Stephen Donald Black"UK 'least wanted' list published"
BBC News, May 5, 2009. Retrieved on 2009-05-06. (born July 28, 1953) is an American

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

. He is the founder and

webmaster A webmaster is a person responsible for maintaining one or more websites. The title may refer to web architects, web developers, site authors, website administrators, website owners, website coordinators, or website publishers. The duties of ...

of the anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, white supremacist,

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

, homophobic, Islamophobic, and racist Stormfront

Internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

.Sources which consider Stormfront a white supremacist website are: * * * * * * * * He was a

Grand Wizard The Grand Wizard (later the Grand and Imperial Wizard simplified as the Imperial Wizard and eventually, the National Director) referred to the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad. The t ...

in the Ku Klux Klan and a member of the

American Nazi Party The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise Nation ...

in the 1970s, though at the time he was a member it was known as the "National Socialist White Peoples' Party". He was convicted in 1981 of attempting an armed overthrow of the government in the island of Dominica in violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act.

Early life

Black was born in

Athens, Alabama Athens is a city in and the county seat of Limestone County, in the U.S. state of Alabama; it is included in the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 21,897. Histo ...

, and became a white supremacy advocate at an early age when he began passing out swastika-adorned pamphlets from the National Socialist White People's Party at his high school, Athens High School, before transferring to Madison Academy in the fall of 1970 in order to avoid attending school with black students. This led to a decision by the local school board to ban the distribution of political literature. Black countered by mailing literature to student addresses obtained from school handbooks. In the summer of 1970, after his junior year at Athens High School, Black traveled to

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, to work on the gubernatorial campaign of J. B. Stoner, a

segregationist Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...

and leader of the

National States' Rights Party The National States' Rights Party was a white supremacist political party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States. Foundation Founded in 1958 in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Edward Reed Fields, a 26-year-old chiropractor ...

(NSRP). It was in this election that

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

won the Georgia governorship. Black was asked to obtain a copy of the NSRP membership list by Robert Lloyd, a leader of the National Socialist White People's Party, formerly known as the

. At the time, Black was a member of the Party's youth branch, the National Socialist Youth Movement. Also working on the Stoner campaign was Jerry Ray, brother of

James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was cap ...

, who committed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. On July 25, 1970, Jerry Ray shot Black (who was 16 at the time) in the chest with a .38-caliber

hollow-point bullet upright=0.2, Cross-section of a hollow-point bullet; proportions are those of a .22 Long Rifle cartridge Jacketed soft point (JSP) round. Right: Jacketed hollow-point (JHP) round. JSP is a semi-jacketed round as the jacket does not extend to ...

to stop him from taking files from Stoner's campaign office. Ray was acquitted of all charges, saying he shot in self-defense after Black reached for what appeared to be a weapon. Black finished his senior year at Madison Academy, a private school in Huntsville. Then after high school, Black graduated from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...

in 1975. In the early 1970s, Black traveled on a road trip to an

conference in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

with fellow white supremacists

David Duke David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a membe ...

and

Joseph Paul Franklin Joseph Paul Franklin (born James Clayton Vaughn Jr.; April 13, 1950 – November 20, 2013) was an American white supremacist and serial killer who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s. Franklin was convicted of seve ...

(the latter of who was later convicted of multiple acts of racial and antisemitic

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

and executed for

serial murder A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

The Ku Klux Klan and Operation Red Dog

Black joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1975, one year after

took over the organization. He moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

to become the group's state organizer. After the

resignation Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...

of Duke in 1980, Black became

, or national director, of the Klan. In 1979, he ran for

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

of Birmingham, receiving 2.5% of the vote.

Richard Arrington Jr. Richard Arrington Jr. (born October 19, 1934 in Livingston, Alabama) was the first Black mayor of the city of Birmingham, Alabama (U.S.), serving 20 years, from 1979 to 1999. He replaced David Vann and, upon retiring after five terms in offi ...

won the mayoral election, becoming Birmingham's first African American mayor. On April 27, 1981, Black and nine other would-be mercenaries – many recruited from Klan affiliated organizations – were arrested in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

as they prepared to board a boat stocked with

weapon A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, ...

s and ammunition to invade the island nation Dominica in what they would call

Operation Red Dog Operation Red Dog was the code name of an April 27, 1981 military filibustering plot by Canadian and American citizens, largely affiliated with white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan groups, to overthrow the government of Dominica, where they planne ...

. Local media labeled the botched attempt the "Bayou of Pigs", a play on words for the unsuccessful 1961 "

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...

" of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. Black later explained the invasion as an attempt to set up an anti-communist regime, saying, "What we were doing was in the best interests of the United States and its security in the hemisphere, and we feel betrayed by our own government." The invasion was intended to restore former prime minister

Patrick John Patrick Roland John (7 January 1938 – 6 July 2021) was the first Prime Minister of Dominica as well as its last Premier. He led Dominica to independence from the United Kingdom. He was leader of the Waterfront and Allied Workers' Union and ma ...

to the mostly black Caribbean island. Prosecutors said the real purpose for the invasion would have been to set up tourism, gambling, offshore banking, and timber logging operations on the impoverished island. In 1981, Black was sentenced to three years in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

for his role in the attempted invasion and his violation of the Neutrality Act. Black,

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

#16692-034, was released on November 15, 1984. During his time in federal prison Black took computer programming classes which led him to establish Stormfront on the Internet years later. He ran for office in Alabama, this time as a Populist Party U.S. Senate candidate.

