Author | Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer |
---|---|
Publisher | Villard |
Publication date | February 23, 1993 |
Media type | Hardcover |
Pages | 280 |
ISBN | 0-679-40614-X |
OCLC | 27188030 |
364.1 20 | |
LC Class | KF228.M48 D44 1993 |
Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi is a book by Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer recounting the civil trial of Berhanu v. Metzger in which the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League sued Tom Metzger and White Aryan Resistance. [1] [2]
The SPLC and ADL successfully argued that Meztger's organization was civilly liable for the murder of Mulugeta Seraw receiving a $12.5 million judgement. [3]
According to the New York Times book review, "the descriptions of the people involved are well wrought, and a moral quest fuels this book with driving power." [4]
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.
The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen and Silent Brotherhood, was a Neo-Nazi terrorist organization active in the United States between September 1983 and December 1984. The group raised funds via armed robbery. Ten members were tried and convicted for racketeering, and two for their role in the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg.
White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization in the United States which was founded and formerly led by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Tom Metzger. It was based in Warsaw, Indiana, and it was also incorporated as a business. In 1993, the group expanded into Canada.
Morris Seligman Dees Jr. is an American attorney known as the co-founder and former chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), based in Montgomery, Alabama. He ran a direct marketing firm before founding SPLC. Along with his law partner, Joseph J. Levin Jr., Dees founded the SPLC in 1971. Dees and his colleagues at the SPLC have been "credited with devising innovative ways to cripple hate groups" such as the Ku Klux Klan, particularly by using "damage litigation".
Richard Girnt Butler was an American engineer, revolutionary, and white separatist. After dedicating himself to the Christian Identity movement, a racialist offshoot of British Israelism, Butler founded the National Socialist Aryan Nations and would become the "spiritual godfather" to the white separatist movement, in which he was a leading figure. He has been described as a "notorious racist".
The Imperial Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (IKA) is a white supremacist, white nationalist, neo-Nazi paramilitary organization. Until the late 2000s, it was the second largest Klan group in the United States, and at one point in the early 2000s, it was the largest. In 2008, the IKA was reported to have at least 23 chapters in 17 states, most of which were small.
William Alexander White is an American neo-Nazi. He was the former leader of the American National Socialist Workers' Party, and former administrator of Overthrow.com, a now-defunct website dedicated to racist and antisemitic content.
Mulugeta Seraw was an Ethiopian student who traveled to the United States to attend college. He was 28 when he was murdered by three white supremacists in November 1988 in Portland, Oregon. They were convicted, and Mulugeta's father and son—who was six years old—filed a civil lawsuit against the killers and an affiliated organization, holding them liable for the murder.
Villard, also known as Villard Books, is a publishing imprint of Random House, one of the largest publishing companies in the world, owned in full by Bertelsmann since its acquisition of a final 25% stake in 2019, and grouped in Penguin Random House since 2013. Villard was founded in 1983.
The United Klans of America Inc. (UKA), based in Alabama, is a Ku Klux Klan organization active in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in membership in the late 1960s and 1970s, and it was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters was the Anglo-Saxon Club outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Robert Marvin Shelton was an American salesman and printer who became notorious for being the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America (UKA), a Ku Klux Klan group, active from the early 1960s until 1987.
Irwin Suall was an American socialist, union organizer, civil rights activist, investigator and researcher. He was national director of fact-finding for the Anti-Defamation League from 1967 to 1997 in which capacity he directed that organization's undercover intelligence gathering on extremist groups.
Wyatt C. Kaldenberg is an American white supremacist and a supporter of Tom Metzger's Neo-Nazi White Aryan Resistance (WAR) organization. He is also an Odinist, and an author of several books.
Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-Nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined a total of $12.5 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.
The Macedonia Baptist Church is a centuries-old historically black church located in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina. It was destroyed by arsonists following direction from the local Ku Klux Klan chapter known as the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was later rebuilt afterwards. Four Klansmen were convicted for the crime, and a subsequent civil suit effectively closed the Klan chapter's operation in the county. The successful civil suit was called a "wake-up call" indicating that racial violence would not be tolerated.
Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich, more commonly known as Mike Enoch, is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, blogger, and podcast host. He founded the alt-right media network The Right Stuff and podcast The Daily Shoah. Through his work, Enoch ridicules African Americans, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and white genocide.
Christopher Charles Cantwell, also known as the Crying Nazi, is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist.
Elliott Kline, also known as Eli Mosley, is an American neo-Nazi. He is the former leader of Identity Evropa, and was a prominent organizer in the alt-right movement between 2017 and 2018. He was also a key figure behind the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was one of several neo-Nazi rallies that Kline helped organize.
Andrew Barret Anglin is an American neo-Nazi and conspiracy theorist, and editor of the website The Daily Stormer. Through this website, Anglin uses elements of Nazism combined with Internet memes originating from 4chan to promote white supremacy, fascism, and antisemitic conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial to a young audience.
Sines v. Kessler was a civil lawsuit against various organizers, promoters, and participants in the Unite the Right rally, a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. The trial began in October 2021, and on November 23, the jury reached a mixed verdict in which they found various defendants liable on claims of civil conspiracy and race-based harassment or violence. They also found James A. Fields Jr., the perpetrator of the car attack against counterprotesters at the rally, liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm. Altogether, the jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $25 million in punitive and compensatory damages, though this was later reduced by the judge to $2.35 million.