A Fever in the Heartland, page 32
Number of sterilizations, eugenics law, https://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/timeline/53234888132156674b00024e.
70,000 sterilized across the U.S., “ ‘You Just Feel Like Nothing,’ ” New York Times, July 12, 2021.
Praising Hitler, Andrea DenHoed, “The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement,” New Yorker, April 27, 2016.
Davenport, as quoted in Daniel Okrent, The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants out of America (New York: Scribner, 2019), 147.
Johnson speech in Indianapolis, “J. W. Johnson to Speak at Monster Meeting,” Indianapolis Star, Nov. 24, 1923.
Johnson on culture, Along This Way, 328.
Stanford’s David S. Jordan and eugenics, Stanford Eugenics History Project, https://www.stanfordeugenics.com/.
Stoddard a Klansman, Chalmer, Hooded Americanism, 270.
Calvin Coolidge, “Whose Country Is This?,” Good Housekeeping, Feb. 1921.
Colorado’s push for sterilization, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/eugenics-colorado.
“on a raft,” as quoted in Blee, Women of the Klan, 172.
10. Independence Day
The opening scene is from several eyewitness descriptions, among them Robert Coughlan’s “Konklave in Kokomo,” reprinted in The Aspirin Age: 1919–1941 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949), 105–49, and Niblack, Life and Times, 194–95.
Half of Kokomo belonged to the Klan, “City Has Long History as a Hotbed for Klan Activity,” Kokomo Tribune, Feb. 28, 2017.
Crowd size, “200,000 Klansmen Meet,” Fiery Cross, July 13, 1923, and “Kokomo Site of Largest Gathering in KKK History,” Kokomo Tribune, May 2, 1999.
Asher quote, “How Klan Dragon Flew to Power in Indiana upon Gold-Tipped Wings,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 10, 1926.
Largest Klan gathering ever, and reporter pledges of secrecy, “Monster Throng at Klan Meeting,” Indianapolis Star, July 5, 1923.
Steve’s speech, “Back to the Constitution,” Fiery Cross, July 6, 1923.
Klan size, “Indiana Entirely Swayed by Klan,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 1923.
Ford dealership’s “100 percent American” ad in Fiery Cross, Feb. 23, 1923.
Bus company denied service to Black customers, “Discrimination by Motor Bus Company Denied,” Indianapolis Star, May 25, 1925.
Interview with Steve, Niblack, Life and Times, 196.
Steve tries to rape woman, from her statement, undated, IHS, and transcript of Klan tribunal, June 23, 1924, ISL.
Klan tribute to women, “An Ode to the Women Organizers,” Fiery Cross, July 6, 1923.
Fiery Cross account, including Evans quotes, “200,000 Klansmen Meet,” July 13, 1924.
Coughlan quotes, “Konklave in Kokomo.”
Asher quote on church, “Dragons in Indiana,” Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1936.
Asher quote on “slip into the robes,” “Dragons in Indiana,” Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1936.
Asher quote on “hicks,” “The Printer Who Turned Indiana Over to the KKK,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 14, 1926.
11. Governors, Guns, and God
Steve’s yacht, and attendees, Asher’s grand jury testimony, Oct. 13, 1926, IHS, and Booth, Mad Mullah, 108.
Harding, Howard Markel, “The ‘Strange’ Death of Warren G. Harding,” PBS NewsHour, Aug. 2, 2015, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/strange-death-warren-harding.
Harding’s affair with woman thirty-one years his junior, Nan Britton, The President’s Daughter, first published 1927 (New York: Ishi Press, 2008). DNA evidence later proved that he had a child with her.
Klan reacts to Harding’s death, “President Harding Is Laid to Rest at Cemetery in Marion,” Fiery Cross, Aug. 17, 1923.
Sen. Watson letter to Steve, May 5, 1924, IHS.
Size of Summit County Klan, and mayor, “Ku Klux Klan,” Ohio History Central, https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Ku_Klux_Klan.
Klan numbers in Ohio, 195,000, Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 237.
Bombings in Dayton, Battalion of Death, Pennsylvania, “Burnings at Stake at Behest of Evans,” New York Times, April 11, 1928.
Tension between Steve and Evans, Booth, Mad Mullah, 70–72.
Minister kidnapped, branded, Leibowitz, My Indiana, 209.
Riot, rocks thrown in Indianapolis, “Stoning of Firemen Arouses Police Chief,” Indianapolis News, July 19, 1923.
