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100 years ago on this date was an ugly event in Hoosier history

100 years ago on this date, D.C. Stephenson was formally inducted “as Indiana Grand Dragon” of Indiana’s KKK. Madison, “The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland,” 2020, p. 129. In “My Indiana,” Irving Leibowitz, a reporter for The Indianapolis Times, wrote: Stephenson promoted 1/5

himself to Grand Dragon of the Klan in Indiana. [H]e arranged at Kokomo’s Malfalfa Park on July 4, 1923 the greatest gathering of the Klan ever held in the state” 200K kluxers assembled for the konklave...” (p. 57.) In its 1920s iteration, Indiana’s KKK was as racist & vile but went 2/5

after “papists,” i.e., Roman Catholics, in a way some today, including SCOTUS’s Barrett, might not fathom. Stephenson was convicted of 2nd degree murder in 1925, for the death of Madge Oberholzer, a clerical worker in the Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction. 3/5

Racial hatred, all my life, has been a constant in Indiana. For a while it seemed to abate, but it seems to be back. A hundred years ago is not ancient history, especially for people who praise the Framers of the Constitution in 1787, as people whose beliefs we must strictly follow today.4/5

Stephenson was a murderer and a bastard. Some who would take up his mantle are active today. Its slogans & groups included “America First: and “Mothers for Liberty.” So: I hope you’ve had a happy fourth. A year from now I hope we still have a country. 5/5

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Comment by pogden297 on July 5, 2023 at 7:11am: The 1920s Indiana Klan wasn't so much about racial hatred, but hatred of Catholics and immigrants. They were the top two targets of that version of the Klan, at least in Indiana. I still hear echoes of that anti-Catholic bigotry. It seems attacking Catholics for their religious beliefs is perfectly acceptable among some people, attacks that those people would never make against members of other religious groups, including people who practice Judaism. And, of course, attacks on immigrants certainly hasn't gone away. It has increased during the Trump years.