By James MadisonJuly 28, 2026I know a great deal about D. C. Stephenson, the Indiana Klan leader of the early 1920s. Micah Beckwith is no D. C. Stephenson. His most important ally was Governor Ed Jackson, my choice for Indiana’s worst governor ever, who avoided prison only because of a technicality. Stephenson arrived by airplane at the grand Kokomo rally in 1923, wearing a purple Klan robe and speaking of constitutional democracy. James H. Madison is the Thomas and Katherine Miller Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University Bloomington.