Kevin Alfred Strom

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Kevin Alfred Strom
Kevin alfred strom headcrop.jpg
Strom in 2006
Born1956 (age 68–69)
Known for Neo-Nazi activism
SpouseKirsten Kaiser (divorced)
Children3
Website www.kevinalfredstrom.com

Kevin Alfred Strom (born 1956) is an American white nationalist and neo-Nazi from Virginia who founded the National Vanguard. In 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Strom was born in 1956 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He was raised a Lutheran. Strom had a poor relationship with his father, an alcoholic who verbally abused him; when Strom was in his twenties his father killed himself. [3] [4]

In high school, he developed a right-wing anticommunist ideology. [5] [3] Strom indicates a high school teacher who shared his hatred of communism introduced him to the John Birch Society (JBS) where he first met members of the explicitly white supremacist National Alliance (NA). [6] [3]

White supremacy

Strom attended NA meetings throughout the 1970s, working for the organization after he graduated high school and as a broadcast engineer. [3] [4] Working under the NA's leader William Luther Pierce, Strom became a believer in the concept of a Zionist Occupied Government in the United States, [6] [7] and a neo-Nazi. [8] He became very close to Pierce, and according to his then-wife, Strom saw him as a father figure. [4] As a result of Strom's influence, Pierce bought the white supremacist Resistance Records. [4] [3] In 1990, during a visit by Nelson Mandela to the United States, Strom was arrested outside of the South African embassy for, during a rally in favor of apartheid, assaulting a police officer. The charges were later dropped. [4] [3] [9]

According to Strom's ex-wife, Kirsten Kaiser, Voice of Tomorrow was operated by Strom. [10] Strom had three children with his first wife, Kirsten Kaiser. [11] Since their marriage ended, Kaiser has spoken about her life with Strom in several interviews. [11] [10] She has also written a book, The Bondage of Self, on her experiences with Strom and the National Alliance. [11]

As part of his involvement with NA, Strom broadcast a weekly "American Dissident Voices" hour on radio, [7] [12] [13] espousing antisemitic views. [14] He operated the program in the early 1990s, lost control of it, then was again given the reigns following Pierce's death. [12]

During the weekend of April 16–17, 2005, Strom and several others were expelled from the National Alliance because of a dispute with the new leader Erich Gliebe. [7] Gliebe accused him of attempting to seize power and with several others Strom was expelled. [3] [13] Strom and some other expelled members founded the National Vanguard, headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia. Claiming that his new organization was the true successor to the NA, Strom continued his weekly radio broadcasts and used the National Vanguard's website to host and promote the views of other racists, including David Duke. [15]

Strom was briefly the managing editor of The Truth At Last newspaper during 2005. Several sources have described this tabloid as being highly antisemitic and racist, because it often referred to Africans as an inferior race. [16] [17]

Strom's 1993 quote "To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?" has been paraphrased and erroneously attributed to the philosopher Voltaire, including by Australian politician Cory Bernardi, U.S. Representative Thomas Massie, and X (formerly known as Twitter) CEO Elon Musk. [18] [19] [20]

Arrest, conviction, prison and release

On January 4, 2007, Strom was arrested in Greene County, Virginia, on charges of possession of child pornography and witness tampering. [21] The Grand Jury later added the accusation of receiving child pornography, seducing a 10-year old, and witness intimidation. Judge Norman K. Moon threw out both charges due to lack of evidence; he further commented "I think there is overwhelming evidence that [Strom] was sexually drawn to this child, and was obsessing over this child". [22]

At the plea hearing on January 14, 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in exchange for the other charges to be dropped. [23] [1] [2] [24] He was sentenced to 23 months in prison in April 2008. [2] [25] [24] Strom told the court before being sentenced that he was "not a pedophile" and was "in fact the precise opposite of what has been characterized in this case", [2] saying he had been "unwillingly" possessing 10 images of child pornography and that those came from an online forum he had visited which had been "flooded with spam", which included "sleazy, tragic" pictures of children. The judge of the case responded: "Mr. Strom, you pled guilty to charges that now you're saying you're innocent. I prefer people plead not guilty than put it on me". [25] Strom was released from prison on September 3, 2008. [26]

