By James Madison
January 13, 2026
One year ago this week, I authored a piece for The Indiana Citizen that drew on my scholarship of that dark period in Indiana history a century ago, when the Ku Klux Klan took over our state. I noted, “The past never repeats itself exactly, but in this case there are lines that rhyme and questions that cause concern.”
One year later – with their agenda becoming clearer – I might be guilty of actually understating the threat to Indiana posed by the Klan’s successors, including some Hoosiers who today identify as Christian nationalists, none more prominent than Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.
One hundred years ago, the Klan’s political takeover of Indiana was both top down and bottom up. Their governor, Ed Jackson, and the Grand Dragon, D. C. Stephenson, were certainly the most visible, but the Klan recruited candidates for every office on the ballot, down to the county, municipal and school board levels. It shouldn’t surprise us, for example, that Lt. Gov. Beckwith would be the strongest supporter of changing Indiana’s school board elections from nonpartisan to partisan races. In his Statehouse office he convened the “Anti-Woke Advisory Committee” to create a blueprint for the legislation and the takeover of Indiana’s public schools.
With the enactment of the partisan school boards bill, we can expect Hoosier Christian nationalists to identify, recruit and fund likeminded school board candidates for election in November, just like 100 years ago. Why?
Like their antecedents, today’s Christian nationalists are playing the long game. School boards have a major role in setting the curriculum and the textbooks students must use. Boards can create a chill that threatens teaching of basic democratic principles in our classrooms. We learned in 2025 that Lt. Gov. Beckwith–while giving an unabashed shoutout to the pro-slavery “Three-Fifths Compromise” that earned him national coverage – has a favorite textbook publisher, WallBuilders, his source for the “gold standard for learning the real history of America.” I daresay many mainstream American historians–and I know one or two–have never heard of WallBuilders. The few who have consider it a “propaganda mill.” Or, more succinctly, bullshit.
We also learned in 2025 that the Christian nationalists’ philosophy for governing can, indeed, be written down for all Hoosiers to see. It is embodied in House Resolution 53, co-sponsored by a fifth of the members of the Indiana House of Representatives and heartily endorsed by Lt. Gov. Beckwith. In pertinent part, it reads:
“The Indiana House of Representatives acknowledges the need for divine providence, choosing to humbly submit its ways to the Lord, Jesus Christ…[and] is unified in its steadfast commitment to individually and corporately returning to God and upholding the biblical principles set forth in the word of God.”
Just as the Klan did 100 years ago, today’s Christian nationalists have found a home in one political party. The starkest example of this was Lt. Gov. Beckwith’s energetic support of redrawing Indiana’s congressional map that already favors Republicans 7-2 to a new map intended to yield 9-0. Thankfully, enough State Senate Republicans pushed back, but stay tuned as Christian nationalists recruit primary candidates to add to their numbers in the Indiana General Assembly and Congress.
I am often asked how this chapter in Indiana history will end.
One hundred years ago, the boil was lanced when the Klan’s leader, D.C. Stephenson, was convicted by a Hamilton County jury of murdering Madge Oberholtzer, whose brave deathbed testimony sent him to prison. And across the state courageous Hoosiers stood up and said this is not our Indiana. This is not the democracy imagined in 1816 or 1776. Good did prevail over evil. By 1930, you couldn’t find a Hoosier who’d admit to being in the KKK.
Today, there are no white-robed marchers and no huge rallies with burning crosses. Today’s Hoosier white Christian nationalists – as so well embodied in Lt. Gov. Beckwith – don’t explicitly express their disdain for Blacks, Catholics and Jews, relying instead on their anti-immigrant positions as the dog whistle for their followers. They have mastered the dark art of social media, a place where they can meet, exchange lies, identify their antagonists and bolster their protagonists.
Today’s Hoosier Christian nationalists have learned the rules of the game. They register and vote, become delegates to the state convention, and some of them file as candidates. They have learned how to raise funds for those candidates. And they have learned how to get them elected.
My point is this: do not count on 12 courageous jurors in Hamilton County to lance the boil. One hundred years later, the cure can only be administered on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Election Day.
Or not.
James H. Madison is the Thomas and Katherine Miller Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University Bloomington. An award-winning teacher, he is the author of several books, most recently The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland (Indiana University Press, 2020). The author acknowledges the assistance of Bill Moreau in the research for and drafting of this essay.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
