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Martha Stephenson Biography & Facts

David Curtis "Steve" Stephenson (August 21, 1891 – June 28, 1966) was an American Ku Klux Klan leader, convicted rapist and murderer. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and head of Klan recruiting for seven other states. Later that year, he led those groups to independence from the national KKK organization. Amassing wealth and political power in Indiana politics, he was one of the most prominent national Klan leaders. He had close relationships with numerous Indiana politicians, especially Governor Edward L. Jackson. In Stephenson v. State (1925) Stephenson was tried for and convicted of the abduction, rape, and murder of Madge Oberholtzer, a state education official. His trial, conviction, and imprisonment was a severe blow to the public perception of Klan leaders as law abiding. The case destroyed the Klan as a political force in Indiana, and significantly damaged its standing nationally. Denied a pardon by Governor Jackson, in 1927 he started talking with reporters for the Indianapolis Times and released a list of elected and other officials who had been in the pay of the Klan. This led to a wave of indictments in Indiana, more national scandals, the rapid loss of tens of thousands of members, and the end of the second wave of Klan activity in the late 1920s. Stephenson served a total of 31 years in prison for Oberholtzer's murder and for violating his parole after being released. His burial in USVA Mountain Home National Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee, led to Congress passing restrictions barring serious sex offenders or those convicted of capital crimes from burial in veterans' cemeteries. Early life and education Stephenson was born in Houston, Texas, on August 21, 1891, and moved as a child with his family to Maysville, Oklahoma. After some public schooling, he started work as a printer's apprentice. During World War I, he enlisted in the Army and completed officers' training. He never served overseas, but his training proved useful when he organized and led groups. Klansman In 1920 at the age of 29, he moved to Evansville, Indiana, where he worked for a retail coal company. He joined the Democratic Party and in 1922, ran unsuccessfully for a Democratic Congressional nomination. He had already married and abandoned two women before settling in Evansville. Joseph M. Huffington, whom the Ku Klux Klan had sent from Texas as an agent for organizing in Evansville, recruited Stephenson to the group's inner circle. The historian Leonard Moore characterized them as both young men on the make. The Evansville Klavern became the most powerful in the state, and Stephenson soon contributed to attracting numerous new members. For example more than 5,400 men, or 23 percent of the native-born white men in Evansville, joined the Klan. Building on the momentum, Stephenson set up a base in Indianapolis, where he helped create the Klan's weekly newspaper, Fiery Cross. He quickly recruited new agents and organizers, building on news about the organization. Protestant ministers were offered free membership, and many recommended the new organization. From July 1922 to July 1923, nearly 2,000 new members joined the Klan each week in Indiana. Hiram Wesley Evans, who led recruiting for the national organization, maintained close ties to state leaders throughout 1921–1922 and he was especially close to Stephenson, because by then, Indiana had the largest state Klan organization. Stephenson backed Evans in November 1922 when he unseated William J. Simmons as Imperial Wizard of the national KKK. Evans had ambitions to make the Klan a political force in the country. After Evans won, he officially appointed Stephenson as Grand Dragon of Indiana. He also made him head of recruiting for seven other states north of Mississippi. In the 1920s, Klan membership grew dramatically in these states. In Indiana, membership grew to nearly 250,000 or about one third of all white males in the state. Stephenson acquired great wealth and political power by leading the Klan; agents received a portion of $25 initiation fee paid by new recruits, and he began to wield other powers. Evans, who had a monopoly on the sale of Klan uniforms and paraphernalia, appointed Stephenson as Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan at a 1923 Fourth of July rally of the Klan in Kokomo, Indiana, with more than 100,000 members and their families in attendance. Stephenson at the rally falsely claimed presidential favor: My worthy subjects, citizens of the Invisible Empire, Klansmen all, greetings. It grieves me to be late. The President of the United States kept me unduly long counseling on matters of state. Only my plea that this is the time and the place of my coronation obtained for me surcease from his prayers for guidance. Evans and Stephenson's relationship soon deteriorated. Evans responded by attempting to remove Stephenson as Grand Dragon in 1923 but Stephenson refused to step down. Encouraged by his success, in September 1923, Stephenson severed his ties with the existing national organization of the KKK, and formed a rival KKK that was made up of the chapters which he led. To bolster his legitimacy, Stephenson realigned with William Joseph Simmons and the original leaders of the national organization that had been ousted by Evans in 1922. In 1922, Stephenson changed his affiliation from the Democratic to the Republican Party, which was predominant in Indiana. Stephenson directed his statewide machine from offices in Indianapolis, Funding came from his share of the initiation fees as well as from his share of the $10 for Klan uniforms which was paid by new members. To develop a screening process, he relied on his network of paid Klan organizers in each county. He then created information sheets that contained the names of the candidates who he recommended that his supporters should vote for in both the Republican and Democratic primaries, as well as in the general elections. When Ed Jackson ran for governor in 1924, he cut a deal in exchange for Stephenson's assistance. Stephenson sent out 225,000 letters to Hoosiers in which he urged them to vote for Jackson in the Republican primary. During the 1924 election, candidates who were endorsed by Stephenson, including Jackson, won by significant margins. However, they won fewer votes than Republican President Calvin Coolidge received in his reelection campaign. On May 12, 1924, at an assembly in the Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis, Stephenson pontificated:God help the man who issues a proclamation of war against the Klan in Indiana now ... We are going to Klux Indiana as she has never been Kluxed before ... I'll appeal to the ministers of Indiana to do the praying for the Ku Klux Klan and I'll do the scrapping for it ... And the fiery cross is going to burn at every crossroads in Indiana, as long as there is a white man left in the state. Stephenson frequently boasted, "I am the law in Indiana." Nevertheless, when the 1925 state .... Discover the Martha Stephenson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Martha Stephenson books.