Indiana Klan

== Aftermath ==
The Stephenson rape case and the ensuing bribery scandal both destroyed the Klan's image as the defender of women and justice. Members of the Klan withdrew from the organization by the tens of thousands.<ref name="nicfh" /> The ''[[Indianapolis Times]]'', which won a [[Pulitzer Prize for Public Service|Pulitzer Prize]] in 1928 for its investigation, and other newspapers throughout the state revealed that more than half of the members of the [[Indiana General Assembly]] were Klan members. Most swiftly renounced their former affiliations with the Klan, as "[w]hite robes and membership lists" quickly disappeared into "attics and trash piles."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Madison |first=James H. |title=Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780253013088 |location=Bloomington |pages=242–253}}</ref>

The Klan did not disappear from Indiana entirely, however. From 1929 through 1933, [[Roy Elonzo Davis|Roy Davis]] lived in [[Jeffersonville, Indiana]]. Davis was a founding member of the 1915 revitalization of the Klan, and he would later become the National Imperial Wizard of the Original Knights of the KKK in 1959.

Although there was an effort to revive the Klan in Indiana during the 1960s and 1970s, when changing social values, the [[Vietnam War]], urban riots and industrial restructuring caused widespread economic and social disruption, the organization never regained either the members or the power which it held during the 1920s. Nevertheless, a Klan office in the Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood continued to publish extensive recruiting materials for decades, including mailed pamphlets introducing the group and its mission.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 2 |url=https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll69/id/417/rec/10 |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org |language=en}}</ref>
The historian James H. Madison cautions that the Klan<blockquote>cannot be dismissed as either an aberration or as simply the insidious appeal of a fanatical few. Nor should the Klan be seen as thoroughly dominating the state and accurately reflecting racist, violent, or provincial beliefs shared for all time by all Hoosiers.<ref>Madison, p. 291</ref></blockquote>