Indiana Klan

The Indiana Klan was the state of Indiana branch of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a secret society in the United States that formed in Georgia in 1915. It grew rapidly in the early 1920s all across the United States. It used very energetic paid organizers who formed local chapters, and were well paid when they collected membership fees. The state and national Klans made money by selling uniforms. The appeal was to promote ideas of religious superiority and affect public affairs on issues of patriotism and Protestantism, especially Prohibition, education, political corruption, and morality. Only white Protestant men could become members, and membership was kept secret. Historians, however, have discovered some local membership lists. The membership was a cross section of white Protestants in terms of class, education and income. The Indiana Klan was strongly hostile against Catholics who comprised 20% of the state population. It was nominally more hostile to African Americans and Jews, who each were 2% of the state's population. In Indiana, the Klan did not practice overt violence—it did not organize any lynchings—but did use intimidation in certain cases.

The Indiana Klan rose to prominence as the largest organization in Indiana very rapidly in the early 1920s. When white Protestants felt threatened by social and political issues, including changes caused by decades of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. By 1922 Indiana had the largest Klan organization of any U.S. state, and its membership continued to increase dramatically under the leadership of D. C. Stephenson. It averaged 2,000 new members per week from July 1922 to July 1923, the month when Stephenson was appointed Grand Dragon of Indiana. He led the Indiana Klan, and other KKK chapters he supervised, to break away from the national organization in late 1923.

Indiana's Klan was one of the strongest in the country, with about 30 percent of the entire White Protestant male population being members. At state and local elections the KKK leaders publicly endorsed candidates, and the endorsements proved effective. By 1925, over half the members of the Indiana General Assembly, the Governor of Indiana, and many other high-ranking officials in local and state government enjoyed support from the Klan. Politicians learned they needed the Klan's endorsement to win office. However, the KKK leadership was primarily interested in its own personal profits, and was unable to agree on legislative priorities. As a result, the state KKK failed to get any laws passed (with one uncontroversial exception).

In 1925 Stephenson was charged and convicted for the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer, a young schoolteacher. His vile behavior caused a sharp drop in Klan membership, which decreased further with his exposure to the press of secret deals and the Klan's bribery of public officials. Denied pardon, in 1927 Stephenson began to talk to the Indianapolis Times, giving them lists of people who had been paid by the Klan. Their press investigation exposed many Klan members, showed they were not law-abiding, and ended the power of the organization, as members dropped out by the tens of thousands. By the end of the decade, the Klan was down to about 4,000 members and it never recovered.