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96-643: The establishment of neo-Nazism in Canada has its roots with the rise of white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan which had expanded into Canada (specifically the Prairies ) by the 1920s. However, as Adolf Hitler was assuming control of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, Adrien Arcand ’s National Social Christian Party dominated the white supremacist front. After World War II, racism and Nazism lost popularity, and far-right white supremacist movements faded into

192-537: A natural gas processing plant. In 1999, the city council of Charleston, South Carolina , passed a resolution declaring the Klan a terrorist organization. The existence of modern Klan groups has been in a state of consistent decline, due to a variety of factors: from the American public's negative distaste of the group's image, platform, and history, infiltration and prosecution by law enforcement, civil lawsuit forfeitures, and

288-546: A 1933 interview, William Sellers, born enslaved in Virginia, recalled the post-war "raids of the Ku Klux, young white men of Rockingham County who would go into the huts of the recently freed negroes or catch some negro who had been working for thirty cents a day on his way home from work...and cruelly whip him, leaving him to live or die." Seemingly random whipping attacks, meant to be suggestive of previous condition of servitude, were

384-573: A 2018 interview with The Financial Times , that, after having been "silent for almost 20 years but in 2017 resurfaced, emboldened by the Trump presidency and also the turn to the right in Europe”. Ernst Zündel (April 24, 1939 – August 5, 2017) was born in Germany in 1939. At age 19, he moved to Canada where he worked as a photographer and artist. He quickly became Canada's leading “ Holocaust-denial propagandist.” In

480-491: A Nation , which mythologized the founding of the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure . Rooted in local Protestant communities, it sought to maintain white supremacy , often took a pro- Prohibition stance, and it opposed Jews , while also stressing its opposition to the alleged political power of the pope and the Catholic Church . This second Klan flourished both in

576-536: A Republican and a Democrat in the 1980s. The media attention boosted Metzger's popularity and helped him become one of the more influential neo-Nazi leaders in the world. A strong supporter of Heritage Front , Metzger has travelled to Canada to speak at rallies and promote neo-Nazism along with Wolfgang Droege and others. The New Constitution Party is a white supremacist associated, anti-Semitic, and self-described "anti-Marxist" group based in Toronto, led by James Sears . It

672-532: A chance to participate in the process. Hundreds of Klan members were fined or imprisoned during the crackdown, "once the national government became set upon a policy of military intervention whole populations which had scouted the authority of the weak 'Radical' government of the State became meek." Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest boasted that the Klan was a nationwide organization of 550,000 men and that he could muster 40,000 Klansmen within five days' notice. However,

768-690: A congressional committee which took testimony from 52 witnesses about Klan atrocities, accumulating 12 volumes. In February, former Union general and congressman Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (Ku Klux Klan Act). This added to the enmity that Southern white Democrats bore toward him. While the bill was being considered, further violence in the South swung support for its passage. The governor of South Carolina appealed for federal troops to assist his efforts in keeping control of

864-515: A couple of months later in November. At first Heritage Front leaders planned to increase its influence and attract following by “soft peddling its racism to garner more support,” but a video released showed a militaristic and radical organization that isolated moderates. Heritage Front also attempted to infiltrate and take control of the Reform Party of Canada . The plot was discovered and made known to

960-668: A detailed recounting of Klansmen's beatings and murders of freedmen and their white allies. Milder encounters, including some against white teachers, also occurred. In Mississippi , according to the Congressional inquiry: One of these teachers (Miss Allen of Illinois), whose school was at Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County , was visited ... between one and two o'clock in the morning in March 1871, by about fifty men mounted and disguised. Each man wore

1056-565: A few freedmen and white Republicans who allied with Democratic whites or had criminal agendas of their own. Indeed, all they had in common, besides being overwhelmingly white, southern, and Democratic , was that they called themselves, or were called, Klansmen. Historian Eric Foner observed: "In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class , and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in

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1152-492: A few weeks prior to the Presidential election of November 1868. Although St. Landry Parish had a registered Republican majority of 1,071, after the murders, no Republicans voted in the fall elections. White Democrats cast the full vote of the parish for President Grant's opponent. The KKK killed and wounded more than 200 Black Republicans, hunting and chasing them through the woods. Thirteen captives were taken from jail and shot;

