A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes graphic discussions of racism, violence motivated by racism, alcohol addiction, suicide, domestic violence, and multiple acts of sexual assault, including rape.

David C. Stephenson (aka “the Old Man”), Grand Dragon of the Indiana chapter of the KKK, attended the inauguration of Indiana’s new governor, a sign of Stephenson’s political reach. He was the iconic leader of the newly reborn KKK, spreading across the country and terrorizing Black Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike. Operating virtually unchecked, the Klan “owned the state […] Cops, judges, prosecutors, ministers, mayors, newspaper editors” (xv). Across the country, KKK chapters had infiltrated all levels of government as well as the military. Citing the (now) debunked “science” of eugenics, the Klan pushed for mandatory sterilization laws for “paupers, alcoholics, thieves, prostitutes, and those with epilepsy” (xvii).

With Indiana’s senior senator near death and Indiana’s new governor, Ed Jackson—also a Klansman—in Stephenson’s pocket, the Grand Dragon was a near certain replacement. In subsequent years, popular opinion held that the Klan was mostly a collection of “hayseeds and dupes and chuckleheads” (xx), led by a single charismatic individual, and that it was generally nonviolent—all false.

Stephenson, a violent sexual predator, was also enormously rich, allowing him to buy any political favor he needed.