Media depictions
The IKA was featured on National Geographic's "Inside American Terror" in 2008 and it was also featured on The History Channel's Gangland in 2009. [21]
| Formation | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | White supremacy White nationalism Neo-Nazism Antisemitism Homophobia [1] Anti-miscegenation |
| Headquarters | Dawson Springs, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Ron Edwards | |
| Affiliations | Ku Klux Klan |
| Website | imperialklansofamerica.com (archived) |
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, [2] and at one point in the early 2000s, it was the largest. [3] In 2008, the IKA was reported to have at least 23 chapters in 17 states, most of which were small. [4]
Since then, the IKA has been weakened by a $2.5 million judgment which was imposed on its leader, Ron Edwards, and several of its members, in 2008, for the beating of a 16-year-old teenager of Native American descent, followed by Edwards' conviction and a 4-year prison sentence on drug and gun charges in 2011. [3] Although the IKA remains active in 2020, [2] [5] it had dwindled to only 2 chapters by 2012. [3]
The IKA is headquartered at a compound in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, which serves as a venue for the hate-rock gathering Nordic Fest. [2] The group describes itself as the sixth era of the Ku Klux Klan, and as such, it argues that it has constitutional rights as part of the "Unorganized Militia" and it also argues that it stands upon Supreme Court decisions in favor of previous Klans. [6]
In 2011, a recurring hoax concerning the IKA's endorsement of Barack Obama was once again exposed as a farce based on a parody website's humorous reporting. [7] In fact, in 2008, Ron Edwards was quoted as supporting John McCain, despite expressing strong dislike for him, as a means of preventing Obama from taking office. [8]
In the early 1990s, Ron Edwards was the head of a Kentucky-based klavern (local unit) of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In July 1994, he joined the short-lived Federation of Klans after it broke away from the Knights of the KKK, which, under the leadership of Thomas Robb, had been seeking to improve the Klan's image by portraying it as a gentler organization. Led by former Robb follower Ed Novak, the splinter group died out in 1995. The following year, Edwards founded his own organization, the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. In April 1998 Edwards' home was raided by federal agents as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to bomb a federal building, but the charges were eventually dropped. [3]
From 2000 onward, Edwards used his Dawson Springs compound to host a local Nordic Fest, an annual neo-Pagan and white power music festival which helped the IKA connect with young white nationalists. At one point in the early 2000s, the IKA became the largest active Ku Klux Klan group in the United States. In 2001, more than 300 people attended the event, but only 60 of them came in 2003 due to conflicts with the racist music distributors Panzerfaust and Resistance Records, which had both complained about Edwards' personal conduct and his mistreatment of their bands. [3]
In July 2006, Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old teenager of Panamanian Indian (Native American) descent, [9] was beaten to the ground at a county fair in Brandenburg, Kentucky, by two IKA members who thought he was Latino. Gruver's left forearm and jaw were both broken in the attack, and in 2008, he testified that he was suffering from permanent nerve damage and psychological trauma. [10] [3] In February 2007, IKA members Jarred R. Hensley and Andrew R. Watkins were convicted and sentenced to three years in prison as punishment for their involvement in the incident. [2] [11]
In Meade County, Kentucky and on Gruver's behalf, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a civil suit against IKA "Imperial Wizard" Ron Edwards and the IKA for the actions of the IKA members. Morris Dees, together with William F. McMurry of Louisville, Kentucky, represented Jordan Gruver in the trial against the IKA. [12] On the second day of the civil trial, a former member of the IKA testified that the Klan had told him to kill Southern Poverty Law Center chief attorney Morris Dees. [13]
On November 14, 2008, a jury of seven men and seven women ruled against Edwards and awarded Gruver $1.5 million in compensatory damages and it also awarded Gruver $1 million in punitive damages. [14] Following the decision, Edwards resigned as leader of the IKA. [3] He appealed against the ruling, and the court overturned the decision on January 14, 2011, sending it to a second trial in the original court venue. [15] His appeal was ultimately denied by the Kentucky Supreme Court in March 2012. [16]
According to Dees, the SPLC's founder and Gruver's counsel during the case, the SPLC received nearly a dozen threats during the case. [17] A July 2007 letter allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host. [17]
In 2010, Edwards and his girlfriend, Christine Gillette were arrested for possession and distribution of controlled substances, including hydrocodone and methamphetamine. According to the SPLC, the Supreme White Alliance, a white power skinhead group that had been assisting the IKA with annual hate rock gatherings, decided to break ties with the IKA after Edwards' arrest. [18] [19] In March 2011, Edwards pleaded guilty to federal drug and gun charges and was sentenced to four years in prison. [9]
Propaganda stickers which threatened Muslims and homosexuals and promoted an "Imperial Klans of America, Brazil" were reportedly left in Niterói in 2015. [20]
The IKA was featured on National Geographic's "Inside American Terror" in 2008 and it was also featured on The History Channel's Gangland in 2009. [21]
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is the name of several historical and current American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organizations and hate groups. The Klan was "the first organized terror movement in American history." Their primary targets are African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, atheists, and abortion providers.
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.
Black supremacy or black supremacism is a racial supremacist belief which maintains that black people are inherently superior to people of other races.
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 in what they dubbed Operation Maple Leaf.
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".
Eldon Lee Edwards was an American Ku Klux Klan leader.
Stephen Donald Black is an American white supremacist. He is the founder and webmaster of the neo-Nazi, Holocaust denial, and homophobic website Stormfront. He was a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and a member of the American Nazi Party 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.
The grand wizard is the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad.
In military science, a compound is a type of fortification made up of walls or fences surrounding several buildings in the center of a large piece of land. The walls can either serve the purpose of being tall, thick, and impenetrable, in which case they would be made of wood, stone, or some other like substance; or dangerous to attempt to scale, in which case they could be made of barbed wire or electrified. Compounds can be designed to double as living spaces and military structures in the middle of hostile territory or as a military area within a country's territory; they are also used by civilians and government officials and those who want to protect against threats to themselves or their property.
Thomas Robb is an American white supremacist, Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and Christian Identity pastor. He is the National Director of the Knights Party, also known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, taking control of the organization since the year 1989.
Louis Ray Beam, Jr. is an American white supremacist, conspiracy theorist and neo-fascist.
The national leader of the Ku Klux Klan is called either a Grand Wizard or an Imperial Wizard, depending on which KKK organization is being described.
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 former car-tire salesman and printer who became nationally famous as the Imperial Wizard of United Klans of America (UKA), a Ku Klux Klan group.
Bill Riccio is a leader in the white power skinhead movement in the United States who gained public notoriety for his appearance in the 1993 documentary Skinheads: Soldiers of the Race War. He has been convicted numerous times on illegal weapon possession charges, the most recent of which was in 1992.
Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and islamophobia, as well as anti-feminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a group styled after the original Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Formed around 2012, it aims to "restore America to a White, Christian nation founded on God's word".
Outlaw homo-sexuality and inter-racial marriages.Until 20 or so years ago, nearly all states had 'sodomy' and miscegenation laws and statutes that were strictly enforced. Since that time they have been repealed or are ignored, the results are obvious with the plague of AIDS now ravaging our land. Both of these abominations against God and nature must be stopped if America is ever to return to the great Christian nation it once was.
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