1248-440: A formal and decisive disbandment". A Georgia-based reporter wrote in 1870: "A true statement of the case is not that the Ku Klux are an organized band of licensed criminals, but that men who commit crimes call themselves Ku Klux". In many states, officials were reluctant to use Black militia against the Klan out of fear that racial tensions would be raised. Republican governor of North Carolina William Woods Holden called out

1344-823: A half-buried pile of 25 bodies was found in the woods. The KKK made people vote Democratic and gave them certificates of the fact. In the April 1868 Georgia gubernatorial election, Columbia County cast 1,222 votes for Republican Rufus Bullock . By the November presidential election , Klan intimidation led to suppression of the Republican vote and only one person voted for Ulysses S. Grant . Klansmen killed more than 150 African Americans in Jackson County, Florida , and hundreds more in other counties including Madison, Alachua, Columbia, and Hamilton. Florida Freedmen's Bureau records provided

1440-459: A long series of hearings and court cases followed, but he was never issued Canadian citizenship. In 2001 Zündel moved to the United States, but was deported back to Canada for Visa violations in 2003. He was shortly thereafter deported to Germany in 2005 where he was taken into custody and arrested for inciting racial hatred . Released from prison on March 1, 2010, Ernst Zündel was reminded that he

1536-402: A long white robe and his face was covered by a loose mask with scarlet stripes. She was ordered to get up and dress which she did at once and then admitted to her room the captain and lieutenant who in addition to the usual disguise had long horns on their heads and a sort of device in front. The lieutenant had a pistol in his hand and he and the captain sat down while eight or ten men stood inside

1632-458: A modern business system of using full-time, paid recruiters and it appealed to new members as a fraternal organization, of which many examples were flourishing at the time. The national headquarters made its profit through a monopoly on costume sales, while the organizers were paid through initiation fees. It grew rapidly nationwide at a time of prosperity. Reflecting the social tensions pitting urban versus rural America, it spread to every state and

1728-503: A religion, it acts as a political organization and promotes and organizes neo-Nazi and skinhead functions. Nonetheless, Creativity endorses legal and nonviolent demonstrations. In Canada, the Creativity movement was made popular by George Burdi . Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan ( / ˌ k uː k l ʌ k s ˈ k l æ n , ˌ k j uː -/ ), commonly shortened to the KKK or

1824-475: A success in terms of "restoring order, reinvigorating the morale of Southern Republicans, and enabling Blacks to exercise their rights as citizens". Historian George C. Rable argues that the Klan was a political failure and therefore was discarded by the Democratic Party leaders of the South. He says: The Klan declined in strength in part because of internal weaknesses; its lack of central organization and

1920-498: A vigorous advertising campaign. However, the new radical approach isolated many people and by 2005, Heritage Front was defunct and disbanded. The Church of the Creator or Creativity is a religion established by Ben Klassen in 1973. The church teaches that the Aryan race is the chosen race and calls for Rahowa, or Racial Holy War to be raged against Jews and other races. Although Creativity is

2016-561: A widespread aspect of the early Klan; for example in 1870–71 in Limestone Township (now Cherokee County ), South Carolina, of 77 documented attacks, "four were shot, sixty-seven whipped and six had had their ears cropped ." Klan members adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and added to the drama of their night rides, their chosen time for attacks. Many of them operated in small towns and rural areas where people otherwise knew each other's faces, and sometimes still recognized

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2112-494: Is an unregistered political party established in 1977 by Don Andrews. The party describes itself as white nationalist and " race realist ", and is known for its antisemitic and racist publications. Many influential neo-Nazi Leaders such as Wolfgang Droege affiliated with the party, but after the formation of the Heritage Front in 1989, the majority of its radicals left to join the new and promising Heritage Front. Heritage Front

2208-487: Is not registered by Elections Canada as a political party in Canada, and focuses its activities on spreading what some consider hate speech through its 'National Socialist' themed website Your Ward News and YouTube videos posted by Sears. The New Constitution Party has close ties to members or former members of the defunct white supremacist group the Heritage Front such as Gary Schipper . The Nationalist Party of Canada

2304-521: Is wrong because ... I should probably say hatred is wrong, anger is wrong. Hatred and anger are wrong because they consume what is good in you. They smother your ability to appreciate love and peace.” Burdi subsequently performed in a multicultural band, while his former music continues as an expression of the neo-Nazi movement in Canada. In the late 2010s, Burdi returned to performing with RaHoWa; Appalachian State University political science professor Nancy S. Love, author of Trendy Fascism , remarked, during