Buckeye Lake scene, “Ohio State Konklave Is Attended by 75,000,” Fiery Cross, July 20, 1923.
Attempted rape at Buckeye Lake, Klan tribunal, June 23, 1924, ISL.
Oklahoma governor martial law, Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 52.
Oregon Klan, most per capita outside Indiana, Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK, 139.
Klan in Astoria, Knute Berger, “The Chilling Threads of Our Racist Past,” Crosscut, April 23, 2018.
Klan violence, political activity in Colorado, Robert Alan Goldberg, Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 68–96.
Evans quote “millions,” “The Fight for Americanism,” North American Review, March 1926.
McAdoo segregates workforce, Dylan Mathews, “Woodrow Wilson Was Extremely Racist—Even by the Standards of His Time,” Vox, Nov. 20, 2015.
Riot in Carnegie, John M. Craig, “There Is Hell Going On Up There: The Carnegie Klan Riot of 1923,” Pennsylvania History, Summer 2005.
“Message from the Old Man,” Fiery Cross, Sept. 19, 1923.
Asher quote, “Court Asher Tells How Stephenson Ruled State,” Richmond Palladium, Oct. 8, 1926.
12. Lord of the Manor
Irvington details, homes, author visit, and National Register of Historic Places form, https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/296a0687-0bb1-4dd4-8246-7ceca12fbb7b/.
Madge background, “Mrs. Oberholtzer Weeps on Stand,” Indianapolis Times, Oct. 29, 1925.
Additional background, Ottinger, Madge, 39–79.
Quote on Madge in college, The Drift, Butler yearbook, 1917, 65.
Steve’s bio, “Stephenson’s Life Told in Press,” Indianapolis Star, Aug. 13, 1924.
Madge plan to meet Steve, “Hill Tells of Governor’s Ball,” Noblesville Ledger, Nov. 11, 1925.
Stephenson house and history, from historicindianapolis.com, Sept. 24, 2013, and author visit to the home.
The house, “Stephenson’s Life Told in Press,” Indianapolis Star, Aug. 13, 1924.
Parties, orgies, including cake and satyr, Asher, “Court Asher Tells How Stephenson Ruled State,” Richmond Palladium, Oct. 8, 1926, and “Dragons in Indiana,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1936.
Steve’s vision of “a great revolution,” letter from him to John Rutledge, April 14, 1924, ISL.
Quote of partygoer, Zink, “Case Study of a Political Boss.”
“shamed Nero,” Asher, “Stephenson Rule of Indiana Exposed by Court Asher,” Richmond Palladium, Oct. 8, 1926.
Bernice Glass, her oral history, June 1978, on file through Digital Indy, a service of the Indianapolis Public Library.
Butler College and Blacks, “Life on the Irvington Campus,” digitalcommons.butler.edu.
Cross burning at Our Lady of Lourdes, oral history of Edwin K. Steers, Jan. 5, 1977, ISL.
Steve and Klan benign claim, “Stephenson’s Life Told in Press,” Indianapolis Star, Aug. 13, 1924.
Letter, from “Mary,” broken engagement, April 24, 1924, IHS.
Steve treated for alcoholism, “Suicide, Stephenson’s Opening Gun,” Indianapolis Times, Nov. 5, 1925.
Clela Hull letter to Steve, May 11, 1924, IHS.
Woman, Marion Darr, drugged, possibly raped, her 1925 deposition, April 1925, IHS.
Deshler Hotel assault, Klan tribunal, June 23, 1924, ISL.
Press on assault, “Three Men Held after Brawl at Deshler,” Ohio State Journal, Jan. 6, 1924.
13. Rage of the Resistance
O’Donnell letters to Reverend Walsh, May 26, 1923, and Dec. 20, 1923, University of Notre Dame archives, UKKK.
O’Donnell and Wrigley, Aaron Gordon, “Doxing Racists Is a 100-Year-Old American Tradition,” Vox, Jan. 12, 2021, and “Tolerance Hooks a Bear,” Fiery Cross, Feb. 9, 1923.
Opposition, “Indiana Swayed Entirely by Klan,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 1923.
Riot details, Todd Tucker, Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2004), 145–62.
Father Walsh memo from archives of the Klan at Notre Dame, UKKK.
Wilson exchange with son, Wilson, “Long, Hot Summer in Indiana,” American Heritage, Aug. 1965.
NAACP letter to Coolidge, William. W. Giffin, “The Political Realignment of Black Voters in Indianapolis, 1924,” Indiana Magazine of History, June 1983.
