Hate groups using subtler methods to spread their message, report says; Republicans Named

Think racism and hate, and most people conjure images of hooded Klansmen, roughneck skinheads and separatist militia members.

But the trend in the Midwest is toward a more subtle, buttoned-down white nationalist movement. It is more focused on the mainstream and more concerned with issue advocacy than outright revolution, according to a two-year study recently released by The Center for New Community, a faith-based Chicago nonprofit group that monitors hate groups.

The study's author said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been a boon, as many white-power organizations have tried to use the incidents to rouse anti-Semitic sentiment and latch onto anti-immigrant feelings that have sprung up in some parts of the country.

The report identified 338 white nationalist groups in 10 Midwestern states, including 22 in Missouri and nine in Kansas.

While the Ku Klux Klan and a rejuvenated skinhead movement are aspects of white-power activity, they are only a small part of the whole, the report found. The militia movement appears to have run its course.

"The revolutionary posturing failed to gain them any kind of ground," said Devin Burghart, who wrote the report for the center, which is funded by many Protestant denominations and charitable foundations. "They weren't successful in taking on the government."

Organizations such as the St. Louis-based Council of Conservative Citizens are the new vanguard of white power, the report said.

The council grew out of the white citizens' councils of the 1960s, which organized opposition to the civil-rights movement in the South. These days, the council fights affirmative action, quotas and immigration, and it has helped lead the fight to preserve displays of the Confederate flag in southern states.

The council's leader, Gordon Lee Baum, said the group consisted of "populist conservatives, the working middle class " and has never advocated violence.

"We're not anti-black, we're not anti-anything," Baum said. "...We speak for white Americans, their civilization, faith and form of government."

Nationally known politicians such as Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, and U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican, have spoken to the council's gatherings -- and been criticized for doing so.

Other white-power groups tried to use the Reform Party -- and 2000 presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's anti-immigrant rhetoric -- as a way to enter the legitimate political arena, according to the report.

Southwest Missouri remains a focal point of white-power activity, Burghart said, with "some of the highest level of concentrated activity" in the Midwest.

Much of the region's activity involves the religious-based Christian Identity movement -- a result of the area's reputation as "the buckle of the Bible Belt," Burghart said.

"They can use religion" as a way to get into the region's culturally conservative mainstream, he said.

The move away from fomenting violent revolution toward winning hearts and minds appears to have been fruitful, even though there are slightly fewer hate groups in the Midwest than were found in the last report in 1999.

"There is a higher level of activity, from rallies and distributing literature, to violent acts and recruitment efforts," Burghart said.

Nationally, their activities have increased since Sept. 11. Many white-power groups have tried to tie the attacks to U.S. support for Israel and to liberal immigration policies.

"Mass Immigration Allowed Terrorists to Succeed," was the lead headline in a recent issue of the Citizens Informer, a newsletter of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

"Is Our Involvement in the Security of the Jewish State Worth This?" read a headline in National Alliance magazine, next to a photo of the exploding World Trade Center. Under that, the caption read, "The Jewish Cause Is Not America's Cause."

The Center for New Community's report was written before Sept. 11, and Burghart said it is too soon to tell whether the white nationalist movement has succeeded in gaining more members or financial backing since -- in the Midwest or nationally.

The report recommended communities expose, educate and organize to combat the spread of hate and racism.

"Lift the veil of denial," Burghart said. "This doesn't just happen in the Deep South. ...Decode the messages they use, such as cloaking bigotry in religious rhetoric."

To reach Matt Stearns, Missouri correspondent, call (816) 234-4435 or send e-mail to mstearns@kcstar.com.

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2001/march/mm_byrd_kkk.htm

Ex-Klansman Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, casually used the phrase "white nigger" twice on national TV this weekend. Enraged civil rights groups organized a protest campaign against Sen. Byrd and demanded that he undergo sensitivity training ... not. The ex-Klansman, you see, is a Democrat. Democrats can join hate groups and utter the ugliest racial slurs and get away with it because they are Democrats.

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, Ex-Klansman
By Michelle Malkin (March 8, 2001)

[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] Ex-Klansman Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, casually used the phrase "white nigger" twice on national TV this weekend. Enraged civil rights groups organized a protest campaign against Sen. Byrd and demanded that he undergo sensitivity training ... not.

The ex-Klansman, you see, is a Democrat. Democrats can join hate groups and utter the ugliest racial slurs and get away with it because they are Democrats. They belong to the party of racial tolerance and understanding. They're paragons of virtue, and the rest of us are bigoted rubes.

The ex-Klansman showed his true colors when asked by Fox News Sunday morning talk show host Tony Snow about the state of race relations in America. Sen. Byrd warned: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

The ex-Klansman, famed for Beltway blowhardism, should have quit talking a lot sooner. Why any prominent politician in his right mind would publicly and deliberately use the poisonous epithet "nigger" -- which most daily newspapers refuse to spell out, no matter the context -- is beyond comprehension. It's an open question as to whether the rant-prone, 83-year-old Byrd is even in his right mind, but senility doesn't excuse bigotry.

The ex-Klansman's admirers praise his historical knowledge, mastery of procedural rules, and outspokenness. They refer to the Senate's senior Democrat as the "conscience of the Senate." They downplay his white-sheet-wearing days as a "brief mistake" -- as if joining the Klan were like knocking over a glass of water. Oopsy.

This ex-Klansman wasn't just a passive member of the nation's most notorious hate group. According to news accounts and biographical information, Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values." Nothing like the thrill of gathering 'round a midnight bonfire, roasting s'mores, tying nooses, and promoting white supremacy with a bunch of your hooded friends.

The ex-Klansman allegedly ended his ties with the group in 1943. He may have stopped paying dues, but he continued to pay homage to the KKK. Republicans in West Virginia discovered a letter Sen. Byrd had written to the Imperial Wizard of the KKK three years after he says he abandoned the group. He wrote: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

The ex-Klansman later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of those "mean-spirited" Republicans -- for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. In fact, the ex-Klansman had the gall to accuse Justice Thomas of "injecting racism" into the Senate hearings. Meanwhile, author Graham Smith recently discovered another letter Sen. Byrd wrote after he quit the KKK, this time attacking desegregation of the armed forces.

The ex-Klansman vowed never to fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

If this ex-Klansman were a conservative Republican, he would never hear the end of his sordid past. "Ex-Klansman who opposed civil rights and black justices" would appear in every reference to Sen. Byrd. And even the "ex-" would be in doubt. Maxine Waters and Ralph Neas and Julianne Malveaux and Al Sharpton and all the other left-wing bloodhounds who sniff racism in every crevice of American life would be barking up a storm over Sen. Byrd's latest fulminations. Instead, the attack dogs are busy decrying latent racial bigotry where it doesn't exist, while the real thing roams wild and free in their own political backyard.

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