Don Black (nationalist)
Encyclopedia
Stephen Donald Black is an American
white nationalist
. He is the founder, and current webmaster
, of the Stormfront
internet forum. He was a Grand Wizard
in the Ku Klux Klan
and a member of the American Nazi Party
in the 1970s. He was convicted in 1981 for attempted armed overthrow of the Dominica
n government in violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act
.
, and became an activist at an early age when he began passing out racially charged newspapers White Power and the Thunderbolt at his high school. 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. He said in an interview that growing up in the South during the turmoil of the civil rights movement
made him aware from a White political perspective.
In the summer of 1970, after his junior year at Athens High School, Black traveled to Savannah, Georgia
, to work on the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Stoner, a segregationist and leader of the National States' Rights Party
(NSRP). It was in this election that Jimmy Carter
won the Georgia governorship. Don 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 American Nazi Party
. 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 Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray
. On July 25, 1970, Jerry Ray shot Black (who was 16 at the time) in the chest with a .38-caliber hollow-point bullet to stop him from taking files from Stoner's campaign office. Ray was acquitted of all charges after he claimed at trial that he saw Black reaching for a weapon. Black quickly recovered from his wounds and was able to join his fellow Nazis in their annual Labor Day
rally on the National Mall
in Washington, D.C.
He finished his senior year at Madison Academy (Alabama)
, a private school in Huntsville
.
After high school, Black attended the University of Alabama
in Tuscaloosa
majoring in political science
. He took Army ROTC classes and finished the basic program.
in 1975, one year after David Duke
took over the organization. He moved to Birmingham
to become the group's state organizer. After the resignation
of Duke in 1978, Black became Grand Wizard
, or national director, of the Klan. He ran for mayor
of Birmingham in 1979 and received 2 percent of the vote.
On April 27, 1981, Black and nine other would-be mercenaries – many recruited from Klan affiliated organizations – were arrested in New Orleans as they prepared to board a boat stocked with weapon
s and ammunition
to invade the island nation Dominica
in what they would call Operation Red Dog
. However, the local media would label the botched attempt the "Bayou of Pigs", a play on words for the unsuccessful 1961 "Bay of Pigs Invasion
" of Cuba
.
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
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.
Black was sentenced to three years in prison
for his role in the attempted invasion and his violation of the Neutrality Act
. Black, Federal Bureau of Prisons
#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. In 1986 Black rethought his commitment to the KKK, resigning from the group in 1987.
He tried running for office in Alabama once again, this time as a Populist Party
US Senate candidate.
and David Duke
, as well as works by the Institute for Historical Review
. Initially, along with these articles, Stormfront housed a library of white pride
, neo-Nazi
and white power skinhead 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 is quoted as saying "We want to take America back. We know a multicultural Yugoslav
nation can't hold up for too long. Whites
won't have any choice but to take military action. It's our children whose interests we have to defend." In December 2007, Black gained attention for donating money to Ron Paul
's 2008 presidential run.
Black received some media attention in 2008 when the Southern Poverty Law Center
reported that his wife Chloe works as an executive assistant for The Fanjul Brothers
' Florida Crystals company. Her job duties included acting as the spokesperson for a charter school "to lift underprivileged black and Hispanic children out of poverty." The story was successively picked up by Gawker, the New York Post
, the Palm Beach Post, and Fox News, and resulted in Black being criticized by some other white nationalists.
on a local AM radio station.
Don Black feels that the establishment of white pride as a special interest group within the Republican Party is a crucial strategy. Asked by an interviewer for Italian newspaper la Repubblica
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.
list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for "promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
white nationalist
White nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
. He is the founder, and current webmaster
Webmaster
A webmaster , also called a web architect, web developer, site author, or website administrator is a person responsible for maintaining one or many websites...
