Q. Have hate groups specifically targeted Fayetteville, N.C. -- the town close to Fort Bragg -- for recruitment?

A. The West Virginia-based National Alliance, the most active neo-Nazi organization in the country, has recently boasted of its recruitment efforts in the Fort Bragg area. In its April 1995 members' bulletin, the Alliance printed a photograph of a billboard it said was located in Fayetteville, just outside Fort Bragg, and was rented by North Carolina members of the organization. The billboard read: "Enough! Let's start taking back America! National Alliance." A telephone hotline number for the group was also displayed. The bulletin asserted that "North Carolina ... continues to be an excellent recruiting area for the Alliance."

While no evidence has yet surfaced to link the suspects in the Fayetteville killings to the National Alliance, material from the group has been tied in the past to a number of heinous crimes. Specifically, The Turner Diaries, a violently racist and anti-Semitic novel written by National Alliance leader William Pierce (under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald), served as the inspiration for the terrorist spree of the neo-Nazi gang known as The Order. Operating in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980's, The Order engaged in murders, bank robberies, armored car heists, counterfeiting, and the bombing of a synagogue in pursuit of its aim of overthrowing the United States Government and establishing a Nazi-like regime.

The Turner Diaries was also reportedly a favorite of Timothy McVeigh, suspected in the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The bombing bore a striking similarity to a truck-bombing of the FBI Headquarters in Washington depicted in Pierce's novel.

Q: Have hate groups engaged in other recruitment or activity in the United States military? What measures have military officials taken to combat these activities?

A: Over the years, there have been several episodes in which the military has been the target of recruitment efforts by hate groups. Military officials have acted swiftly and responsibly to curb such activities.

Factions of the Ku Klux Klan have periodically attempted to infiltrate the armed forces and establish cells at military camps and bases. After a violent racial disturbance took place at the Camp Pendleton U. S. Marine Corps base in California in 1976, it was discovered that a group of white Marines had joined David Duke's Knights of the KKK and were actively recruiting new members. To ease racial tensions, some of the Marines were subsequently transferred.

In 1979, a larger Klan unit consisting of soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, was discovered. Some of the soldiers stood guard at a Klan rally featuring David Duke and his Texas "Great Titan," Louis Beam, in Euless, Texas.

That same year saw episodes of Klan activity in the Navy. A supply ship operating out of Norfolk, Virginia, reportedly had a unit of some twenty Klansmen. In another incident, three white sailors, two of whom were admitted Klan members, were reported to have donned Klan robes and confronted black shipmates. In addition, a cross burning was reported on an aircraft carrier. After ADL urged the Department of Defense to take action, the Navy issued an order to all ship and shore commanders to prevent active-duty racist activity.

Former Klan leader Bill Wilkinson later chose the Norfolk area as the site of a recruitment campaign clearly aimed at sailors in the area. Four U.S. Navy men were subsequently tried and convicted after attending a Klan rally that had been declared off-limits by their commander.

In 1986, evidence surfaced that Marines based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., had taken part in illegal paramilitary training exercises of the White Patriot Party -- a violence-prone, neo-Nazi group. In response, the Defense Department issued a directive to field commanders giving them the authority to prevent military personnel from engaging in activities sponsored by racist groups. Further, the Marines involved were discharged.

In 1990, five airmen serving as security policemen at Carswell Air Force Base in Texas were involved in Ku Klux Klan activity. The five were discharged by the Air Force.

In April 1995, the Department of Defense reissued its regulations that forbid members of the armed forces from participating in groups that "espouse supremacist causes."

Q: Have extremists attempted to obtain weapons from within the military?

A: From time to time, extremist groups have attempted to obtain military equipment from sources in the armed forces. In 1994, five soldiers at Fort Benning, Georgia, were charged with being part of a network that stockpiled stolen weapons, ammunition and explosives for use by white supremacist groups in Alabama and Georgia. Two of the soldiers were court-martialed.

Q. What hate groups are active in North Carolina?

A. A number of Ku Klux Klan groups have operated in recent years in the state. Some activity in Fayetteville has been connected to the Confederate Knights of America, led by Terry Boyce and based in Huntersville, N.C. The National Socialist Front, a Fayetteville group reportedly tied to the Confederate Knights of America, has operated a telephone hotline in the past. The level of activity in the Fayetteville area has been very low in the past two years.

Other Klan groups in the state include the Christian Knights, led by Virgil Griffin and based in Mount Holly, N.C., and the Aryan Christian Knights, based in Brown Summit, N.C., which has been led by Clyde Jones.

The Invisible Empire Knights of the KKK, until recently the largest national Klan organization, was based in Gulf, N.C., and was led by Imperial Wizard James W. Farrands. The Invisible Empire was dissolved in 1993 as a consequence of a civil lawsuit that arose from a Klan-led mob attack on civil rights marchers in Forsyth County, Ga., in 1987. The ADL assisted the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brought the suit, by providing some important evidence in the case.

There has been neo-Nazi Skinhead activity in North Carolina, as well. Aaron Moser, a Skinhead who led the Winston-Salem unit of the National Socialist Front, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 murder of Thomas Scharf, Jr. Just before firing a high-powered rifle at Scharf, a white youth who was walking with two black friends, Moser exclaimed, "Die, nigger-lover."

The Confederate Knights of America Klan group has a Skinhead affiliate, called the SS of America, which dresses in black uniforms and serves as security guards at gatherings of hate groups. Skinheads have been active in recent years in the Asheville area, and Skinhead recruitment efforts have occurred in Zebulon, near Raleigh. At least two Skinhead publications have been produced in North Carolina -- Skinhead Power in Charlotte, and Iron Will in Hollyridge, near Wilmington -- but they may now be defunct.

Prepared by:
Fact Finding Department/Civil Rights Division
Anti-Defamation League
December 12, 1995

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.