White Citizens Parties were autonomous local parties (often county-based) in the Southern United States, that served as the public face and often directly as what would today be considered Political Action Committees for racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
These groups flourished after Reconstruction when the Union withdrew its troops from the South and the Democratic Party regained control from Republicans.
The Citizens Parties were pivotal in establishing and maintaining Jim Crow legislation at the local level.
They offered coordinated support of Democrats through the one-party South until it began opposing segregation in the later 20th century.
[4] The Civil Rights Movement overcame the system that supported the White Citizens Parties, and they have largely disappeared.