What geographic regions in the U.S. saw the highest KKK organizing or rallies in 2024–2025?

1. Southeast: the historical base that still registers the most activity

Multiple public trackers and summaries identify Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee as states with relatively higher concentrations of Klan cells in recent years, and those states continued to register the most sustained organizing and local chapter presence through 2024–2025 ^{[1] [2]}. This pattern aligns with the Klan’s long historical footprint in the Deep South — a legacy repeatedly noted in encyclopedic and archival sources — and is reinforced by contemporary civil‑society monitoring that documents chapters and sporadic rallies concentrated in that region ^{[4] [1]}.

2. Fragmentation and reorganization: why “hot spots” can move fast

Extremism monitors reported notable reconfigurations in 2024 — including the fading or collapse of some larger factions and the birth of smaller groups such as the Maryland White Knights and Sacred White Knights — which produces a shifting geography of where organizing shows up publicly versus where networks operate quietly ^[3]. That churn means a state can appear low‑activity one year and see a cluster of new organizers the next; SPLC’s 2025 analysis explicitly warns that 2025 could bring further reshuffling after major chapters dissolved in 2024 ^[3].

3. Midwest and isolated local flashpoints: rallies and political theater

Although not a numerical center like the Southeast, the Midwest saw episodic attention in 2024 from political collisions and localized events — for example, controversy over political rallies in Howell, Michigan, with critics invoking the town’s historical KKK association during the 2024 campaign season ^[5]. Historical and contemporary reporting also shows that small Klan gatherings and counterprotests in Midwestern locales continue to attract disproportionate media attention despite small turnouts, underscoring the symbolic weight of such events ^{[6] [5]}.

4. Pacific Northwest and other surprising pockets: historical chapters and occasional rallies

Some regions outside the South retain historic chapters or have hosted notable events; archival reporting notes that Washington state once had a surprisingly large number of chapters in the early 20th century and that local rallies drew Klan officials from across regions ^[7]. Contemporary trackers do not show the Pacific Northwest as a national center in 2024–2025, but local histories and sporadic events demonstrate that Klan organizing has never been strictly confined to the South ^{[7] [8]}.

5. Scale, data gaps and competing narratives: measuring “highest” organizing

Quantitative trackers report the overall number of active Klan groups is small (Statista citing SPLC data lists about ten Klan groups in 2023), which complicates regional ranking because a single new cell can materially change state‑level counts ^[2]. Public sources used here document concentrations ^[1], organizational upheaval ^[3], and high‑profile incidents ^[5], but do not provide a comprehensive, real‑time map of every meeting or online organizing node; thus conclusions about “highest” regions rest on available chapter counts, reported rallies and expert monitoring rather than exhaustive surveillance ^{[2] [3]}.

6. What to watch next and hidden agendas in reporting

Future shifts will hinge on splintering and reconstitution of small factions — a process tracked by watchdogs that can amplify local spikes in activity ^[3] — and political actors sometimes weaponize local history (as in Howell) to score partisan points, which can amplify perceptions of Klan presence beyond measured membership ^[5]. Sources vary in emphasis: civil‑society monitors focus on chapter counts and organizational trends ^{[3] [2]}, while local reporting highlights episodic rallies and community reactions ^{[7] [5]}, so policymakers and journalists should triangulate both to avoid overstating either a resurgent national movement or an exclusively regional problem.