Winning columnist timothy egan jims multiple books have inspired popular documentaries and have found their way into many classrooms. His book, the worst hard time the untold story of those who survived the bowl, won the National Book award and inspired ken burns documentary film the dust bowl is other books include a pilgrimage to eternity, the mortal irishman and the good rain, and was previously New York Times opinion columnist on politics. The American Experience and as a reporter, he was on the team that won Pulitzer Prize for the series how races lived in america. Here today with us to discuss his recent book fever in the heartland. The ku klux klan is plot to take america. And the woman who stopped them, it tells the story of a murderous con. The klans rise to power in indiana in the 1920s, and the woman led to their downfall. Booklist it riveting. Please join me in welcoming megan to the festival of books. So before we get going, i just to give a big thank you to the of tennessee making my wife and i feel so welcome. People really are friendly here ive misjudged you. You every place weve been they just been welcoming. You know, im going to put on 10 pounds in two days, but thats okay. Ill have my surgeon check my heart for cholesterol after i leave. But thank you to tennessee and this wonderful festival this wonderful turnout today. Youll lovers of story. Lovers of truth. Lovers of the written word. Were all here. This is our tribe. So thank you for. Making me feel at home. Welcome, ledger. Great. So im curious. Whenever i read a book like this that is a its historic. And im always curious, who was the keeper of this story before you came upon it . And and how did you come to write the book . Yeah so you start well, thats the second. But theres a quote i found from harry truman who said the only thing in this world is the history. We do not. And this is history. I did not know the Klu Klux Klan is rise in the twenties 100 years ago. They came this close, taking over the country. Now harry truman back in the twenties, like 6 million americans joined the klan. But as soon as he found out who they were that he would have to hate a third of his fellow americans. He turned in his sheet. So i do not know that 6 million americans a hundred years ago put their hand on a bible and swore out an oath to forever uphold white. I did not know that 75 members of congress were in the klans circle. I did not know there were four elected governors who were sworn klansmen or four senators. And the most biggest source of my ignorance. Now, we know that the klan, unfortunately, started in your state. In 1866. Nathan bedford was the first grand dragon, and they were started by, you know, half dozen men in pulaski, tennessee, exconfederate were fueling onward, and they were upset by simple fact that 36 of the People Living in their midst had been enslaved. And now they were citizens. Thats what started them. The 28 klan got its hold in the state of indiana where one in three white males took the klan. So my my i heard about this was im a Pacific NorthwestThird Generation northwest here and id always heard about the klan, oregon, if they had a klan governor in the 1920s and that they were the only state, the United States to vote to outlaw Catholic Schools. Now, why did they want outlaw Catholic Schools . Because the klan, the twenties, had expanded their range of hatreds from the earlier. Earlier klan hated, blacks. They could not tolerate blacks on equal standing with the new klan hated catholics hated immigrants, hated socially liberated flappers. It was the twenties. The jazz. And these women had just been given vote. So they outlawed schools in oregon because. They were largely full of immigrants, mainly ins from southern italy and and so, i mean, in oregon im working on this piece, the youve looked at klan governor and and it was sort of said, well, you know, colorado had a klan governor in 1924. I said, kidding me, i start researching that and they open klansmen whose motto in 1924 election was every man under the capitol dome, a klansman. And then once he was elected, he tried to fire every black, every and every. That was the story stuck in colorado. I keep moving east in indiana. So i look at indiana and it was a literal klan republic. Thats what they called it. All members of congress belong to the klan. Both senators were sympathetic perhaps not take took the oath. The governor took the klan oath and it was all run by this one evil grifter. But this history to answer your question, nathan, had been completely forgotten. We are really good at celebrating our good parts as well. We should. But we practice historical amnesia. Were afraid of some of our bad parts. And in indiana, i get so notes every day from people saying, i didnt know any of this. They dont teach it. And im a student of. American history, i think i like to use my harry truman quote, i did not know this. So every author is excited about the chance to tell a new story a chance to tell something. And this had almost a biblical like quality to it. The middle and that tragic. Its quite amazing. Yes. So in the epilog, im going to jump to the end here in the epilog you mention a treasure trove of information that was found and was kept in archives. It was there was some debate over who would be able to read and look at it. Im curious thinking about that. How much of the Historical Documents you able to look at, what process did you go through to collect all those and get access to that . So this is the interesting thing about. The story, its largely their except for that trunk. Now, this is what happened. The of noblesville indiana where my trial takes place the last of this book is a trial of this awful monster who drove the indiana klan guy named dc stephenson. He was the grand dragon, but he ran the state and was a he was a rapist. He was a serial liar. He was a roaring drunk. But he ran state and he would put up the slate of klan backed candidates to vote for. And everybody what they were doing. And they voted for them. So hes on trial and for this horrible