BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Ku Klux Klan is trying to make a comeback and reshape itself for a new era.

The white supremacist organization was born in the defeated South after the Civil War. It’s 150 years old and has been in decline for decades.

Yet Associated Press interviews with Klan leaders show the group is still alive and dreams of restoring itself to what it once was: an invisible empire spreading throughout society.

Watchdog groups estimate total Klan membership at only a few thousand nationwide, and some scoff at the idea of a Klan resurgence. There’s no single Klan, and different Klan groups disagree over tactics and philosophy.

But Klan leaders say they feel U.S. politics are going their way as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens among some across the nation.