Timothy Egan has done it again. This writer is an American treasure. His books cover essential topics from America's past that resonate today and allow for historical perspective that is needed and necessary.
In A Fever in the Heartland, Egan traces the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in middle America. When we think of the notorious Klan, most of us automatically think of the South. But shortly after World War I, with the country in the throes of a postwar moral dilemma, the infamous Klan rose to prominence and swelled its ranks in the states of Ohio and Indiana. We are talking of a membership in the hundreds of thousands.
Under the direction of a few prominent personalities the Klan leadership first co-opted the Protestant Church and its ministers. Then it went on to recruit and bribe various political officials from members of Congress to local politicos and judges, law enforcement agencies, and any other decision-making entity that might be of use.
With DC Stephenson at the helm, the Klan became a national terrorist organization to reckon with and fear. Stephenson was a drifting con man whose racism and xenophobia found a quick home in the Klan. Despite the Klan's moral facade, Stephenson was a hard-drinking, wife-beating, paranoid opportunist who saw a land and population ripe for the picking. He often predicted his success. His arguments on all things political and social were underpinned by his ability to tell a lie so long and strong that he convinced thousands to drop their notions of democracy, fairness, equality, and violence.
To see thousands of our fellow Americans draped in sheets and hoods attending public meetings that openly advocated white supremacy, anti-semitism, racism, and anti-Catholic views is truly eye-opening. Yet it is the kind of thing that conveniently has been left out of many history books. Those educators committed to telling the truth will have to face these facts at some point. Timothy Egan helps bridge that wide and ever-widening gap with his scholarship.
As I read through this book one thing comes dramatically to the surface. In documenting the life of DC Stephenson the parallels to a former President of the United States are glaringly clear. The racism, the xenophobia, and the attitudes toward the underclass, immigrants, and women are spot on. If a sociopath can win the presidency, one can surely wrangle the leadership of the Klan.
**Footnote: In the summer of 1969, while a VISTA Volunteer in Houston, Texas, I took a small poster off a telephone pole near downtown Houston on Main Street. It was a Klan recruitment poster that had a black graphic of a hooded Knight holding a torch while mounted on a rearing steed. Across the image were the words "Save Our Land, Join the Klan." Since that time over 50 years ago, the hatred and fear pseudo-science espoused by this hate group has refused to go away. Are we or have we already been condemned to repeat?
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