Kuklos Adelphon was a fraternity founded at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1812. It was also known as old Kappa Alpha, K.A., Kappa Alpha, Circle of Brothers and the Alpha Society. The main archive URL i
The Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage
Its name derives from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

Κύκλος Ἀδελφών, meaning "Circle of Brothers." The organization quickly expanded throughout the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, not only on college campuses but also cities where alumni settled. The society began to decline during the 1850s and disappeared altogether after the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. The group was at its height, as far as its collegiate presence was concerned, by the spring of 1855, when local college politics at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

caused a rift at its chapter there. A minority faction of the chapter disclosed the secrets of the order, leading to chapter dissolution, as well as chapters at other institutions. In 1858 the chapter at the University of South Carolina led a reorganization of the order and it was reconstituted as Phi Mu Omicron, but this order did not outlast the Civil War either. The last Kuklos Adelphon chapter proper, that at the University of North Carolina, dissolved in 1866. John Lester, a founder of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, claimed that the Klan's

initiation ritual Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation ...

was based on a popular collegiate fraternal order, and it has been speculated by Allen Trelease that "Kuklos Adelphon almost certainly provided the model" for the early Klan.

References

{{reflist Defunct fraternities and sororities Fraternities and sororities in the United States Organizations disestablished in the 1860s Student organizations established in 1812 1812 establishments in North Carolina University of North Carolina