2400-505: The Church of the Creator , and the Ku Klux Klan . During the early 1990s, Heritage Front grew in power, but with the scandal with the reform party and a diminished period of activities and publications, the Front went through a period of regrouping and reorganization. In the fall of 2000 under new leadership of Marc Lemire , Heritage Front once again came to the face of white supremacy in Canada with

2496-859: The Civil War , during the Reconstruction of the South. The group was known for a short time as the "Kuklux Clan". The Ku Klux Klan was one of a number of secret, oath-bound organizations using violence, which included the Southern Cross in New Orleans (1865) and the Knights of the White Camelia (1867) in Louisiana . Historians generally classify the KKK as part of the post-Civil War insurgent violence related not only to

2592-502: The Confederate army : Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe. It started as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta . It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from that group, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were

2688-826: The Klan , is the name of several American white supremacist , far-right hate groups . Various historians have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. There have been three distinct iterations with various targets relative to time and place, including African Americans , Jews , and Catholics . Each iteration of the Klan is defined by non-overlapping time periods, comprising local chapters with little or no central direction. Each has advocated reactionary positions such as white nationalism , anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations— Nordicism , antisemitism , anti-Catholicism , right-wing populism , anti-communism , homophobia , anti-atheism , and Islamophobia . The first Klan, founded by Confederate veterans in

2784-595: The Prescript , which espoused white supremacist belief. For instance, an applicant should be asked if he was in favor of "a white man's government", "the reenfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights". The latter is a reference to the Ironclad Oath , which stripped the vote from white persons who refused to swear that they had not borne arms against

2880-731: The Red Shirts , which started in Mississippi and developed chapters in the Carolinas. For instance, the Red Shirts are credited with helping elect Wade Hampton as governor in South Carolina. They were described as acting as the military arm of the Democratic Party and are attributed with helping white Democrats regain control of state legislatures throughout the South. In 1915, the second Klan

2976-562: The Social Credit Party of Canada declared Western Guard membership incompatible with Social Credit and expelled the group. Andrews became the dominant figure in the EBS, and relaunched it as the Western Guard, narrowing the group's focus to racism, antisemitism and white supremacy . Fromm left the group later in 1972 as the Western Guard descended into violent activity. In 1975, Andrews

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3072-536: The Western Guard , was a white supremacist group based in Toronto , Ontario , Canada. It evolved out of the far-right anti-communist Edmund Burke Society that had been founded in 1967 by Don Andrews , Paul Fromm , Leigh Smith and Al Overfield . In 1971, the EBS had taken over Social Credit Party of Ontario . Fromm was elected as party president and EBS installed members to the party's executive. However, in 1972,

3168-768: The "Canadian Führer" until he died. John Beattie (born 1941) formed the Canadian Nazi Party in 1965. In 1966, George Lincoln Rockwell , the American Nazi Party founder, said that Beattie was “leading a tremendous and successful movement.” In 1967 the party was renamed the Nationalist Socialist Party. Beattie led the party 13 years until it was disbanded. After the Canadian Nazi Party was dissolved, John Beattie tried to start several other neo-Nazi organizations, but never had any real success. He also

3264-763: The 1940s. Klan organizers also operated in Canada , especially in Saskatchewan in 1926–1928, where Klansmen denounced immigrants from Eastern Europe as a threat to Canada's "Anglo-Saxon" heritage. The "Ku Klux Klan" name was used by numerous independent local groups opposing the civil rights movement and desegregation , especially in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, they often forged alliances with Southern police departments, as in Birmingham, Alabama ; or with governor's offices, as with George Wallace of Alabama . Several members of Klan groups were convicted of murder in

3360-576: The Klan had no membership rosters, no chapters, and no local officers, so it was difficult for observers to judge its membership. It had created a sensation by the dramatic nature of its masked forays and because of its many murders. In 1870, a federal grand jury determined that the Klan was a " terrorist organization" and issued hundreds of indictments for crimes of violence and terrorism. Klan members were prosecuted, and many fled from areas that were under federal government jurisdiction, particularly in South Carolina. Many people not formally inducted into

