John Walter Stephens

John Walter Stephens (October 14, 1834 – May 21, 1870) was an assassinated state senator from North Carolina. He was stabbed and garroted by the Ku Klux Klan on May 21, 1870. This killing began the Kirk–Holden war.

Personal life and early career Born John Walter Stephens near Bruce's Crossroads (now Summerfield) in Guilford County, North Carolina, he was the oldest child of Absalom Stephens and his wife, Letitia. Stephens had four siblings, three brothers and a sister.

His family moved to Rockingham County when Stephens was still young, living first in Wentworth, the county seat, and then in Leaksville. Stephens' father, a tailor by trade, died in 1848, while the family was living in Leaksville.

Stephens married his first wife, Nannie Walters, in 1857. Only two years later, she died, leaving Stephens a widower, and the single father of an infant daughter, Nannie. Living in a Wentworth hotel in 1860, he married Martha Frances Groom. From this marriage, his daughter Ella was born.

Said to have been a member of the Methodist Church at Wentworth, Stephens also served for a time as an agent for the American Bible and Tract Society though he was barely literate. Soon after, he became a tobacco trader, moving to York, South Carolina.

The murder of Stephens prompted North Carolina's governor William Woods Holden to impose martial law so as to stamp out the Klan. Insurrection conflicts followed with Colonel George Washington Kirk being appointed commanding officer of the state forces. This fight against the Klan is now known as the Kirk–Holden war.

The contested fairytales surrounding the murder of Stephens permeated the trial to find his killers and the impeachment of governor Holden. The life and death of Stephens were criss-crossed into apologist explanations for Klan violence in North Carolina.

The murder of Stephens was long-mysterious. In the summer of 1919 the elderly John G. Lea confessed his role in the assassination of Stephens in 1870. Lea proclaimed that the assassination had been the work of the Caswell County Ku Klux Klan chapter and that he had prepared the ground for white supremacy rule in North Carolina in the early 20th century.