William J. Simmons

William J. Simmons was a former Methodist minister who, inspired by a vision of airborne horsemen, founded a religious organization in 1915 that would later become the Ku Klux Klan. He believed that the United States had strayed from its Christian heritage, and his organization grew to over 5 million members by 1920, playing a significant role in promoting White supremacy and enacting racist laws, including immigration quotas aimed at preserving the dominance of White, Anglo-Saxon Americans.