David Duke: In His Own Words

January 03, 2013

Read the whole report, David Duke: In His Own Words.

As Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s, David Duke urged Klan members to "get out of the cow pasture and into hotel meeting rooms." For the past 25 years, he has increasingly attempted to follow his own advice, by using code words, and increasingly disguising his ideas behind more mainstream conservative-sounding rhetoric. As a result, in 2000 David Duke remains one of the most dangerous extremists in America.

Starting as a small-time leader of a campus white supremacist organization at Louisiana State University in the early 1970s, Duke, now 49, has had many incarnations. In an attempt to demystify Klan ritual, he renamed the position of Grand Wizard "National Director," and referred to cross burnings as "illuminations." In 1980, Duke resigned from the KKK and formed a "political organization" to promote the cause of "White Rights," The National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP). He has also unsuccessfully attempted to host a racist radio talk show program in Louisiana.

Another tactic in Duke's strategy of "mainstreaming" racism has been his effort to run for political office. Although he was elected to the Louisiana State Legislature in 1989, as a political candidate Duke has been largely unsuccessful, losing bids for Governor and the U.S. Senate in Louisiana, and for President of the United States in 1988 and 1992.  Most recently, in May, 1999, he lost the race for US Congress. Although he has been repudiated by the national leadership of the Republican Party, currently he is serving as party chairman for the St. Tamany Parish in Louisiana.

In November 1998, he self-published My Awakening, a 700-page autobiographical magnum opus of Duke's racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry.

In January 2000, Duke announced the formation of a new organization, NOFEAR (The National Organization For European American Rights), whose purpose is to "defend the civil rights of European Americans."

Since the formation of his new organization, Duke has made no secret of his allegiances to other racist and anti-Semitic organizations. He has reportedly appeared at a variety of extremist events, including a meeting of The American Friends of the British National Party in March, and an American Renaissance conference in April, 2000. In addition, in keeping with the stated goals and political ideology of NOFEAR, he has appeared at various pro-Confederate flag, anti-immigrant, and anti-affirmative action rallies. He also claims to have completed another book, which will be entitled "The Ultimate Supremacism," which he says will be released in the fall of 2000, and is currently working on another book "about the spiritual aspect of the struggle to preserve and protect our heritage."