crime of and cannibalizing this woman tudor nearly death actually was just a horrible monster of a man. This is the guy who dropped out of the sky. One 4th of july. Kokomo, indiana, the largest gathering in the history of the world of the ku klux klan. 200,000 people showed up in kokomo to greet this guy. So after the trial was and everything like, they sort of forgot and things just closed down, the klan cratered. And in noblesville, indiana where this trial happened, lovely town about 35 miles north of indianapolis, they put all plans, robes, all the documents of who belonged and all these weird hats, the rituals. And the oic took and put it in this truck and trunk was found by a builder in 1995, and out pops secrets people go, grandpa, grandma, my neighbor and all this, this 10,000 names of this town of only 20,000. Almost half the people belong the klan. What do they do . They decided close the trunk and said, you know, were not going to let anyone see this. So it was closed for another 20 years when i started my research. It had been opened again. Mm. You know, its interesting. Ive done hosted sessions for and i would say 75 of the authors are journalists by trade and have been. Im curious how your journalistic skills played a part in this because it was you were looking at things in the past but im that that paid right played a huge part in it. Well so im primarily storyteller and i come i like to think from irish storytelling tradition a Irish Catholic family, kenny waterford and i got into journalism. You cant make a living as a writer unless you have a day job. Right . And journalism allows you to see the world and to have powerful people. Return your phone calls and to just an average person. Cant do that. So you can do it. As a journalist, that was a great opening for me. Some authors, when they if had a couple of success is i had do not do their own research love the research because so many surprise so many things when i was doing the research on the dustbowl i would go town to town on these really small dying towns of Southern Plains and i would meet with the circle of old ladies almost all women, because theyd outlive the men and theyre in their upper nineties now. Theyre all dead now, but they through the dust bowl and every once in a while id be so one of these women would go back and i have a shoebox, bring back the shoebox and open up the shoebox. And there were the letters, diaries pictures of that worst hard time. And so as a journalist, thats your wow moment. As a storyteller, you then try to put those things together. And ill tell you one quick story that and again, another thing i didnt know. I see a gentleman wearing that notre dame shirt go, irish and so i have to tell you a story that i didnt know. And part of my family grew up south bend, so i should have known this in 1924 when the klan was at its absolute and ran every office in india that remained one source of opposition. Well, the naacp had come in and said not voting republican anymore. They were loyal republican voters. And they said, unless you, president coolidge denounce whats happened here in indiana, a klan republic will not vote republican. Well, didnt really go very far. Did start the shift away from the republican party. But the real source of institutional opposition catholics and the source of the catholics was University Notre dame. So dc stevens, in this evil, awful rapist serial, killing, you know, pillaging and sexual predator ing, lying, grand dragon, he did not have a single good quality. Thats what investigator he says im going to show those irish kids. And he arranges a big klan gathering in south bend, specifically to put those kids down to show them who runs the state. What happened . The chancellor in priest says, dont leave campus. Were not going to engage them. Well, they disobey and they had a riot back and forth and these kids, theyre mostly irish kids. This was one of the funny things. They end up throwing potatoes. At the klansmen who are fleeing this barrage of potatoes. And one of the legend has it shots came notre dames quarterback. One of the four horsemen, and he shot on their flaming cross thing. So they cower up in their thing. And the next day theres a big headline i saw it, chicago tribune, irish wrote klansman said, you know, ill get from then on they were known as the fighting irish and and and thats what again, one of the stories i didnt know. Yeah. Be proud of your irish. Yeah. Yeah. My grandfather graduated 27. He was there when school greer threw that potato and, talked about it. Oh, thats great. Way to go. In order to give a speech. Oh, thats fantastic. Yeah, he was very, very, very proud. Yeah. Great. Wow. So as i read the book, it actually reminded me of an oliver stone documentary series that was on, i think netflix was sort of untold history of america. Right. And a lot of it was the people who came in second or third in elections or, our history that we wanted to forget. And one thing that this book pointed out to me that that i didnt know about and i knew about the klan. I knew about its atrocities, but i didnt what it had done to , catholics and other races. I didnt know about that. And thats interesting part of amnesia that america sort of taken. Its not just part of amnesia, but its its basic struggle. Are we a nation of immigrants . Were were despair. And were in one of those times where that experiment is teetering. And the experiment is, we dont belong to any one tribe. We dont have state religion. That was genius of our constitution was to rebel what europe had done and say were not going to have the king, the monarch tied to a single faith any. Faith can practice here. Thats still an experiment. And when you open that experiment to, other tribes, other races, and you open that thing to other faiths, youre going to have trouble. So weve you see this coursing through american hot and cold on it all. What happened in the twenties was there was a huge surge of immigration, but these were immigrants from different parts of the world. There were Eastern European pogroms were going on