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

The Klan under Stephenson—and even before his stewardship—pulled off a feat: converting religious leaders to their ideology of exclusion. While some of that could be attributed to bribery—specifically, Stephenson’s strategy of handing out cash to ministers to paint the Klan in a favorable light—the problem ran deeper. An entire branch of Christianity turned from the Biblical message to “Love thy neighbor” and embraced the opposite sentiment. A Fever in the Heartland raises questions about the link between racism and religion and how people who consider themselves pious could accept and embrace an ideology rooted in hatred and exclusion.

One explanation may be that the human feelings of fear and (misplaced) anger transcend the abstract concepts of religious teachings. Jesus’s words are 2,000 years old and memorialized in an ancient text that often holds only passing relevance to contemporary life. On the other hand, the fear of those who are different is immediate and pressing, especially when that fear is reinforced by a trusted community and clergy member. Stephenson recognized that Protestant clergy were a key part of lending credibility to his movement: He “succeeded with an unusual formula for a mass movement: men were the muscle, women spread the poison, and ministers sanctified it all” (65-66).

Furthermore, the Klan specifically and intentionally rebranded itself as an organization upholding virtue and Americanism, touting itself as “a God-fearing, law-and-order-loving, women’s-purity-enforcing, patriot-heart-beating, white-supremacy-upholding, Christian-based fraternal club” (91). Those who purport to live a virtuous life need to feel that they are indeed virtuous so that their adherence to their faith can be validated. Racism is not virtuous, so it is imperative for those of faith to self-identify as non-racist, despite acts or beliefs to the contrary. That identification leads to an unsubstantiated assumption that the world is also predominantly non-racist. A Washington Post poll found that 72% of white Evangelicals believe that claims of non-existent racism is a bigger problem that not seeing racism where it actually exists (Smietana, Bob. “White Christians Say Too Many See Racism When It’s Not There, New Poll Finds” Washington Post, 2023). Egan illustrates how it becomes easy to deny something—even an ideology based on hate—when it diverges from one’s belief system.

The same Post article cites sociologist Michael O. Emerson, who argues that the “religion of whiteness—a distinctly American faith, he said—has a number of symbols, including a White Jesus, the cross, the American flag and firearms.” This convergence of faith and secular symbolism further helps to explain how those who claimed to follow the teachings of an inclusive pacifist could so easily embrace an ideology based on exclusion, fear, and hatred.

The Constitution is the bedrock of American democracy and has remained so for over 200 years. Politicians cite it reverently, legal scholars study and dissect it, and Americans proudly tout it as the unique, foundational text at the heart of one of the world’s longest surviving democracies. It’s easy to take it for granted. After all, it has survived many challenges—the Civil War, armed militias pushing for a pro-enslavement territory in the 1850s, protests over the Vietnam War—so Americans grow complacent, imagining the fruits of its democratic system will exist in perpetuity.

At the regional level, Stephenson achieved his goal of installing Klansmen throughout state and local governments. With sympathetic prosecutors, judges, mayors, legislators, and other officials either members of the Klan or accepting money from the organization, Stephenson not only ensured that members’ deeds—including his own, for many years—went unpunished, but he enshrined the Klan ideology firmly within institutions that held a great deal of power over people’s everyday lives. Matters of education, law enforcement, and housing were thus infused with Klan ideology, further marginalizing Black, Jewish, and Catholic residents who already faced intimidation at the voting booth.

While Stephenson’s goal of instituting a nationwide government rooted in Klan ideology remained regional, he had achieved significant momentum before Madge Oberholtzer’s death. With plenty of sympathy in Congress and possibly even the White House—President Coolidge was notoriously noncommittal on the Klan—there’s no telling how far Stephenson might have made it, perhaps even achieving his goal of winning the White House. The lesson from this moment in history is that democracy is not a rock that can withstand the harsh tides of history but rather a sapling that requires constant care. When the power of government rests in the hands of the people, that power can easily be co-opted by any person with the skill to sway enough people to their cause.

The events following the 2020 election provide a modern example of the fragility of democracy. One of the most time-honored traditions of American democracy is the peaceful transition of power after a presidential election. Yet baseless claims of a stolen election prompted thousands of armed insurrectionists—many of them waving American flags, ironically—to force their way into the Capitol, injure police officers, vandalize the seat of government, and even threaten to kill the vice president. Democracy prevailed in the end, and the system lived to function another day. In the “fever” of the 1920s, the efforts of a few individuals—a lawyer, a newspaper editor, a rabbi, and ultimately, a progressive young woman—cooled the fever and brought the instigator to justice. Similarly, the work of election officials and often obscure government bureaucrats who were unafraid to stand up to enormous outside pressure helped democracy weather its latest threat. In this way, Egan illustrates that just as “ordinary” Americans can be swayed by antidemocratic ideologies, so too can ordinary Americans uphold democracy when it is tested.