, of the Stormfront
Stormfront (website)
Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist neo-Nazi Internet forum that has been described as the Internet's first major hate site.Stormfront began as an online bulletin board system in the early 1990s before being established as a website in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader and white...
internet forum. He was a Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard was the title given to the leader of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan which existed from 1866 to 1871.In 1915, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was created, initially as a fraternal organization. The highest-ranking leader of the latter organization was the Imperial Wizard. National...
in the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and a member of the American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
in the 1970s. He was convicted in 1981 for attempted armed overthrow of the Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
n government in violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act
Neutrality Act of 1794
The Neutrality Act of 1794 made it illegal for an American to wage war against any country at peace with the United States.The Act declared in part:...
.
Early life
Don Black was born in Athens, AlabamaAthens, Alabama
Athens is a city in Limestone County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 18,967. According to the 2009 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 24,234...
, and became an activist at an early age when he began passing out racially charged newspapers White Power and the Thunderbolt at his high school. 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. He said in an interview that growing up in the South during the turmoil of the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
made him aware from a White political perspective.
In the summer of 1970, after his junior year at Athens High School, Black traveled to Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, to work on the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Stoner, a segregationist and leader of the National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party was a far right, white supremacist party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States.-Foundation:...
(NSRP). It was in this election that Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
won the Georgia governorship. Don Black was asked to obtain a copy of the NSRP membership list by Robert Lloyd
Robert Lloyd
Robert Lloyd may refer to:* Robert Lloyd MP for Merioneth 1601* Robert Lloyd , British opera singer * Robert Lloyd , lead singer of British post-punk band The Nightingales...
, a leader of the National Socialist White People's Party, formerly known as the American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
. 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 Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. 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 to stop him from taking files from Stoner's campaign office. Ray was acquitted of all charges after he claimed at trial that he saw Black reaching for a weapon. Black quickly recovered from his wounds and was able to join his fellow Nazis in their annual Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
rally on the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
He finished his senior year at Madison Academy (Alabama)
Madison Academy (Alabama)
Madison AcademySchool typePrivate SchoolReligious affiliationChurch of ChristOpened1955LocationMadison, Alabama, USAGradesPreschool-12School MascotMustangsSchool colorsMaroon, White, and GoldSchool Hours8:00 A.M. - 3:00/3:15 P.M....
, a private school in Huntsville
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
.
After high school, Black attended the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
majoring in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. He took Army ROTC classes and finished the basic program.
The Ku Klux Klan and Operation Red Dog
Black joined the Knights of the Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
in 1975, one year after David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
took over the organization. He moved to Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
to become the group's state organizer. After the resignation
Resignation
A resignation is the formal act of giving up or quitting one's office or position. It can also refer to the act of admitting defeat in a game like chess, indicated by the resigning player declaring "I resign", turning his king on its side, extending his hand, or stopping the chess clock...
of Duke in 1978, Black became Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard was the title given to the leader of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan which existed from 1866 to 1871.In 1915, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was created, initially as a fraternal organization. The highest-ranking leader of the latter organization was the Imperial Wizard. National...
, or national director, of the Klan. He ran for mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Birmingham in 1979 and received 2 percent of the vote.
On April 27, 1981, Black and nine other would-be mercenaries – many recruited from Klan affiliated organizations – were arrested in New Orleans as they prepared to board a boat stocked with weapon
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
s and ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
to invade the island nation Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
in what they would call Operation Red Dog
Operation Red Dog
Operation Red Dog was the code name of plan by Canadian and American mercenaries, largely affiliated with white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan groups, to overthrow the government of Dominica, where they planned to restore former Prime Minister Patrick John to power...
. However, the local media would label the botched attempt the "Bayou of Pigs", a play on words for the unsuccessful 1961 "Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
" of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
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 John
Colonel Patrick Roland John was the Prime Minister of Dominica as well as the Premier of Dominica. During his premiership Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom and he became the first Prime Minister of Dominica. He was a successful trade union leader and a mayor of Roseau before...
to the mostly black Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
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.
