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David
Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is a former Louisiana State
Representative and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan in the
United States. He has run for the Louisiana State House,
Louisiana State Senate, United States Senate, United States
House, governor of Louisiana and twice for president of the
United States. In 2002 he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and
fraud charges. He is a long-time New Orleans resident.
On
race and politics
Duke
is best known for his controversial views regarding race and
politics. He is a self-styled white nationalist and is
widely regarded as a white supremacist and neo-Nazi by
mainstream political and civil rights organizations. He
denies this description, stating that he is a "racial
realist" and that he believes "all people have a
basic human right to preserve their own heritage." [1]
Duke
is the president of the European-American Unity and Rights
Organization (EURO), and remains a political activist
against affirmative action as well as non-European
immigration into the United States. Duke has gained an
audience in Ukraine and the Arab world for his views
regarding Jews and Zionism. In September 2005, Duke received
a Ph.D. in History from the Ukrainian Interregional Academy
of Personnel Management (MAUP), writing his doctoral thesis
on "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism." MAUP
is a large university accredited by Ukraine's Ministry of
Education, and is regarded by its critics as the main source
of anti-Semitic activity and publishing in Ukraine. [2]
He
is the author of two books, his autobiography, My Awakening,
and recently Jewish Supremacism. Both books have been
successful overseas and are now translated and published in
9 languages.
Youth,
the Klan and first campaigns
David
Duke was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his family moved soon
afterwards, and after a short period of living in the
Netherlands settled in Louisiana. He became interested in
the white nationalist movement at an early age and joined
the Klan in 1967. Duke went on to study at Louisiana State
University in Baton Rouge and in 1970, he formed a white
campus-group known as the White Youth Alliance. That same
year, he made himself known even more by demonstrating in
swastika regalia to protest William Kunstler's appearance at
Tulane University, LA. He was involved in the campus ROTC,
until he was kicked out due to his radical beliefs. In 1971,
he went to Laos to teach English to Laotian military
officers and serve on cargo flights for Air America over the
course of ten weeks.
Duke
returned to LSU, graduating in 1974. He became notorious on
campus for wearing a Nazi uniform and swastika paraphernalia
while picketing and holding parties on the anniversary of
the birth of Adolf Hitler. The year of his graduation, he
was elected Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
He attracted attention for trying to modernize the Klan and
turn it into a modern nationalist political force. For
example, he changed the title of 'Grand Wizard' to 'National
Director' and sported a conservative suit as opposed to the
traditional white robe.
In
1976, Duke sought a seat in the Louisiana State Senate as a
Democrat. In 1978, he left the Klan and two years later
formed the National Association for the Advancement of White
People. In 1987, he conducted a direct-mail appeal using the
identity and mailing-list of the Forsyth County Defense
League, in Georgia, without permission, which League
officials described as a fund-raising "scam"
(detailed in The Rise of David Duke by Tyler Bridges). In
1988, he ran in the Democratic Party primary for President
of the United States. After a dismal showing in the
Democratic primaries, he appeared on many state ballots as
the nominee of the Populist Party and received approximately
25,000 votes in the 1988 general election.
The
Louisiana legislature
In
1989, he ran as a Republican for a seat representing
Metairie in the Louisiana State House of Representatives. He
defeated fellow Republican John Treen, the brother of David
Treen, the first Republican to be elected governor of
Louisiana since Reconstruction, by a narrow margin of 51-49
percent. Duke's victory came despite visits to the district
in support of John Treen's candidacy by President George H.W.
Bush, former President Ronald Reagan, and other GOP
notables.