3456-454: The Klan had used the Klan's costume to hide their identities when carrying out independent acts of violence. Forrest called for the Klan to disband in 1869, arguing that it was "being perverted from its original honorable and patriotic purposes, becoming injurious instead of subservient to the public peace". Historian Stanley Horn argues that "generally speaking, the Klan's end was more in the form of spotty, slow, and gradual disintegration than

3552-463: The Klan has an "unknown number of associates and supporters". The name was probably formed by combining the Greek kyklos ( κύκλος , which means circle) with clan . The word had previously been used for other fraternal organizations in the South such as Kuklos Adelphon . Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee , created the original Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, shortly after

3648-555: The Ku Klux Klan , on which the film was based. When the film was shown in Atlanta in December of that year, Simmons and his new klansmen paraded to the theater in robes and pointed hoods – many on robed horses – just like in the film. These mass parades became another hallmark of the new Klan that had not existed in the original Reconstruction-era organization. Beginning in 1921, it adopted

3744-492: The Nationalist Party and their lack of expansion, Droege decided to form his own neo-Nazi organization. Later that year he established an organization known as Heritage Front . However, with the development of the internet and emergence of the information era, Droege's involvement in Heritage Front diminished as he shifted his focus to illicit drug traffic. On April 13, 2005, Droege was found dead in his apartment. Although it

3840-603: The Republican Party because they were being hoodwinked by the Loyal Leagues. One Alabama newspaper editor declared "The League is nothing more than a nigger Ku Klux Klan." Despite Gordon's and Forrest's work, local Klan units never accepted the Prescript and continued to operate autonomously. There were never hierarchical levels or state headquarters. Klan members used violence to settle old personal feuds and local grudges, as they worked to restore general white dominance in

3936-579: The South that adopted similar goals. Klan chapters promoted white supremacy and spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement in resistance to Reconstruction. Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a KKK chapter in Nashville, Tennessee . As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder. "They targeted white Northern leaders, Southern sympathizers and politically active Blacks." In 1870 and 1871,

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4032-599: The Southern Poverty Law Center puts it at 6,000 members total. The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to a false mythologized perception of America's " Anglo-Saxon " blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism . Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality , Christian denominations widely denounce them. The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee , on December 24, 1865, by six former officers of

4128-574: The Union. Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was elected the first grand wizard , and claimed to be the Klan's national leader. In an 1868 newspaper interview, Forrest stated that the Klan's primary opposition was to the Loyal Leagues , Republican state governments, people such as Tennessee governor William Gannaway Brownlow , and other " carpetbaggers " and " scalawags ". He argued that many Southerners believed that Black people were voting for

4224-555: The attackers by voice and mannerisms. "The kind of thing that men are afraid or ashamed to do openly, and by day, they accomplish secretly, masked, and at night." The KKK night riders "sometimes claimed to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers so, as they claimed, to frighten superstitious Blacks. Few freedmen took such nonsense seriously." The Klan attacked Black members of the Loyal Leagues and intimidated Southern Republicans and Freedmen's Bureau workers. When they killed Black political leaders, they also took heads of families, along with

4320-598: The background. Contemporary neo-Nazism in Canada began with the formation of the Canadian Nazi Party in 1965. In the 1970s and 1980s, neo-Nazism continued to spread as organizations including the Western Guard Party and Church of the Creator promoted white supremacist ideals. Neo-Nazism in Canada was revitalized in 1989 with the institution of the Heritage Front organization and the rise in popularity of skinhead music. However, controversy and dissention has left many Canadian neo-Nazi organizations dissolved or weakened in

4416-543: The broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the Black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life. To that end they worked to curb

4512-790: The civil rights provisions for individuals under the constitution. The Klan refused to voluntarily dissolve after the 1871 Klan Act, so President Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus and stationed federal troops in nine South Carolina counties by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 . The Klansmen were apprehended and prosecuted in federal court. Judges Hugh Lennox Bond and George S. Bryan presided over South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials in Columbia, S.C., during December 1871. The defendants were given from three months to five years of incarceration with fines. More Black people served on juries in federal court than on local or state juries, so they had

4608-572: The deaths of civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 and of children in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. The United States government still considers the Klan to be a "subversive terrorist organization". In April 1997, FBI agents arrested four members of the True Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Dallas for conspiracy to commit robbery and for conspiring to blow up

