Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, July 25, 2025 "A Historic Downfall May Be Echoed Today with Donald Trump"

A Liberal Dose

“A Historic Downfall May Be Echoed Today with Donald Trump”

Troy D. Smith

During a wave of racism and anti-immigrant hysteria, this man and his movement gained enormous power and support all around the country, but especially in the rural South and Midwest. It all came crashing down, though, when his true nature (never really that hidden) was revealed to them in the form of a lurid scandal connected to sexual abuse. He was toppled from power -many of his politician friends going down with him -and his movement was crippled as his own followers, not able to rationalize or justify this outrage, abandoned him, and it spread like falling dominoes around the country.

Of whom do I speak?

Of course, I am referencing David Curtis (D.C.) Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan and one of the most powerful Klansmen in America in the 1920s, which was the high point of KKK membership.

The KKK was started in Pulaski, TN, right after the end of the Civil War (with Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest their first major leader). Fighting against Reconstruction and civil rights, they targeted former slaves and Republicans (the Party of Lincoln) for violence, to suppress their votes. In 1871, at the request of President U.S. Grant, Congress passed the Force Act, also called the Ku Klux Klan Act. In modern terminology, it identified organized attempts to deprive people of their civil rights by violence to be an act of terrorism, and authorized the use of federal troops to root it out. This was done, and the KKK faded into the history books -for a while.

In the early 1900s, a writer from North Carolina (whose father and uncle had been prominent local Klan leaders in the 1860s) named Thomas Dixon wrote a series of popular novels set during Reconstruction, culminating in “The Clansman” (1905). That novel was popular and compelling enough that visionary filmmaker D.W. Griffith made it the basis of the first full-length motion picture in 1915, “Birth of a Nation.” This is considered a very historically important film, because it established what would become norms for historical epics and movies in general afterwards, especially in filming techniques.

The movie, and the book that inspired it, celebrated the “Lost Cause” ideology, whose tenets include claims that the Civil War was not about slavery at all, that slaves were generally happy and well-treated and slavery was actually not that bad. The plot revolved around a Confederate officer returning home to SC from the war, only to discover that the evil Yankee carpetbaggers -using the evil ex-slaves as dupes and thugs -have cheated and elected a bunch of black guys to public office, and they have done horrible things such as legalize interracial marriage. The black men are also ravishing white women left and right. The hero responds by forming a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, and the story revolves around the heroic Klan members chasing out the carpetbaggers and ex-slaves.

The movie was unbelievably popular -and it led to a major resurgence of the KKK, stronger than it had been in the 1860s because it was not confined to the South. It was all over the country. It is estimated that one out of every seven white men in America were Klan members by the 1920s. The strongest enclave was in Indiana, where one out of every THREE white men was a member. It became socially acceptable all over the country- many major universities had official Klan student groups. It was in this time period, 1915-1925, that statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest started going up all over the country, including the north and the west.

This version of the Klan hated immigrants, Jews, and Catholics as much as they hated African Americans. They didn’t use the Confederate flag at their actions, they used the U.S. flag. And D.C. Stephenson rose to the top in their stronghold state, Indiana, and was in charge of recruiting in seven other states. Many politicians in Indiana (and elsewhere) were either members or contributed money to the cause. Their stated purpose was protecting the purity of America -and especially the purity and safety of white women.

Then Stephenson was arrested in 1925 for the kidnapping and rape of Madge Oberholtzer, a young state employee and educator. She attempted suicide while in his captivity, but it was the staph infection caused by the many savage bite marks Stephenson left that killed her and led to his murder charge. During his trial it was revealed that many in the top ranks of the Klan, who preached moral purity and the sacred status of white women, were doing similar things… and Stephenson’s connections to major politicians, including the Indiana governor, were revealed.

People quit the Klan in droves. They had not minded the hatred of and violence toward immigrants and religious and racial minorities… but they had framed their very identities, and their sense of heroism, on the protection of white women, and their own leaders violated that ideal in huge ways. The rank-and-file members could not justify the contradiction, and felt betrayed. The Klan did not start coming back until the 1950s and the Civil Rights movement.

Which brings me to Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and MAGA. Absolutely nothing has shaken MAGA’s faith in Trump -until now, with strong indications he was part of Epstein’s underage girl sex trafficking. MAGA has framed THEIR identity and sense of heroism on the protection of CHILDREN (specifically white children, they never seem too concerned about others), and in fact have used that as the justification for many of Trump’s actions. Ban trans people to protect our young girls, in the bathroom and on the playing field. Ban immigrants because they are champing at the bit to rape our children. Attack Democrats from Hillary Clinton to Tom Hanks because they are allegedly part of a child sex ring. They were foaming at the mouth to get at the Epstein documents, because they were convinced all the libs they hated were on it.

But now it looks like their hero is. And for the first time, they are questioning him, some even abandoning him. Because he seems guilty of the one thing they framed, and justified, their whole identity on, and for some it is a bridge too far. Just like D.C. Stephenson.

Stay tuned.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE