A Fever In The Heartland by Timothy Egan

This is a highly readable and altogether horrifying chronicle of how the early-20th-century Klan resurrected itself following decades of dormancy; how it obtained millions of converts, not only in the South but throughout the country; and how, by the 1920s, it had infiltrated all levels of the U.S. government. But it is also a terrifying study of one particular Klan leader — a rapist and bigot who managed, in a matter of years, to acquire a vast popular following and to become the unelected boss of Indiana politics, all while formulating plans to propel himself to the White House. D.C. Stephenson, born in Texas, was a drifter with an amoral entrepreneurial streak, and he found himself in Evansville, Ind., in the early ’20s, a moment when the national Ku Klux Klan was rapidly expanding and seeking inroads in Northern states. Stephenson was hired by a Klan recruiter to infiltrate Indiana for the Ku Klux Klan. He fulfilled this plan with shocking speed. The Klan’s agenda of white supremacy turned out to be all too popular among Hoosiers, who began joining the terrorist group en masse. Many institutions — especially Protestant churches, whose ministers the Klan bribed — were quickly co-opted. Within years, the Klan had members at all levels of government, and controlled law enforcement. And this hate-filled reign might have continued if not for the decision of Madge Oberholtzer, who was raped by Stephenson in 1925, to speak out. Her bravery set in motion a trial and conviction that ensured that Stephenson would spend decades in prison. The Klan was humiliated in the eyes of the public, and its power in Indiana began to wane. Could it happen again--or worse yet--has it happened again? The current GOP candidate for president is an avowed racist, a convicted rapist, and a felon who has vowed to use the Department of Justice to exact revenge on those who he feels have wronged him, so the answer is yes, it very much could happen again.