4704-493: The disrupted postwar society. The historian Elaine Frantz Parsons describes the membership: Lifting the Klan mask revealed a chaotic multitude of anti-Black vigilante groups, disgruntled poor white farmers, wartime guerrilla bands, displaced Democratic politicians, illegal whiskey distillers, coercive moral reformers, sadists, rapists, white workmen fearful of Black competition, employers trying to enforce labor discipline, common thieves, neighbors with decades-old grudges, and even

4800-531: The door and the porch was full. They treated her "gentlemanly and quietly" but complained of the heavy school-tax, said she must stop teaching and go away and warned her that they never gave a second notice. She heeded the warning and left the county. By 1868, two years after the Klan's creation, its activity was beginning to decrease. Members were hiding behind Klan masks and robes as a way to avoid prosecution for freelance violence. Many influential Southern Democrats feared that Klan lawlessness provided an excuse for

4896-456: The education, economic advancement, voting rights , and right to keep and bear arms of Black people. The Klan soon spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a reign of terror against Republican leaders both Black and white. Those political leaders assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds , three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who served in constitutional conventions." In

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4992-560: The failure of its leaders to control criminal elements and sadists. More fundamentally, it declined because it failed to achieve its central objective – the overthrow of Republican state governments in the South. After the Klan was suppressed, similar insurgent paramilitary groups arose that were explicitly directed at suppressing Republican voting and turning Republicans out of office: the White League , which started in Louisiana in 1874; and

5088-512: The federal government passed the Enforcement Acts , which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes. The first Klan had mixed results in terms of achieving its objectives. It seriously weakened the Black political leadership through its use of assassinations and threats of violence, and it drove some people out of politics. On the other hand, it caused a sharp backlash, with passage of federal laws that historian Eric Foner says were

5184-659: The federal government to retain its power over the South, and they began to turn against it. There were outlandish claims made, such as Georgian B. H. Hill stating "that some of these outrages were actually perpetrated by the political friends of the parties slain." Union Army veterans in mountainous Blount County, Alabama , organized "the anti-Ku Klux". They put an end to violence by threatening Klansmen with reprisals unless they stopped whipping Unionists and burning Black churches and schools. Armed Black people formed their own defense in Bennettsville, South Carolina , and patrolled

5280-488: The first six months of the Association's national recruitment campaign, Klan membership had increased by 85,000. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization's membership ranged from three to eight million members. In 1923, Simmons was ousted as leader of the KKK by Hiram Wesley Evans . From September 1923 there were two Ku Klux Klan organizations: the one founded by Simmons and led by Evans with its strength primarily in

5376-602: The form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK name. They have focused on opposition to the civil rights movement , often using violence and murder to suppress activists. This manifestation is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center . As of 2016 , the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership nationwide at around 3,000, while

5472-641: The government of the Caribbean island of Dominica . He and nine others planned to help Patrick John , the previous prime minister, reassume power in trade for permission to use the island as a base for drug trafficking and white supremacy. After spending three years in prison, Droege continued promoting neo-Nazism and trafficking drugs. In 1985, Droege was sentenced to a thirteen-year jail sentence in Alabama for possession of cocaine and weapons, however he only served four years before returning to Canada in April 1989. Tired of

5568-417: The group's leader in 1976. Taylor changed the name of the group to Western Guard Party. The group's membership declined under his idiosyncratic leadership. Many members, including Wolfgang Droege , left to join the Nationalist Party of Canada which had been founded by Andrews when he was released from prison in 1978. In 1979, Taylor was charged with hate speech for the Western Guard's telephonic messages and

5664-541: The high number of veterans in the population, but also to their effort to control the dramatically changed social situation by using extrajudicial means to restore white supremacy. In 1866, Mississippi governor William L. Sharkey reported that disorder, lack of control, and lawlessness were widespread; in some states armed bands of Confederate soldiers roamed at will. The Klan used public violence against Black people and their allies as intimidation. They burned houses and attacked and killed Black people , leaving their bodies on

5760-447: The island of Dominica in 1979. Andrews initially supported Mike Purdue and Wolfgang Droege ’s plan to overthrow the government of Dominica in 1979. He later withdrew his active support but still gave contact information of people who could help. As leader of the Nationalist Party, Andrews has run for public office numerous times including the election for the Mayor of Toronto in 2010. Wolfgang Droege (September 25, 1949 – April 13, 2005)