"My
Awakening" and a race to succeed Bob Livingston
In
1998, Duke published his autobiography My Awakening: A Path
to Racial Understanding. In 1999, he again ran as a
Republican in a special election for a seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives. He finished third with 19 percent
of the vote and failed to make the general election. This
House seat opened when Bob Livingston of the New Orleans
suburbs suddenly resigned when pornographer Larry Flynt
threatened to expose Livingston's adulterous relationship
with a woman. Former Governor Treen and State Representative
David Vitter went into the general election, which Vitter
won by a 51-49 percent margin over Treen. Duke endorsed
Treen, perhaps as a way of embarrassing the former governor,
who had supported Edwards over Duke in the 1991
gubernatorial general election.
In
2000 the former Republican supported Reform Party of the
United States candidate Patrick J. Buchanan for President
eschewing the Republican Party that had never embraced him
or his followers. He and his supporters contributd over
$15,000 to Buchanan.[1] In 2002, Duke traveled to eastern
Europe to promote his book.
Fraud
charges and imprisonment
David
Duke pleaded guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud in
December 2002. Four months later Duke was sentenced to 15
months in prison for his crimes. He served the time in Big
Spring, Texas. He was also fined US$10,000, ordered to
cooperate fully with the IRS, and to pay money still owed
for his 1998 taxes. Following his release in May 2004, he
claimed publicly that his decision to take the plea bargain
was motivated by the bias that he perceived in the United
States federal court system and not his guilt. He claimed he
felt the charges were contrived to derail his political
career and discredit him to his followers, and that he took
the safe route by pleading guilty and receiving a mitigated
sentence, rather than pleading not guilty and potentially
receiving the full sentence, which could have destroyed his
career anyways.
Duke
was charged for what was described by prosecutors as a
six-year scheme to mail thousands of his followers asking
for donations. In the mail, Duke told his supporters that he
was about to lose his house and his life savings. Duke
raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in this campaign.
However, prosecutors claim he had already sold his home at a
hefty profit, had multiple investment accounts, and spent
much of his money gambling at casinos.
Recent
activity
On
February 5, 2002, Duke claimed on his internet radio show
that Ariel Sharon was "the world's worst
terrorist" and that Mossad was involved in the 9/11
attacks. The broadcast claimed that Sharon wanted 9/11 to
happen in order to reduce sympathy for the Palestinians in
the West, and claimed that the number of Israelis killed in
the attack was lower than it would be under normal
circumstances, citing early assessments by The Jerusalem
Post and "the legendary involvement of Israeli
nationals in businesses at the World Trade Center".
According to Duke, this indicated that Israeli security
services had prior knowledge of the attack. [4]
In
2004 David Duke published his latest controversial book:
Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening on the Jewish Question.
While the book's title leads one to believe it is a
continuation of his first autobiographical work, the book
instead purports to be a collection of historical documents
that detail religious beliefs of alleged Jewish supremacism
since antiquity. The book is dedicated to Israel Shahak, a
controversial writer, who was an ardent critic of what he
saw as supremacist religious teachings in modern Jewish
culture. Duke denies the book is motivated by anti-Semitism.
On
May 29, 2004, David Duke brought together in New Orleans
leaders of the European Nationalist movement to sign an
agreement that would "mainstream our cause". The
New Orleans Protocol signatories pledged to avoid violence
and internecine attacks. It was immediately signed by eight
racialist far right figures of varying extremity, most
representing organizations, including the notorious National
Alliance, and Stormfront. Duke signed on behalf of his new
organization, European-American Unity and Rights
Organization (EURO), previously called N.O.F.E.A.R., the
National Organization for European-American Rights, until a
legal challenge by Nofear caused him to change it.
