In the 1940s, the Ku Klux Klan was on the rise in Indiana. The Klan had practically controlled the state's government in the 1920s, but the group became dormant during the following decade. In 1946, The Indianapolis Star exposed white supremacists' efforts to revive the Klan in the state and, more ominously, to start a chapter of the Columbians, Inc., a neo-Nazi organization that wore khaki shirts and red thunderbolt patches, preached a motto of "Race, Nation, and Faith," and swaggered in the manner of stormtroopers.
Indiana's leaders mobilized to pass an "anti-hate" law that penalized the new crime of "racketeering in hatred," defined as "acting with malice to create, advocate, spread, or disseminate hatred for or against any person, persons or group of persons, individually or collectively, by reason of race, color or religion which threatens to, tends to, or causes riot, disorder, interference with traffic upon the streets, destruction of property, breach of peace, violence, or denial of civil or constitutional rights." According to The Indiana Law Journal, no other enactment of the 1947 session of the Indiana General Assembly met with stronger public and legislative support. "The KKK in Indiana must be unrobed and stamped out for all time," Governor Ralph Gates declared. The anti-hate measure passed the legislature unanimously and was signed into law in February 1947. The penalty for "racketeering in hatred" was up to ten years' imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.
