MDT

The Democratic party was first and yes the KKK was formed by the Dem party.

Uhhh.......... Neither

The Democratic party used to be the more conservative party and thus appealed to white Southerners and spawned the KKK (the Republicans were more "progressive"). In fact, Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, helped create the "Progressive" party, which was characterized by big government and progressive reforms. The poles began to switch around the mid 20th century with FDR, a Democrat, and his "New Deal" which greatly expanded the powers of the federal government. Despite this, even around this time the conservative South was still mostly Democratic. The changes finalized during the Civil Rights era when the Democrats became unabashed supporters of Civil Rights, which white Southerners largely opposed. 

It's also amazing to me how some people deny these facts (or at least are completely ignorant of them). They just say "Democrats created the KKK because Democrats are evil!!!" without understanding the history or the context. Even so, I hardly learned any of this in school. We could benefit from teaching kids more about the history of the parties and not teaching them that one party is good while the other is evil. That is probably the major problem behind American politics today.  This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at June 21, 2018 4:41 AM MDT

Neither. The KKK was established by the defeated Confederate General Forrest, as a social club for former Confederate veterans. Lincoln was a Republican,  so naturally the ex-Confederates voted against him. Very few Klansmen were Party members, and vice versa.

For what it's worth, according to the History Channel, the KKK was founded in 1866 by a group including many former Confederate veterans, which then extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. So, according to that, the intimation here is that the KKK was formed/derived by Southern Democrats/Democratic Party. :)