Johnson meeting Grant, Johnson, Along the Way, 43; close to Roosevelt, 239; despises Wilson, 306; hinge moment, 308; meeting with Coolidge, 374.
Muncie, Constitution ceased to function, “Editor, Victim of Klan Justice, Loses His All,” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1926.
Growth of women, Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK, 127–28.
Dale poem, “Daisy Kept the Nighty Money,” Muncie Post-Democrat, June 6, 1924.
Rabbi Feuerlicht quote, A Hoosier Rabbinate, 51.
Jewish boycott, “How the Kleagles Collected the Cash,” Independent, Dec. 13, 1924.
Bribe attempt and quotes, “Stephenson Stubborn on Stand,” Indianapolis Times, Feb. 14, 1928, and Niblack, Life and Times, 227.
Remy as prosecutor, his unpublished memoir, IHS.
14. The Klan on Top
Denver, 30,000 Klansmen, a ledger compiled in 2021 by History Colorado, https://www.historycolorado.org/kkkledgers.
Quote from Denver judge, Klan control, John C. Ensslin, “Former Denver Mayor Stapleton and His Involvement with the KKK,” Colorado Politics, July 29, 2019.
More Colorado, Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 126–34.
Kansas, Kansaspedia, Kansas Historical Society, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/ku-klux-klan-in-kansas/15612.
Steve files and dossiers on voters and pols, Niblack, Life and Times, 200.
Voters’ choice, “Ku Klux Issue Pushed,” Indianapolis Times, May 7, 1924.
1924 Immigration Act, Okrent, The Guarded Gate, 328–30.
“America of the Melting Pot Comes to End,” New York Times, April 27, 1924.
Anne Frank, “Anne Frank’s Family Was Thwarted by U.S. Immigration Rules,” New York Times, July 6, 2018.
“Immigration Bill Passes,” Fiery Cross, April 25, 1924.
“Kleveland Konvention,” Time, June 23, 1924.
Blacks not allowed at DNC until 1924, “Blacks and the Democratic Party,” factcheck.org, April 18, 2008.
Democrats, longest political convention, “G.O.P. Path Recalls Democrats’ Convention Disaster, in 1924,” New York Times, March 15, 2016.
Convention details, Robert K. Murray, The 103rd Ballot (1976; New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2016), 175–273.
Evans tour of West, Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 283–84.
Klan and Evans in Pacific Northwest, Trevor Griffey, “Citizen Klan: Electoral Politics and the KKK in WA,” Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/kkk_politicians.htm.
Quote from Evans, Klan and the West, a speech from 1924, “American Tide Turns to the Klan,” Fiery Cross, Feb. 13, 1925.
Evans comments at national convention in Kansas City, “Ku Klux Klan at Klansas City,” Time, Oct. 6, 1924.
Steve’s new Klan, “Stephenson Heads Defiant Klansmen,” Indianapolis Star, May 13, 1924.
Blacks react to Klan, Giffin, “The Political Realignment of Black Voters in Indianapolis, 1924.”
Johnson urges vote against Republicans, “Asks Negro Voters to Cut Party Lines,” New York Times, Sept. 21, 1924.
Johnson quote, “use a navy,” “Launches Fight to Aid Negroes,” Indianapolis Star, June 28, 1926.
Knox urges vote against Republicans, Slave and Freeman: The Autobiography of George L. Knox (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1979), 31.
Steve election eve prediction, Feightner oral history, ISL.
Klan victories in Colorado, Cara Degette, “When Colorado Was Klan Country,” Colorado Independent, Jan. 9, 2009.
Colorado governor tries to outlaw Mass, “The Crazy, True Story of How the Church Helped to Take Down the Ku Klux Klan,” Denver Catholic, April 22, 2021.
Illinois Grand Dragon quote, Tara McClellan McAndrew, “History: The 1920s Saw the KKK’s Rise in Illinois,” NPR Illinois, Feb. 28, 2017.
Evans controls the Senate, Pegram, One Hundred Percent American, 199.
Wilson, “Long, Hot Summer in Indiana,” American Heritage, Aug. 1965.
Only 48.9 percent voted, all-time low, Jamelle Bouie, “Republicans Now Have Two Ways to Threaten Elections,” New York Times, July 16, 2021.
Election headline, “Protestant Ticket Sweeps State,” Fiery Cross, Nov. 7, 1924.
Steve’s attack on Lucille Fuller, her deposition, April 6, 1925, IHS.
Inaugural party details, Leibowitz, My Indiana, 196.
