Donald Trump rarely tells the truth, but he was correct when he said the Ku Klux Klan and its foes have been battling each other long before he became president. During the early years of the Klan's “Second Era” after World War I and until the 1930s, Connecticut was a surprisingly active venue for Klan activity. Connecticut membership during that era peaked at somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000.

One historian estimated that at its highest, Klan membership in Connecticut was at about 5 percent of all citizens, and up to 15 percent of native-born whites. Large rallies were held in Branford, Woodstock and Greenwich in the 1920s.

In the early 1980s, somewhat coincidental with the start of Ronald Reagan's first term, there was an upsurge in Klan activity in Connecticut. There were sixteen Klan rallies between 1980 and 1984 at both public and private venues in Scotland, Meriden, Windham, Danbury, Norwich, Canterbury, New Britain, Stratford, Groton, Wallingford and West Haven. At one of the early Meriden rallies in 1981, anti-Klan protesters, who always outnumbered the Klan, threw rock and bottles, resulting in injuries and arrests. Afterward, municipal officials worked out a protocol on handling such events.