Following his arrest in 2007, the National Vanguard was disbanded. He later founded a website under the same name, which is still in operation. [27] When Gliebe resigned in 2014, Strom was brought back into the national alliance by Gliebe's successor William Williams; Williams was later banned from the National Alliance headquarters, which resulted in Strom becoming effectively the leader of the few remaining members of the National Alliance. [27]

References

  1. 1 2 Whitehead, Jayson (January 15, 2008). "Strom pleads guilty to child porn". C-Ville Weekly .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Tasha, Kates (April 21, 2008). "White nationalist sentenced in child porn case". The Daily Progress . Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Atkins, Stephen E. (2011). "Kevin Alfred Strom and the National Vanguard". Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 106–108. ISBN   978-1-59884-350-7.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "National Vanguard's Strom Seeks More Power". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005-10-14. Retrieved 2025-10-29.
  5. ↑ Balleck, Barry J. (2018). Modern American Extremism and Domestic Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Extremists and Extremist Groups. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 348–349. ISBN   979-8-216-11837-4.
  6. 1 2 "Extremist Info: Kevin Strom". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 "Leadership Shakeup at Neo-Nazi National Alliance Leads to Formation Of New Group". Anti-Defamation League. May 3, 2005. Archived from the original on June 18, 2007.
  8. ↑ Cronk, Nicholas (2017). Voltaire: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 122. ISBN   9780191512759.
  9. ↑ "Diaries author spews hate". The Miami Herald. 1995-04-30. p. 1740. Retrieved 2025-10-29.
  10. 1 2 "Inside the Alliance". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1999. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved June 23, 2007.
  11. 1 2 3 Finn, Scott (May 7, 2003). "'I feel these people raped my soul': After 6 years away, reformed white supremacist remains angry". The Charleston Gazette .
  12. 1 2 Michael, George (2003). Confronting Right Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA. Florence: Routledge. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-415-31500-5.
  13. 1 2 Durham, Martin (2007). White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics. London: Routledge. pp. 34, 45, 62, 81. ISBN   978-0-415-36232-0.
  14. ↑ McEvoy, Meg (January 16, 2007). "Neo-Nazi arrested for child porn". C-VILLE Weekly. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  15. ↑ Michael, George; Mulloy, D. J. (September 2008). "Riots, disasters and racism: impending racial cataclysm and the extreme right in the United States". Patterns of Prejudice. 42 (4–5): 465–487. doi:10.1080/00313220802377404. S2CID   143681020.
  16. ↑ "Marketing Extremism". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2005. Archived from the original on June 12, 2007.
  17. ↑ Will, Michael (November 18, 2000). "Racist newspaper condemns Kahn for Judaism, compares Barr to Jesus". Creative Loafing. Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved June 23, 2007.
  18. ↑ Hunt, Elle (November 27, 2015). "Cory Bernardi mistakenly 'quotes' Voltaire on Twitter with neo-Nazi's line". The Guardian . Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  19. ↑ Tulp, Sophie (February 1, 2022). "US congressman shares neo-Nazi's quote wrongly attributed to Voltaire". Associated Press News . Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  20. ↑ Flynn, Sheila (May 29, 2023). "Elon Musk tweets quote by neo-Nazi wrongly attributed to Voltaire". The Independent . Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  21. ↑ Graff, Henry (January 5, 2007). "Man Facing Pornography Charges". NBC 29. Archived from the original on January 15, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  22. ↑ Steinback, Robert (January 26, 2011). "Racist Author Supports School Board Member Who Broadcast King Attack". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  23. ↑ Seal, Rob (January 15, 2008). "Greene man guilty of child porn". The Daily Progress .
  24. 1 2 "Strom Sentenced". nbc29. April 21, 2008. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  25. 1 2 Provence, Lisa (April 21, 2008). ""I am not a pedophile": Strom gets 23 months". The Hook . Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Neighborhood watch: Kiddie porn possessor to be released". The Hook . September 2, 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  27. 1 2 Balleck, Barry J. (2018). Modern American Extremism and Domestic Terrorism An Encyclopedia of Extremists and Extremist Groups. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-1-4408-5275-6.

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