Mark Small

The racism of GOP candidates Abernathy, Bales, Beckwith, Brizzi, Dietzen, Henderson, Hullinger, Niederberger, Mitchell, Spartz and Wakley is of 2 types. Explicit - the ghost of D.C. Stephenson probably loves those ads by Spartz and Brizzi. 2/16

And implicit: each tries to out-kiss the derriere of the current occupant of the Oval Office who has carried out policies disastrous for people not white. The COVID-19 crisis has killed African-Americans at a rate three times that of white people. 3/16

This is a variation on a play book used before in America. Indiana saw its use, quite starkly, almost 100 years ago. Last evening I streamed my reading of the death bed statement of Madge Oberholtzer from “My Indiana” by Irving Leibowitz. 4/16

Madge Oberholtzer was a secretary in the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1925, she met D.C. Stephenson - the grand, high, exalted whatever of the KKK -at the Inaugural Banquet for Governor Jackson. 5/16

Stephenson made $4 on every (minimum) $10 initiation fee (white) men paid to join the KKK + got a cut from sales of robes, hoods and peaked caps. “His take in eighteen months totaled more than $2 million.” 6/16

Jackson “campaigned for Governor in Stephenson’s Cadillac.” Stephenson “boasted he had delivered the Klan vote to ( ) Jackson. ... He dispensed Statehouse jobs to his Klan pals.” The head of the KKK felt he was above the law. 7/16

Jackson abducted and raped Madge Oberholtzer. She talked one of his thugs into letting her go to a drug store, where she purchased 18 bichloride of mercury tablets. She took six of them. Her death was agony for her. 8/16

As she lay dying, she gave a statement of what occurred. Stephenson was charged w/ & convicted of murder. Had this occurred today and trump had committed Stephenson’s acts, I do not believe trump would face charges. 9/16