After his book club discussion Dave suggested I read A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan. The book has been on my bedside table for weeks but I decided to start it yesterday. The subtitle on the front cover states the book is about "The Ku Klux Klan's plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them."
Right now I am on page 105 and this part of our history is really difficult to stomach. The description of how the Klan was re-founded and then began to grow by leaps and bounds in 1920's America is sickening. And several times as I've read a paragraph I've thought "Sadly this sounds like someone we recognize in our United States 2024."
"As the names spread around the state, Stephenson (one of the founders spreading the Klan across Indiana and surrounding states) raged against traitors and spies inside his realm. He threw things against the wall, stubbed his cigar on the floor, screamed at subordinates until he was out of breath. Even when he wasn't drinking, his anger storms could overturn a room. He moved swiftly into federal court, seeking an injunction to stop Tolerance (a newspaper exposing who belonged to the Klan) from further publication."
And a few pages later, "A trick of his was to grab a girl's breast and fondle it in front of others. The shock effect gave him power, and revealed to him at a young age that he could get away with things that others could not - simply because he dared to cross a line."
Ugh.....I will keep reading just to learn about the woman who "stopped them" but know that the KKK and other white supremacist hate groups are still lurking just below the surface. This group was filmed training in Florida and the tape was leaked to a local news program. Two days ago a group marched in downtown Tallahassee.
