BOOK REVIEW: “A Fever in the Heartland” reviewed by C. Ellen Connally

For Americans who are concerned about with the rise of antisemitism, racism and xenophobia, Timothy Egan’s new book, A Fever in the Heartland — The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, And the Woman who Stopped Them (Viking Press, 2023) could provide answers and insights.

Egan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and New York Times best-selling author, has written about various aspects of Americana during his long career. This time he takes on the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s; how it came to dominate the state of Indiana; took control of many state and local governments throughout the Midwest; and was fortunately stopped before its desire to take over the White House had any chance of success.

To put the rise of the 20^th-century Klan into historical context, it is important to understand that there are essentially two versions of the KKK. There is the original KKK, founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. Forrest, a Confederate general, was notorious for the 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre, where 150 Black Union soldiers, who had thrown down their arms and surrendered, were massacred. On his order, they were bayoneted, clubbed to death, and “shot down like dogs,” as one Confederate soldier wrote. Forrest was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. He was the subject of news reports in 2021 when his grave was removed from a Memphis, Tennessee, city park and buried in a private Confederate cemetery operated by the Sons of Confederate veterans.

The post-Civil War Klan, which was made up of primarily of former Confederate soldiers and slave owners, sought to intimidate former slaves through voter intimidation, lynchings, cross burnings and all manner of mayhem. President Ulysses S. Grant, elected in 1868, sought to smash the Klan, seeing them for what they were: killers in bedsheets who were “trying to reduce the colored people to a condition closely akin to that of slavery.” By the turn of the 20^th century, the Klan still existed but was not a nationally organized body even though individual groups operated under their banner engaging in lynchings and cross burnings.

The KKK of the 20^th century got its start at Stone Mountain, Georgia, in 1905, with its ideological roots in the racism of the 19^th century. America was a segregated society. “Separate but equal” was the law of the land. Many Americans believed that Jews — Jesus’ killers — were not really Americans and Catholics were traitors. Racial mixing was a sin and states passed laws that called for the sterilization of the infirmed.

The influx of immigrants from Southern Europe and Ireland on the east coast and Asian immigrants on the west coast threatened what many white Americans came to accept as the norm and their God-given privilege of superiority. The nation was ripe for an organization that stood for the status quo of white supremacy.

The central figure in A Fever in the Heartland is David C. Stephenson, who in 1922 became the head of the Indiana KKK, the most powerful arm of the highly structured national organization that would eventually see its ranks rise to the millions across America. With a proclivity to add yeast to his resume ala New York Congressman George Santos, Stephenson was in fact a master manipulator, liar, a vicious sexual predator, bigamist and thief who at the same time possessed a charming and charismatic side that won people over.

Under his leadership, the KKK garnered the support of ministers, politicians, judges, policemen, bankers and businessmen, all united in their belief in white supremacy coupled with a hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants. Through graft and bribery and the ability to influence voters, Stephenson and the Klan came to control police and sheriff departments, and city and state governments in many jurisdictions. The stamp of the KKK was essential to being elected to any office in many Midwest and Southern States.

Stephenson was so confident in his ability to control local and state governments, his motto was “I am the law.” He realized early on that he could make more money from the renewable hate of everyday white people than he could ever make as an honest businessman or member of Congress. The KKK’s key to success was that it said what many Americans wanted to hear.

The Klan of the 1920s did more than just burn crosses. They sponsored picnics and parades that sang the praises of America. They attempted to build hospitals and schools for their members only using public funds and attempted to police morality. They expanded their originally all-male program to a women’s and children’s group — it was a family affair.

Jewish, Black and immigrant businesses were forced to close because of boycotts by Klan members.  Klan members were compelled to only shop and do business with fellow Klan members, usually identified with the letter “K” prominently displayed in their names.

Though support of the 18^th Amendment and Prohibition was one of the major beliefs of the Klan code, alcohol was known to flow freely at lavish parties given at Stephenson’s Irvington, Indiana, home, some supplied by local law enforcement that had confiscated it while enforcing the laws banning alcohol.

Egan chronicles how even as Stephenson’s power grew, a band of courageous journalists and critics persisted in their attacks on his empire. Faced with financial ruin and social ostracism, they persisted.

But it eventually took, a 29-year-old woman, Madge Oberholtzer, to bring down Stephenson and his empire. Her rape and savage beating at the hands of Stephenson and the courage of the local prosecutor, who against all odds was able to get an indictment and bring the case to trial, finally sent Stephenson to jail. This caused other women to come forward and tell of their victimization at the hands of Stephenson.

After hearing the gory details of the rape and death of Oberholtzer, which made national headlines, along with revelations of graft and infighting and the huge financial empire built on the backs of America’s poor, Klan members began to realize that they had been hoodwinked by one of America’s greatest charlatans.

Within two years of Stephenson’s conviction, the juggernaut that had engulfed the country in the form of the KKK was in shambles. Members were said to have been seen burning their KKK robes. Memberships dried up. But sadly, the vestiges of what the Klan taught still lingers in many descendants even though the Klan as a powerful national organization is for the most part dead.

The reader comes away with one burning question: how could this happen in America? It can happen when people fear that people unlike themselves are taking control. It can happen when the problems of a society are blamed on one segment of society. It can happen when good people don’t speak up and the free press is suppressed. It happened in Nazi Germany.

Although Egan makes no reference to current political events, the comparison to the rise of the KKK and the rise of Trumpism, xenophobia, nativism and racial prejudice in today’s America is written between the lines. The undying devotion to one leader, the dissemination of hate, the attacks on our basic institutions of democracy, banning books, limiting free speech and restricting voting fights are all daggers in the heart of Lady Liberty.

The 1920s may not seem relevant to today’s generation. But as Edmond Burke so wisely told us, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” The rise of the 20^th century KKK is a tragic aspect of 20^th-Century American history. It is a tragedy because its legacy lingers in the innermost soul of the American psyche. Just scratch the surface and it shows its ugly head. It was right there in the Capital Building on January 6, 2021.

 

C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.

 

 

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