Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

douglas9

(4,617 posts)
Mon Feb 24, 2025, 01:43 PM Feb 24

What Felt Impossible Became Possible

I've spent many hours since the election reading about the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. It started the day after election day when I had hours to kill in the lobby of a Hampton Inn, waiting for a room to open up. I loaded a library archive page up on my phone, and read newspapers from a hundred years ago about the KKK and how powerful they were in the '20s.

It's not a history you learn about in school—we were whitewashing history long before the current executive orders—but the Klan in the '20s was everywhere. There will millions of Klan members across the country. People joined it like they were joining a golf club or the Elks Lodge. There was a women's auxiliary. There was the Ku Klux Kiddies, for children. Klan rallies were held across the country; thousands would turn up at fairgrounds for the marching bands and cross burnings. In 1925, the Klan even held a march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. Tens of thousands strong, crowds were six deep in the streets to watch and cheer. They did it again the next year.

>snip

That was especially true at the local level, where the Klan infiltrated all walks of life. In Indiana by the mid-'20s, two-thirds of the statehouse were Republican Klansmen. The governor was Klan. And in any given town, the Klan was everywhere. The mayor, the councilmen, the cops, the prosecutors, the judges—Klan Klan Klan Klan Klan.

Of course, part of what made the Klan so insidious was you never quite knew who was a Klansmen—they wore the hoods for a reason. But also you knew. You knew not to cross them, not to question them, not to make trouble. That is, if you knew what was good for you.

Of course, thankfully, not everyone knows what's good for them.


https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-02-23-dale/

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

cbabe

(4,729 posts)
1. A Fever in the Heartland THE KU KLUX KLAN'S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM By Timothy Egan
Mon Feb 24, 2025, 01:55 PM
Feb 24
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558306/a-fever-in-the-heartland-by-timothy-egan/

A Fever in the Heartland
THE KU KLUX KLAN'S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM
By Timothy Egan

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction • An NPR Best Book of the Year • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year • A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of the Year • A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year • A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist

“With narrative elan, Egan gives us a riveting saga of how a predatory con man became one of the most powerful people in 1920s America, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, with a plan to rule the country—and how a grisly murder of a woman brought him down. Compelling and chillingly resonant with our own time.” —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile



The Roaring Twenties–the Jazz Age–has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

… more …

(I grew up in the neighborhood.
Their children and grandkids are alive and well and many are carrying on the family tradition.)

imaginary girl

(954 posts)
2. Stephenson and Oberholtzer lived in Irvington at that time...
Mon Feb 24, 2025, 02:00 PM
Feb 24

...The guide to a ghost tour in Irvington told that powerful story. Highly recommend if you're in the area in October!

douglas9

(4,617 posts)
3. Notre Dame vs. The Klan
Mon Feb 24, 2025, 02:23 PM
Feb 24

In 1924, two uniquely American institutions clashed in northern Indiana: the University of Notre Dame and the Ku Klux Klan. Todd Tucker’s book, published for the first time in paperback, Notre Dame vs. The Klan tells the shocking story of the three-day confrontation in the streets of South Bend, Indiana, that would change both institutions forever.

When the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to stage a parade and rally in South Bend, hoping to target college campuses for recruitment starting with Notre Dame, a large group of students defied their leaders’ pleas to ignore the Klan and remain on campus. Tucker dramatically recounts the events as only a proficient storyteller can. Readers will find themselves drawn into the fray of these tumultuous times.

https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268104344/notre-dame-vs-the-klan/

EverHopeful

(441 posts)
4. Was just talking with my cousin the other day about a Klan rally in NYC
Mon Feb 24, 2025, 02:28 PM
Feb 24

(back in 1999) in which 18 Klan members were greeted by an estimated 8,000 anti-Klan protesters.

Hope if they come out of hiding again we see as robust a response.

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Indiana»What Felt Impossible Beca...