The David Duke Connection

Most recently, the NA has been providing a speaking venue for David Duke, a former Klan leader and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP). Duke is currently chairman of the Republican Party's Executive Committee in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. In 1988 and again in 1992, he made unsuccessful bids for the Presidency. In 1991, when running for the governorship of Louisiana, Duke claimed to have repudiated his racist views. However, his appearances under the auspices of the National Alliance have signaled a significant shift for him. He has once again publicly embraced the white supremacist movement. Between 1997 and 1998, Duke spoke at four separate National Alliance events -- three in Florida and one in Ohio. Speaking in Cleveland, Tampa, and Tallahassee, Duke reportedly suggested that Blacks were an inferior race and stressed the importance of protecting the freedoms of whites.

While Duke is not an actual member of the National Alliance, it appears that he is pleased with the exposure the group has provided him. And the NA also seems to be benefiting from the relationship. In the July 27, 1997, issue of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Duke told a reporter that he is willing to ally himself with the National Alliance because he realized that he cannot "shake his past." That same month, in an article in The Tallahassee Democrat, Tampa NA leader Victor Heath said that the National Alliance had "hired" Duke "to increase the visibility of the organization [National Alliance] and to recruit new members." Also in that article, Duke acknowledged that his politics were becoming "more radical" as a reaction to what he referred to as a "'growing undercurrent' of white frustration." In May 1998, Vincent Breeding, also of the Tampa NA unit, brought Duke to the campus of Southwest Texas University for a public debate.