5856-439: The journal Patterns of Prejudice describes how Heritage Front functions: “[Heritage Front] broadcasts oppressive messages on its hate lines. It physically fights with anti-racists on the streets. It harasses people of colour. It celebrates Aryan fests along with other racists. And, in addition, it has a presence at international conferences, creates and disseminates racist posters and flyers, mounts White Power concerts, recruits in

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5952-419: The last few years. Adrien Arcand (October 3, 1899 – August 1, 1967) was a journalist from Montreal and one of the earliest and most influential Fascist leaders in Canada. He was the editor for several Canadian antisemitic newspapers. In 1934, he created the National Social Christian Party, and in 1938 his party merged with the Prairie provinces' Canadian Nationalist Party and Ontario’s Nationalist Party. Arcand

6048-423: The late 1860s, assaulted and murdered politically active Black people and their allies in the South . The second iteration of the Klan originated in the late 1910s, and was the first to use cross burnings and white-hooded robes. The KKK of the 1920s had a nationwide membership in the millions and reflected a cross-section of the native-born white English-speaking and Protestant population. The third Klan formed in

6144-475: The late 1970s he started using Samisdat Publishers to produce and distribute Nazi and neo-Nazi propaganda. Court cases followed and Zündel was sentenced to serve 15 months of jail time for publishing lies about the Holocaust. The publicity made Zündel an even more influential figure among neo-Nazi organizations and he used his newfound influence to help further white supremacist movements. Zündel applied for Canadian citizenship twice. During his second attempt in 1994,

6240-466: The leaders of churches and community groups, because these people had many roles in society. Agents of the Freedmen's Bureau reported weekly assaults and murders of Black people. "Armed guerrilla warfare killed thousands of Negroes; political riots were staged; their causes or occasions were always obscure, their results always certain: ten to one hundred times as many Negroes were killed as whites." Masked men shot into houses and burned them, sometimes with

6336-410: The man who introduced him to the World Church of the Creator . In 1989, Burdi started the band RaHoWa and performed in occasional shows that usually ended in riots. In 1993, George Burdi established Resistance Records , the number one distributor of skinhead music. For a time, Burdi led the Toronto Branch of the Church of the Creator and continued performing and selling skinhead music . In 1995, Burdi

6432-415: The mid 20th century, largely as a reaction to the growing civil rights movement . It used murder and bombings to achieve its aims. All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society, and are all considered far-right extremist organizations. In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both allies and enemies. The first Klan, established in

6528-440: The militia against the Klan in 1870, adding to his unpopularity. This and extensive violence and fraud at the polls caused the Republicans to lose their majority in the state legislature. Disaffection with Holden's actions contributed to white Democratic legislators impeaching him and removing him from office, but their reasons for doing so were numerous. Western Guard Party The Western Guard Party , founded in 1972 as

6624-411: The occupants still inside. They drove successful Black farmers off their land. "Generally, it can be reported that in North and South Carolina, in 18 months ending in June 1867, there were 197 murders and 548 cases of aggravated assault." Klan violence worked to suppress Black voting, and campaign seasons were deadly. More than 2,000 people were killed, wounded, or otherwise injured in Louisiana within

6720-404: The only objects of the Klan", according to Albert Stevens in 1907. The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski. The origins of the hood are uncertain; it may have been appropriated from the Spanish capirote hood, or it may be traced to the uniform of Southern Mardi Gras celebrations. According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there

6816-418: The public by the press in 1992 and Heritage Front members were expelled from the party. Based on the white supremacist idea of “awakening people to the reality of race”, Heritage Front members believe themselves to be revolutionaries with the duty of creating a new and racially pure society. Heritage Front is primarily an activist organization that organizes white supremacist activities. The following quote from

6912-512: The radical right-wing's perception of the Klan as outdated and unfashionable. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that between 2016 and 2019, the number of Klan groups in America dropped from 130 to just 51. A 2016 report by the Anti-Defamation League claims an estimate of just over 30 active Klan groups existing in the United States. Estimates of total collective membership range from about 3,000 to 8,000. In addition to its active membership,

