The Return of the KKK Knight

The perpetrator of the massacre at the Jewish Center in Kansas City was a known anti-Semitic activist. What are hate groups, and how many of these extremist organizations are there in the U.S. today?

The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, is one of the most important civil rights organizations in the U.S. Founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph R. Levin Jr., the center offers legal aid to victims of racial discrimination, proposes educational projects to promote tolerance, and monitors the creation and activities of radical racist organizations, known as “hate groups.” The SPLC archive is impressive. It details more than a few cases of attacks on ethnic minorities as well as marches and demonstrations for white supremacy, the movement that incites violence against black people and Jews who escape their control.

The Story of Frazier Glenn Miller

When the activists at the Center learned that it was Frazier Glenn Cross (real name: Miller) who had been arrested for the murder of three people at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, they were not in the least bit surprised. It is a name that has been on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of hate group leaders for years. Up until now, he had only gone so far as to whip up violence. But with the Kansas massacre, and a passionate cry of “Heil Hitler” from Miller, he practiced what he preached while the police put him in handcuffs.

Overweight, his mustache and beard bushy and unkempt, he bears little resemblance to the muscular physique clad in military camouflage in photos taken at paramilitary camps. Frazier Glenn Miller has dedicated a good part of his 63 years of life to the hatred of diversity. He has, as the SPLC intelligence file profile on him shows, given his whole life to the white supremacy movement. In 1980 he was the Grand Dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Indeed, it was only on a charge made by the SPLC that he first found himself in trouble with the law. He was taken to court for his paramilitary activities and for intimidation of African-Americans.

In an attempt to escape conviction, he set up another group, the White Patriot Party, but this attempt was unsuccessful; he then went on the run. The FBI picked him up in Missouri. He was in possession of a firearm. He spent three years in prison. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Morris Dees, the SPLC's founder. He was released early after striking a deal for a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against other members of the Klan.

Staunchly Anti-Semitic

Despite these judicial escapades, Frazier Glenn Miller didn't abandon his mission which was to spread hatred. His violent anti-Semitism found an outlet in the Vanguard News Network, whose slogan is "No Jews. Just Right." The VNN's founder, Alex Linder, wrote a post in 2009 in which he stated the need for the extermination of all Jews. Miller had himself imagined nothing less. According to the SPLC, he has posted some 12,000 anti-Semitic comments on the Vanguard’s website in recent years. But that’s not all: Miller was also one of the primary financial sponsors of the site, and one of the most diligent distributors of their newsletter, the Aryan Alternative.

In 2010, emboldened by this hate campaign, Miller decided he wanted to run for Congress. You can read his anti-Semitic blog here. It was an undertaking doomed to fail from the outset. But he continued to plot and scheme, continuing to intensify his violence, to the point of committing murder at the Jewish Center in Kansas City.

According to research carried out by the Southern Poverty Law Center over a period of two years, almost 100 race-oriented murders carried out in the U.S. during the last five years are said to be linked to people who were active users of racist websites. The figure is only surprising for those who know little of the rise of hate groups in the U.S. during the last few years, and the hatred that they spread there.

Mapping Hate

With the appearance of an African American president in the White House, the groups have only grown in number. According to the SPLC, there were 939 active groups in 2013. Their location has been mapped, state by state. Furthermore, these organizations are not only white supremacist groups, but are also neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-gay or territorial militias fighting against the federal state, like the neo-confederates of the League of the South. But there are also some groups on the center’s list which describe themselves as black separatist groups, such as the Nation of Islam, calling for the separation of all whites and African-Americans.

The Ku Klux Klan

Among almost 1,000 of these groups, at least 40 or so are part of the Ku Klux Klan. Decades on from lynching and murder, the knights of the Klan continue their fight for white supremacy. There are not many of them, compared to the past. According to the SPLC, there are perhaps between 5,000 and 8,000 across the U.S. — a figure far removed from membership levels seen in the 1920s, which was in the millions. Divided into mainstream groups and subgroups, which are often in conflict with one another, KKK 2014 is made up of some factions who still take a military approach to the “cause,” while there are many others who believe that the movement should promote its objectives within politics.

But they all hold on tightly to the fundamental idea that America should be white and protestant. They are thus against immigration, against Obama and against racial integration. But these groups distinguish themselves from one another by the way in which they operate. Some of them work in a way that could almost be described as folklorist and country, with roll calls, masked faces, barbecues and assemblies for the knights. On the other hand, other groups are working within the limits of legal boundaries — and then often transgressing them and breaking the law. You can read a long list of cases involving hate groups here.

Since 2000, the number of hate groups in the U.S. has risen by 56 percent. The economic crisis, the loss of political power among the white middle classes and the increasing presence of immigrants in America has fueled the phenomenon, pouring petrol on the explosion of paramilitary organizations that have sprung up against the federal government. Paramilitary organizations are up by 813 percent from when Obama was elected to the White House. There were 149 of these groups in 2008; now there are 1,906.

Frazier Glenn Miller is only one — albeit dramatic — example of how racist propaganda can turn into violence and death. When the activists at the SPLC learned that he had been arrested for the murder of three people at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, they were not in the least bit surprised. More's the pity.