Stormfront

In 1995, Black founded Stormfront, which was the Internet's first significant website espousing racial hate. It remains among the most popular online resources for those drawn to racist ideologies. Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. ''The Scope of Tolerance: Studies on the costs of free expression and freedom of the press''. Routledge, 2005. 254. The site has featured the writings of

William Luther Pierce William Luther Pierce III (September 11, 1933 – July 23, 2002) was an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and far-right political activist. For more than 30 years, he was one of the highest-profile individuals of the white nationalist movemen ...

and

as well as works by the

Holocaust denying Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a " his ...

and the '' Culture of Critique'' series. At first, along with these articles, Stormfront housed a library of

white pride White pride and white power are expressions primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints. It is also a slogan used by the prominen ...

, neo-Nazi and

white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and ...

graphics for downloading, and a number of links to other white nationalist websites. In a 1998 interview for the alternative weekly newspaper '' Miami New Times'', Black said: "We want to take America back. We know a multicultural Yugoslav nation can't hold up for too long.

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

won't have any choice but to take military action. It's our children whose interests we have to defend." (Stormfront copy of original article) In 1999, Black created the website "martinlutherking.org", which is administered by Stormfront. This website was created to malign the character of Dr King. In January 2018, the site remained online and surpassed sites containing reliable content in Google search results. In December 2007, Black gained attention for donating money to Ron Paul's 2008 presidential run. In 2008, Black said that the establishment of white pride as a special interest group within the Republican Party is crucial. Quote from Black: "Non è più tempo per cercare di creare un terzo partito destinato alla marginalità, dobbiamo presentarci ad ogni elezione primaria dentro il partito repubblicano così da imporre i nostri temi nel dibattito, dobbiamo lavorare per creare un nostro gruppo di interesse, per restaurare le tradizioni e i veri valori bianchi". This translates as: "There is no more time to try to create a third party for the marginalized, we must enter every primary election within the Republican Party to impose our issues in the debate, we must work to create our special interest group, to restore tradition and true white values." Asked by an interviewer for Italian newspaper ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

'' if Stormfront was not just the new Ku Klux Klan, Black responded affirmatively, though he noted that he would never say so to an American journalist. On May 5, 2009, it was announced that Black was one of 22 on a British Home Office

list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom The Home Office, a United Kingdom government department, has, from August 2005 to 31 March 2009, excluded 101 individuals from the UK for having "engaged in unacceptable behaviour". Of those, 22 were excluded by then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith b ...

for "promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence". The Stormfront forum acts as one of the largest online gatherings of racism and Holocaust deniers in the world, with threads on this theme gaining hundreds of thousands of views. A number of radio shows published by Black's web site have featured Holocaust denial.

Family

In 2008, various media outlets reported that Black's wife, Chloe, worked as an executive assistant for sugar baron José Fanjul who runs the Florida Crystals company and owns a real estate business in Latin American countries. In particular, her job duties included acting as the spokesperson for a charter school "to lift underprivileged black and Hispanic children out of poverty." The story resulted in Black being criticized by some other white nationalists. Chloe was previously married to

. In August 2008, Black's 19-year-old son Derek Black was elected to one of 111 seats on the Palm Beach County, Florida, Republican committee, with 167 of 287 votes. The committee however, refused to seat Black, citing a loyalty oath he failed to sign before registering his candidacy. The oath states candidates must refrain from activities "likely to injure the name of the Republican Party." He hosted the '' Derek Black Show'' weekdays on a local West Palm Beach, Florida, AM radio station,

WPBR WPBR (1340 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Lantana, Florida and serving the West Palm Beach area. The station airs a Haitian Creole talk and contemporary hits radio format. It is owned by Palm Beach Radio Group LLC. In add ...

, to which Don Black paid $600 a week to broadcast content on. The radio show ended in January 2013, with Derek Black appearing on few episodes over the last year. By summer 2013, Derek Black had called into question his racist ideologies, and he began to renounce white supremacism and issued an apology to those harmed by his previous actions and beliefs. His renunciation reportedly shocked his father and like-minded people. By 2016, Derek Black had fully renounced his white nationalist views and was actively speaking out against such views in the press. ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'' staff writer

Eli Saslow Eli Eric Saslow (born May 15, 1982) is an American journalist, currently a writer-at-large for ''The New York Times''. He has also written for ''The Washington Post'' and ''ESPN The Magazine''. He is a 2014 and a 2023 winner of the Pulitzer Priz ...

detailed the ideological transformation of Derek which began with the rejection of his family, moving to Michigan and assuming a new name and eventually becoming a Ph.D. student at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, studying Medieval Islam.

References

External links