7008-464: The roads. At an 1867 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee , Klan members gathered to try to create a hierarchical organization with local chapters eventually reporting to a national headquarters. Since most of the Klan's members were veterans, they were used to such military hierarchy, but the Klan never operated under this centralized structure. Local chapters and bands were highly independent. Former Confederate brigadier general George Gordon developed

7104-659: The scapegoat and the heretic." It preached "One Hundred Percent Americanism" and demanded the purification of politics, calling for strict morality and better enforcement of Prohibition . Its official rhetoric focused on the threat of the Catholic Church , using anti-Catholicism and nativism . Its appeal was directed exclusively toward white Protestants; it opposed Jews, Black people, Catholics, and newly arriving Southern and Eastern European immigrants such as Italians , Russians , and Lithuanians , many of whom were Jewish or Catholic. Some local groups threatened violence against rum runners and those they deemed "notorious sinners";

7200-425: The schoolyards, brings in speakers like Tom Metzger, meets with white-supremacist and nationalist leaders throughout the world, networks with other groups on the radical right, publishes a magazine, and posts articles and messages on its website.” One of the key goals of Heritage Front is to unite far right organizations and people. As such, it keeps close ties with other white supremacist groups such as Aryan Nations ,

7296-407: The south and northern states; it was funded by initiation fees and selling its members a standard white costume. The chapters did not have dues. It used K-words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others. It rapidly declined in the latter half of the 1920s. The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after 1950, in

7392-565: The southern United States, and a breakaway group led by Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson based in Evansville, Indiana with its membership primarily in the midwestern United States. Internal divisions, criminal behavior by leaders – especially Stephenson's conviction for the abduction, rape, and murder of Madge Oberholtzer – and external opposition brought about a collapse in the membership of both groups. The main group's membership had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930. It finally faded away in

7488-464: The state. A riot and massacre occurred in a Meridian, Mississippi , courthouse, from which a Black state representative escaped by fleeing to the woods. The 1871 Civil Rights Act allowed the president to suspend habeas corpus . In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed Butler's legislation. The Ku Klux Klan Act and the Enforcement Act of 1870 were used by the federal government to enforce

7584-399: The streets to protect their homes. National sentiment gathered to crack down on the Klan, even though some Democrats at the national level questioned whether the Klan really existed, or believed that it was a creation of nervous Southern Republican governors. Many southern states began to pass anti-Klan legislation. In January 1871, Pennsylvania Republican senator John Scott convened

7680-495: The violent episodes generally took place in the South. The Red Knights were a militant group organized in opposition to the Klan and responded violently to Klan provocations on several occasions. The second Klan was a formal fraternal organization , with a national and state structure. During the resurgence of the second Klan in the 1920s, its publicity was handled by the Southern Publicity Association . Within

7776-497: The wake of the Civil War , was a defining organization of the Reconstruction era . Federal law enforcement began taking action against it around 1871. The Klan sought to overthrow Republican state governments in the South, especially by using voter intimidation and targeted violence against African-American leaders. The Klan was organized into numerous independent chapters across the Southern United States. Each chapter

7872-455: Was a gradual transformation. ... The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all—that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do." The KKK had no organizational structure above the chapter level. However, there were similar groups across

7968-485: Was a neo-Nazi leader from Canada. Born in Germany, he was raised by parents and grandparents who had been supporters of the Nazi Party. In the early 1970s, Droege moved to Canada. He quickly became affiliated with far-right politics and joined the Western Guard Party in the early 1970s, but left to join the Nationalist Party of Canada in 1975 and the Ku Klux Klan in 1976. In 1981, Droege was arrested for plotting to overthrow

8064-460: Was a neo-Nazi organization created by Wolfgang Droege in 1989 in Toronto. Leaders of the white supremacist movement were “disgruntled about the state of the radical right” and wanted to unite and intensify the unorganized groups of white supremacists into an influential and efficient group with common objectives. Plans for the organization began in September 1989 and Heritage Front was formally announced

8160-524: Was a witness for the Ernst Zündel trials in the early twenty-first century, and continued to promote white supremacy, but has faded to the background of the neo-Nazi scene. Don Andrews (born 1942 as Vilim Zlomislic) is a Croat that was born during World War II in what is now Serbia. His father was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans and was killed fighting Nazis in occupied Yugoslavia, and his mother