Black was sentenced to three years in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
for his role in the attempted invasion and his violation of the Neutrality Act
Neutrality Act
Neutrality Act may refer to:* Proclamation of Neutrality by President George Washington in 1793* Neutrality Act of 1794, outlaws military operations against nations with which the U.S. is at peace; still in force in amended form...
. Black, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
#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
Stormfront (website)
Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist neo-Nazi Internet forum that has been described as the Internet's first major hate site.Stormfront began as an online bulletin board system in the early 1990s before being established as a website in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader and white...
on the Internet years later. In 1986 Black rethought his commitment to the KKK, resigning from the group in 1987.
He tried running for office in Alabama once again, this time as a Populist Party
Populist Party (United States, 1984)
The Populist Party was a political party in the United States between 1984 and 1996. It was far-right and often white nationalist in its ideology...
US Senate candidate.
From Stormfront to today
Black founded Stormfront in 1995. The website is seen as being the internet's first major hate site, and remains one of the most popular. Stormfront featured the writings of William Luther PierceWilliam Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and one of the most important ideologists of the white nationalist movement. Pierce originally worked as an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University, before he became involved in...
and David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, as well as works by the Institute for Historical Review
Institute for Historical Review
The Institute for Historical Review , founded in 1978, is an American organization that describes itself as a "public-interest educational, research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of history." Critics have accused it of being an antisemitic "pseudo-scholarly...
. Initially, along with these articles, Stormfront housed a library of white pride
White pride
White pride is a slogan indicating pride in being white. The slogan has been adopted by neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations.White pride advocates claim that there is a cultural double standard in which only certain ethnic groups are permitted to openly express pride in their heritage, and...
, neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
and white power skinhead graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
for downloading, and a number of links to other white nationalist websites.
In a 1998 interview for the alternative weekly newspaper Miami New Times
Miami New Times
The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
, Black is quoted as saying "We want to take America back. We know a multicultural Yugoslav
Demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
This article is about the demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during its existence from 1945 until 1991. With the dissolution of the state, the following nations now have their own demographic studies:...
nation can't hold up for too long. Whites
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
won't have any choice but to take military action. It's our children whose interests we have to defend." In December 2007, Black gained attention for donating money to Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
's 2008 presidential run.
Black received some media attention in 2008 when the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
reported that his wife Chloe works as an executive assistant for The Fanjul Brothers
The Fanjul Brothers
The Fanjul brothers — Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul, José "Pepe" Fanjul, Alexander Fanjul, and Andres Fanjul — are owners of Fanjul Corp., a vast sugar and real estate conglomerate in the United States and Dominican Republic, comprising the subsidiaries Domino Sugar, , C&H Sugar, Redpath Sugar, Tate & Lyle...
' Florida Crystals company. Her job duties included acting as the spokesperson for a charter school "to lift underprivileged black and Hispanic children out of poverty." The story was successively picked up by Gawker, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, the Palm Beach Post, and Fox News, and resulted in Black being criticized by some other white nationalists.
Election of son
In August 2008 Black's 19-year-old son Derek was elected to one of 111 seats on the Palm Beach County, Fla., Republican committee, with 167 of 287 votes. The committee has 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." Derek Black now hosts a talk showDerek Black Show
The Don and Derek Black Show is a radio program broadcast five times a week from the Lake Worth, Florida-based radio station WPBR-AM. Although WPBR has a large Haitian-American audience, the radio radio show promotes the ideology of white nationalism...
on a local AM radio station.
Don Black feels that the establishment of white pride as a special interest group within the Republican Party is a crucial strategy. Asked by an interviewer for Italian newspaper la Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
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.
Exclusion from United Kingdom
On May 5, 2009 it was announced that Black was one of the 22 on a British Home OfficeHome Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for "promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence".
External links
- Stormfront - created by Don Black
- Don Black: White Pride World Wide- Statement by the Anti-Defamation LeagueAnti-Defamation LeagueThe Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...