A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

Madge Oberholtzer grew up in Irvington, Indiana, four blocks from Stephenson’s guarded mansion. She was “bright, quick-witted, and strong-willed” (140). She came of age as women had just won the right to vote, and Oberholtzer, an independent spirit, took advantage of her new freedom. She bought a Model T and embarked on a cross-country trip with a friend at a time when women travelling alone was rare. When she returned, she secured a job with the Young People’s Reading Circle, a literacy program that served poor communities. The program, however, was on the legislative chopping block. Reports of Stephenson’s political influence caught Oberholtzer’s attention—perhaps he could rescue the program and save her job. Despite her abhorrence of the Klan and its tactics, she was swayed by the newspaper’s “fawning” profile of the Grand Wizard and decided to ask her neighbor for a favor.

Stephenson’s parties were lavish, hedonistic affairs, violating every Puritan principle the Klan claimed to stand for. His “vulgarian” presence was an affront to the restrained neighborhood, and the Klan even began terrorizing Butler, the local college. Soon, the once-welcoming college restricted Black admissions to a fraction of its previous admissions. Meanwhile, Stephenson’s indulgent lifestyle caught up with him.