8256-584: Was autonomous and highly secretive about membership and plans. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and pointed hats , designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities. The second Klan started in 1915 as a small group in Georgia . It suddenly started to grow after 1920 and flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West . Taking inspiration from D. W. Griffith 's 1915 silent film The Birth of

8352-522: Was brought before the Canadian Human Rights Commission . He was ultimately imprisoned for contempt of court when he continued the Guard's racist answering machine messages. The group became an essentially one-person party in the 1980s, and was defunct by the middle of the decade. Despite calling itself a party, the Western Guard never registered as a federal or provincial political party and

8448-399: Was charged with offences ranging from plotting arson, possession of weapons and explosives, and mischief, and was sentenced to two years in jail. Although Western Guard did plot to bomb a visiting Israeli soccer team, Don Andrews was not convicted of this crime. In order to fulfill his bail conditions, Andrews separated himself from the Western Guard. Veteran fascist John Ross Taylor became

8544-473: Was chosen to be the leader of this new National Unity Party of Canada , however, this right wing fascist party was banned during World War II under the Defence of Canada Regulations . Arcand was arrested and incarcerated throughout the duration of the war. After the fall of Nazi Germany , Arcand lost popularity and influence, but continued promoting anti-communism and antisemitism and still referred to himself as

8640-493: Was convicted of assault and sentenced to a year in prison. After a month, he was released only for his conviction to be upheld again in 1997. During his jail time, Burdi decided that he didn't want to have anything to do with white supremacy and after he was released from his year-long prison sentence, Burdi's involvement in the neo-Nazi movement ended and he separated himself from his old life and renounced racism. In an interview with Intelligence Report , Burdi stated that, “Racism

8736-489: Was founded atop Stone Mountain , Georgia, by William Joseph Simmons . While Simmons relied on documents from the original Klan and memories of some surviving elders, the revived Klan was based significantly on the wildly popular film The Birth of a Nation . The earlier Klan had not worn the white costumes and had not burned crosses; these aspects were introduced in Thomas Dixon 's book The Clansman: A Historical Romance of

8832-856: Was not welcome in Canada and is believed to be living with relatives in Bad Wildbad, Germany. He died in Germany in 2017. Tom Metzger was born in Warsaw, Indiana, in 1938. In his small town, he lived nearly unexposed to other races. After graduating from high school, Metzger was drafted into the U.S. army and quickly became a corporal. After he served his tour of duty, Metzger moved to California, where he joined several different white supremacist organizations. Metzger's ambition and drive to lead left him disenchanted with these different organizations and he eventually established his own neo-Nazi organization known as White Aryan Resistance . Besides promoting neo-Nazism, Tom Metzger ran for United States Senator several times as both

8928-475: Was ordered by the courts to not participate in the Western Guard after being convicted of conspiring to bomb an Israeli soccer team. As a result, Andrews created the Nationalist Party of Canada . Besides leading the Nationalist Party, Don Andrews has been associated with other neo-Nazis and far-right activities all over Canada. One of the most well-known incidents that involves Andrews was the plot to take over

9024-492: Was originally presumed that his murder was caused by his involvement in a love triangle, it is now accepted that his murderer was a delusional paranoid drug user that turned on him. George Burdi was born in 1970 in Toronto. He was raised by Christian parents, then began to develop racist tendencies at age 18, to gain approval from his girlfriend's father. Although his parents disapproved, Burdi continued to study neo-Nazi literature and in his first year at college met Ernst Zündel ,

9120-482: Was prominent in many cities. Writer W. J. Cash , in his 1941 book The Mind of the South characterized the second Klan as "anti-Negro, anti-Alien, anti-Red, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-Darwin, anti-Modern, anti-Liberal, Fundamentalist, vastly Moral, [and] militantly Protestant. And summing up these fears, it brought them into focus with the tradition of the past, and above all with the ancient Southern pattern of high romantic histrionics, violence and mass coercion of

9216-557: Was taken to Germany where after the war she met and married a Canadian and moved to Toronto. She eventually found her son via the Red Cross and in 1952 Zlomislic was brought to Canada and renamed Donald Andrews. Andrews cofounded a far right organization known as the Edmund Burke Society in 1967. Andrews became the main leader of the group and transformed it into the overtly racist Western Guard Party in 1972. However, in 1975 Andrews

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