in the Eastern Europe. People were coming in, forcing people out of their homes, hanging them, chasing them, killing them. We got 2 million came to our country in less than a ten year period, sicily had an earthquake in the i think it was 1910. And in the next ten years, 800,000, 800,000 sicilians came to our country and they were darker skinned. So you had Southern Italian catholics, you had Eastern Europe and. And then one more thing, the great migration was going africanamerican, moving out of the jim crow south, where they had no right of citizenship. Again, 36 of the population, but couldnt be a citizen, couldnt practice. The normal rights of free man. So theyre moving north. So these three huge things move into the country Southern Italians didnt look like the earlier immigrants and blacks moving north cause this real americanism. And thats why they hated , immigrants, catholics because they they had this thing. They see these signs. Businesses say we serve only 100 americans. They took out signs. They took out ads in the indianapolis star, the diner, saying you can expect to be served only by 100 americans and 1 of americas. Just one thing white protestants. So fought the revolutionary war, 180,000 blacks fought in the civil war, but 200,000 blacks fought in world war one. I think 40,000 of them were killed when came home after world war one and try to be part of this country in the 1920s, they were citizens. So thats what is rebelling against. And whenever you have social tumult like that. You change in the face of america. It our basic premise, you know, are we a country thats not based on a tribe or a religion. One of the great examples in the book about the migration is i think the story about the record studio. Yeah. Can you can you convey the and kind of why thats important. Im really glad you brought that up because i may not sound like this. Ive written ten books. I am an optimist. I still very positive about the future of our country i have two little twin grandkids i welcome into the world. I hope here 90 years from now and a good country. I couldnt get out of bed if i didnt. Optimistic, so i found in the midst of this bleak, dark, horrible period where, lets not forget who they are. This is americas oldest domestic group. They were like a mayberry clan. They had all these they had a Baseball Team with ku klux klan stitch across their jersey. They would hire oompah bands. And at christmas time they would get out candy to orphans and, you know, on the surface they were very mayberry but below the surface they burned people out of their houses they killed couple of priests they certainly harassed blacks in indianapolis. The busses bus company would not pick up blacks going to work at the bus stops they had segregated schools. There was a lynching the last lynching of a man north of the masondixon line happened in marion, indiana. So they did some awful, awful stuff beneath this, you know, surface americanism. But i was looking for some signs of our human ity. Were here sponsored by the tennessee humanities and i believe in the humanities. So what this is another great story. And i tell it in one chapter, Louis Armstrong goes to richmond, indiana, is right on the ohio border to record it. Had the only Recording Studio between los angeles and new york was in richmond, indiana. It was a some italianamerican who started the jeannette piano studio, a piano making company, and then they had a Recording Studio in this little shed by the railroad and these Louis Armstrongs band was in. Hed moved north from new orleans. They wanted to cut the first black jazz record. So chose richmond, indiana. Unfortunately, they chose it on the day of largest klan rally in history of richmond, indiana. 40,000 people turn out with one of these klan had a plane, too, with kkk underneath. It just surging, marching, proclaiming White Supremacy and in the middle of all of this, in this little 100 square foot shed with he stuffed in the walls, the sound of be good is Louis Armstrong recording the first with nine other jazzmen black jazzman recording the first recording of american jazz, a record that went on to sell hundreds, millions worldwide. We gave world this music for american jazz and it in part got us genesis in the middle of all this. Im really glad you brought that up. It was a great part of the story. Yeah, i think we should also match. Weve talked a little about dc stevenson, but madge overholt was. You talk about being hopeful right i mean shes the voice of hope her valediction is the hope that one voice represents one voice standing up and, changing america and would be the world. So change is history. So subtitle of this book, you know the ku klux klan plot to take over america. The woman who stopped them. Ill get to the woman in just a second. Let me remind how powerful they were in 1924 before she stopped. We hold our political conventions as 1924 democrats and republicans. Time magazine right after. The convention put the imperial who was the top object up of all klan on the cover and wrote this largely adulatory story saying no lobbying group was more influential at the political conventions in 1924 than the ku klux klan. They got everything they wanted. There was there was a resolution put forward to denounce what was going on in indiana to denounce to actually was it was in a real anodyne way that you said the resolution said all americans created equal basically what the declaration of independence said and they couldnt pass that at two convention. So this guys on the cover of time and they theyre to get their four governors and their plot to get a president ial candidate. Theyve got 6 billion sworn klansmen in 24. And they think well have 20 million by 28. Thats the year they to run a president ial candidate. So theyre on the cusp of real power. One more thing they staged a demonstration in washington, d. C. 50,000 people turn out openly walking from the Capitol Building to treasury building, proclaiming klan values across klan march. Thats how powerful they were. Notre dame couldnt stop them the naacp, stop