Indiana Klan

==Formation==
In 1920, [[Imperial Wizard]] [[William Joseph Simmons|William J. Simmons]] of [[Atlanta, Georgia]] chose Joe Huffington to start an official Indiana chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Huffington left for Indiana and set up his first headquarters in [[Evansville, Indiana|Evansville]].

Huffington met [[D.C. Stephenson]], a fellow [[war veteran]] with a background in Texas and Oklahoma, who quickly became one of the leading members of the chapter. D.C. Stephenson moved during 1920 to [[Evansville, Indiana]], where he worked for a retail coal company. He joined the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and in 1922, ran unsuccessfully for a Democratic [[United States House of Representatives|Congressional]] nomination.<ref>Gray, Ralph D.; ''Indiana History: A Book of Readings'' (1995), p 306. Indiana: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|0-253-32629-X}}.</ref> He was said to have already married and abandoned two wives before settling in Evansville.<ref name="Moore">[https://books.google.com/books?id=a1eSbL0kxk8C&pg=PA13 Leonard J. Moore, ''Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928''], Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997, p. 14</ref> 

Stephenson was extraordinarily successful in recruiting and organizing new members. Like other agents, Stephenson got to keep a portion of the entrance fees, and began to amass wealth. Entrance in the Klan cost $10, plus dues, and the recruiter personally kept $4 of each registration. It is estimated that Stephenson made between two and five million dollars from his position in the Klan.<ref name="g306">Gray, p. 306</ref> Southern Indiana had already had significant [[vigilante]] activity among [[Indiana White Caps|White Cap]] groups, dating back to the [[American Civil War]].

Stephenson was an active recruiter. He initially stressed the concept of the Klan as a fraternal society and brotherhood, organized for civic activism, to help the poor and defend morality. He gained the support of many ministers and church congregations for these appeals to populist issues, and the Klan grew rapidly in Indiana.<ref name=nicfh>{{cite web|url=http://www.centerforhistory.org/indiana_history_main7.html |title=Indiana History Chapter Seven |publisher=Northern Indiana Center for History |access-date=2008-10-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411163028/http://www.centerforhistory.org/indiana_history_main7.html |archive-date=April 11, 2008 }}</ref>