A Century Later: Reflections on the Trial of Klansman D.C. Stephenson

Saturdays and Sundays
March 1, 2025 - February 1, 2026

Bona Thompson Center
5350 University Ave. | Indianapolis

There is no charge for visiting.

This Irvington Historical Society exhibit will explore the life of Dr John Kaylor Kingsbury, a major player in Madge Oberholtzer’s life and D.C. Stephenson’s murder conviction. It will be in conjunction with the unveiling of the Irvington mural celebrating Madge Oberholtzer. This exhibit will focus on the life of Dr Kingsbury, his professional life, his entrepreneurial interests, and the part he played in Stephenson's conviction. It takes place in the only building remaining of Butler’s Irvington campus.

November 14 at 7 p.m.
November 15 at 7 p.m.
November 16 at 2 p.m.

Hamilton County Historic Courthouse
33 N. 9th Street | Noblesville

Tickets are $10 each.

Noblesville Creates is producing an original one-act play by local writer Ian Hauer that looks at the D.C. Stephenson trial through the eyes of the jurors and court workers, exploring the pressures and challenges they faced as they considered this historic verdict. This play is supported by the research of many contributors, including Hamilton County Historian David Heighway, and will be reviewed and workshopped by the partners listed in this project. The performance will take place in the very courtroom in which the original trial took place.

This performance will be augmented with interactive temporary exhibit elements arranged in the hallways and lobbies that audience members will pass on their way to the courtroom. These elements will include displays with supplemental historical material made by our county historian and local residents, artwork by local artists, and materials and prompts designed to allow audience members to react to and process the story.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to sign up for a tour of the Sheriff's Residence and Jail before the performance and participate in a discussion after the performance.

How did the communities of Indiana get drawn into the Klan?
How did the community defend the Klan’s ideals (or not?)
How did community play a role in moving on from the Klan after the trial was over?
Did community provide a safe place to voice fears? How did communities keep “others” out?
What did minority communities do to resist the Klan?
How did Madge Oberholtzer interact with her community and how did that affect her story?
Did the jurors in the trial, pulled from the community of Hamilton County, uphold shared community values?

“I heard that people got pressured into joining the Klan.”

• The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s was marketed as a fraternal or social organization. However, it was clearly anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant, in addition to being anti-Black. There were people who didn’t agree with this, and therefore didn’t want to join despite being eligible. There are instances where Klan chapters coerced business owners or farmers to join the Klan in order to keep their businesses afloat. There was a lot of social pressure and even threats of violence. It’s hard to know who joined for what reason, but the propaganda and membership information the Klan put out was very clear about its intentions.

“It makes sense the Klan was here - Indiana sucks!” or “Lots of people in Indiana probably still agree with the Klan.”

• Lots of towns in Indiana had Klan chapters during the 1920s. While the Klan didn’t go away after the Stephenson trial, it was greatly reduced in membership by the end of the decade. Racism and discrimination in Indiana did not end once the Klan did, but before the Klan rose to power, during the heights of its influence, and after their popularity waned, there was resistance to the Klan and its ideals. This resistance took many forms.

Ways to move forward:
How can community be a force for good? What does community mean in today’s fast-paced world? How does a community create belonging? What can individuals do to foster community and help make changes?

Resource Groups:

• Noblesville Diversity Coalition
• Fishers Interfaith Group
• SERVE Noblesville
• Volunteer Fishers

Books:

I Am We: A Book of Community by Susan Verde
A Kids Book About Belonging by Kevin Carroll
A Kids Book About Community by Shane Feldman
The Big Book of Belonging by Yumal Zommer
The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging by Charles Vogl
Belonging: The Science of Creating Connections and Bridging Divides by Geoffrey L. Cohen

What did it take for Madge Oberholtzer to tell the truth?
How did Madge’s honesty change the trajectory of the Klan in Indiana?
Why is it important to be honest about the Klan and its effects on communities in the Midwest?
What truths are often left out of the stories on these topics?
What was the jury’s responsibility to the truth, and did they meet it?

“I heard the Klan wasn’t that bad - it was mostly a social group.”

• The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s was marketed as a fraternal or social organization. However, its principles were clearly stated in its propaganda and on the membership card. It stated that members must be “100% American” and be a member of a Protestant Church. Members were also urged to boycott businesses that were not “100% American” and to only marry and associate with other Klan members.

“I think it’s wrong to talk about the Klan.” or “The Klan happened so long ago, why do we have to talk about it?”

• While it’s tough to think about hatred and its effects, it is important because hate doesn’t go away overnight, especially if it’s hidden from view.
• While the Klan is not a “fun” subject, it is an important one. Learning about our community’s past helps us understand what life was like during different time periods, and also helps inform our future to improve things for all community members.

Ways to move forward:

What are techniques for being more truthful in tough situations? How can communities be held accountable to be truthful? How does honesty play a role in calling out hurtful behavior?

Did Madge get justice?
Did D.C. Stephenson get justice?
Were those involved in the trial committed to justice for Madge, and how does that tie into redemption?
How can justice be served for a group with such far reach across multiple Indiana communities?
How were perpetrators held accountable for their actions (or not)?

“So the trial in Noblesville was the cause of the end of the Klan?” or “Madge’s death caused the end of the Klan?”

• The trial and conviction of D.C. Stephenson was one of the results of the deathbed statement Madge gave after she was attacked. This trial had a big influence on the leadership of the Klan - D.C. Stephenson was well-connected and very powerful. There were already power struggles happening in the official Klan organizations before Stephenson was arrested, so this accelerated the problem. Also, the Klan was supposed to be an anti-alcohol organization, and they held white women in high regard as the people who help continue the white race. So Stephenson’s actions against Madge were hypocritical in addition to illegal and harmful, and people abandoned the Klan because they lost confidence in the organization. However, the feelings behind the Klan - the racism and hatred of other religions and peoples - did not go away just because of the trial. It just was not as socially acceptable to be a part of the Klan organization.

“Did life for minorities and targeted groups improve after the Klan fell apart?”

• While there wasn’t a huge amount of recorded violence in Indiana during this time, it did happen, and the Klan’s intimidation and propaganda had huge effects on feelings of safety and belonging for some communities. After Stephenson’s trial, there were still millions of people who may have agreed with Klan values - just without official membership in the organization. Segregation practices were not always on the books in communities, but were very real. Sundown towns were places where either by written law or unwritten rule, a town’s population generally agreed that African Americans (and sometimes anyone who wasn’t white) could not live in the town. This was enforced through signage, intimidation, or other methods stating that people should not “let the sun go down on them” while in the town in question. Despite this, as stated previously, there was always resistance to these norms by the targeted groups, and things did improve over time as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s took hold across the country.

Ways to move forward:

What does justice mean to me? How can justice be served in my everyday life? What are ways that communities can seek justice for unjust circumstances or acts?

Resources:

Madge: The Life and Times of Madge Oberholtzer, the young Irvington woman who brought down D.C. Stephenson and the Klu Klux Klan by Charlotte Halsema Ottinger

The Life and Times of a Hoosier Judge by John Lewis Niblack