15. Hoosier Hysteria
Jefferson Davis monument, “Is There a Place for the President of the Confederacy?,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 2020.
Number of slaves owned by Davis, “The Anti-Secessionist Jefferson Davis,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/bost/the-anti-secessionist-jefferson-davis.htm#:~:text=He%20graduated%20from%20West%20Point,in%20the%20Mexican%2DAmerican%20War.
Quote from Confederate vice president Stephens, https://thehill.com/homenews/house/502521-here-are-the-confederate-statues-in-the-capitol.
Makeup of the “Klan Legislature,” Lutholtz, Grand Dragon, 153.
Democrat and Klansman in Indiana legislature, oral history of Edward B. Bender, recorded Oct. 31, 1968, ISL.
“We cleaned up,” “Court Asher Tells How Stephenson Ruled State,” Richmond Palladium, Oct. 8, 1926.
Letter from David Hoover to Stephenson, March 7, 1925, ISL.
“There was no argument,” “Court Asher Tells How Stephenson Ruled State.”
Klansman sat next to senate majority leader, Feightner oral history, ISL.
Wright “Bone Dry” Law, Thomas R. Pegram, “Hoodwinked: The Anti-Saloon League and the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Prohibition Enforcement,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Jan. 2008.
Walgreen’s fortune, Okrent, Last Call, 197.
Madge at Steve’s office, dying declaration.
Nutrition book, Asher testimony, Oct. 13, 1926, IHS.
Madge, two dates, quoting Steve, dying declaration.
“Vice cleanup” squads run by Steve, testimony of Stephenson employee Joseph S. Bell, on file at Ball State University’s Bracken Library.
Fuller follow-up, her testimony, IHS.
Ritual, Steve quotes at orgy, “Court Asher Tells How Stephenson Ruled State,” Richmond Palladium, Oct. 8, 1926.
16. The Last Train to Chicago
Phone call, “Mrs. Oberholtzer Weeps on Stand,” Indianapolis Times, Oct. 29, 1925.
Extortion, Indianapolis streetcars hiring Klan, police, from “How the Kleagles Collected the Cash,” Independent, Dec. 13, 1924.
Madge’s day on March 15, 1925, and her call to Steve, “Girl’s Story Is Told at Trial,” Indianapolis Star, Oct. 30, 1925.
Blacks turned away from buses, “Contest Evidence to Show Buses Lawful Carriers,” Indianapolis Star, May 25, 1925.
The assault, her wounds, all dialogue, dying declaration, and Dr. Kingsbury testimony, “Girl’s Story Is Told at Trial.”
Klan opens hospital, “Study Identifies Kokomo as Home of KKK Hate Group,” Kokomo Tribune, Feb. 28, 2017.
Steve to Madge at garage, dying declaration.
Shultz on seeing Madge, Asa Smith contacted, Mrs. Oberholtzer looking for her daughter, “Mrs. Oberholtzer Weeps on Stand.”
17. A Vigil in Irvington
Smith summoned, trip to Steve house, his testimony, “Girl’s Story Is Told at Trial,” Indianapolis Star, Oct. 30, 1925.
Smith background, his oral history, March 20, 1969, ISL.
Dr. Kingsbury dialogue with Madge, “Oberholtzer Doctor Is Witness,” Indianapolis Times, June 17, 1925.
Nettie Brehm child support, “Inman Lawyer for Stephenson,” Indianapolis Times, April 4, 1925.
Father and daughter, his court testimony, “Mrs. Oberholtzer Weeps on Stand,” Indianapolis Times, Oct. 29, 1925.
Smith in Steve’s office, negotiations over settlement, “Facts Concerning Evidence,” undated, IHS.
Steve quote, “blackmail,” testimony of Griffith Dean, “Mrs. Oberholtzer Weeps on Stand.”
Remy background, Steve dinner at Severin Hotel, Remy’s unpublished memoir, IHS.
Steve’s arrest, quotes, “Stephenson Indicted on Charge of Assault with Intent to Kill Girl,” Indianapolis Times, April 3, 1925.
18. The Witness
Madge says goodbye to the doctor, his testimony, “Girl’s Story Is Told at Trial,” Indianapolis Star, Oct. 30, 1925.
Quote from doctor on Madge condition, “Reindictment of Stephenson Is Discussed,” Indianapolis Times, April 8, 1925.
Joe Huffington on Klan banishing Steve, “D. C. Stephenson Hires Attorney Inman,” Indianapolis Times, April 4, 1925.