David
Duke receiving his History doctorate
In
2005, Duke teamed up with Don Black of Stormfront and
delivers a one-hour webcast six days a week. Black is
married to Duke's former wife. Listeners of his show can ask
their questions by either logging on to Stormfront's forums
or sending Duke an e-mail. In addition, he tours Europe and
the Middle East, promoting his book and rallying support and
funding for EURO. On March 19, 2005, for example, his
audience at Pedro Varela's Spanish nationalist bookshop in
Barcelona was disrupted by an estimated fifty protestors. On
June 3, 2005, Duke co-chaired a conference "Zionism As
the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" in Ukraine,
sponsored by the Interregional Academy of Personnel
Management (MAUP), reportedly the largest non-state
university in Ukraine. The conference was attended by
several notable Ukrainian public figures and politicians,
and writer Israel Shamir (accused of anti-Semitism by
critics).[5]
In
August 2005, Swedish police thwarted an attempted
assassination of David Duke. An anonymous tip to a Swedish
radio station led police to the discovery of a powerful
explosive device hidden near the podium where Duke was to
address a group of Swedish nationalists.
In
September 2005 Duke received a Ph.D. title in History from
MAUP. His doctoral thesis was titled "Zionism as a Form
of Ethnic Supremacism" [6]. This was the Ukrainian
private university from which Duke had previously received a
honorary doctorate. MAUP's "anti-Semitic actions"
were "strongly condemned" by Foreign Minister of
Ukraine Borys Tarasyuk and many human rights organizations.
[7], [8], [9], [10]
On
November 24, 2005, Duke visited Syria, addressing a rally,
which was broadcast on Syrian television [11] (video), where
he referred to Israel as a war-mongering country, and said
that "Washington, New York and London and many other
capitals of the world" are "occupied by the
Zionists." Syrian parliament member Muhammad Habash
replied that Duke’s visit gave Syrians a "new and
very positive view of the average American." [12]
David
Duke also runs a daily Live Web Radio Broadcast which can be
found on his home website (www.Davidduke.com)[13].
In
late 2005, Duke lost his home in New Orleans because of
Hurricane Katrina, which struck while he was in northern
Europe [14].
Since
2005 Duke has appeared three times on "Current
Issues," a Lafayette, Louisiana-based television show
hosted and produced by Palestinian-American Hesham Tillawi,
which has recently been picked up by Bridges TV. Tillawi
afforded Duke the opportunity to discourse at length about
his beliefs about Jewish 'supremacism.' In an appearance on
the show in October 2005, Duke also added that Jews are
responsible for undermining the morality of America and are
attempting to "wash the world in blood." [15]
After
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's paper on The Israel
Lobby appeared in March 2006, David Duke praised the paper
in a number of articles on his website, on his March 18 Live
Web Radio Broadcast, and on MSNBC's March 21 Scarborough
Country program.[2]According to the New York Sun, Duke said
in an email, "It is quite satisfying to see a body in
the premier American University essentially come out and
validate every major point I have been making since even
before the war even started." Duke added that "the
task before us is to wrest control of America's foreign
policy and critical junctures of media from the Jewish
extremist Neocons that seek to lead us into what they
expectantly call World War IV." Stephen Walt responded,
"I have always found Mr. Duke's views reprehensible,
and I am sorry he sees this article as consistent with his
view of the world."[3]
Works
Duke,
David "Jewish Supremacism [16]" (Free Speech Pr,
2003; 350 pages) ISBN 1892796058
Duke,
David "My Awakening" [17] (Free Speech Books,
1998; 736 pages) ISBN 1892796007
References
^
"Third Parties Struggle with Fundraising", by By
Krista Schlyer, Opensecrets.org, accessed June 3, 2006
^
'Scarborough Country' for March 21, show transcript, MSNBC,
March 21 2006.
^
Eli Lake, David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard
Dean, New York Sun, March 20, 2006.
Books
Bridges,
Tyler "The Rise of David Duke" (Mississippi
University Press, 1995; 300 pages) ISBN 0878056785
Rose;
Douglas D. The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of
Race University of North Carolina Press. 1992
Zatarain,
Michael "David Duke: Evolution of a Klansman"
(Pelican Publishing Company, 1990; Gretna, Louisiana; 304
pages) ISBN 0882898175
Notes
↑
"Louisiana Republican Quits, Reducing Duke's
Chances", Washington Post, October 5, 1990
Retrieved
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke"