After spending a year in federal prison for mail fraud and tax evasion, David Duke was allowed to spend the final weeks of his sentence in a halfway house in Louisiana in April 2004. Needing employment to meet eligibility requirements, he worked for EURO (the European-American Unity and Rights Organization), his white supremacist propaganda organization.
Duke's sentence ended in mid-May 2004. To celebrate his freedom and to promote unity among white supremacist groups, EURO sponsored a conference on May 28-30 in Kenner, Louisiana, near New Orleans. Several significant neo-Nazi and racist figures attended the event, including speakers John Tyndall, founder of the British National Party; top National Alliance lieutenant Kevin Alfred Strom; Don Black, founder of the pioneering white supremacist Web site Stormfront; Willis Carto of the American Free Press and The Barnes Review; anti-Semitic attorney Edgar J. Steele; and Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf. In his own remarks, Duke urged the audience of 250 not to characterize themselves as white supremacists and racists but as devoted to the "white civil rights cause." He also assailed President Bush and his administration as being "pawns of Israel and betrayers of the white race."
Most notably, perhaps, Duke unveiled the so-called New Orleans Protocol - a three-point document for white "nationalists" advocating nonviolence, collegiality and "a high tone in our arguments." Signatories included Duke, Black, Carto, Strom, Tyndall, Canadian activist Paul Fromm and anti-Semitic propagandist Ed Fields.
Duke described the signing as "a historical event" that committed signatories to a "high road" of conduct: "no more sleazy denunciations of other nationalists on the Internet…no more stealing of other groups' mailing lists or members…no tolerance of violence….Those subscribing to the New Orleans Protocol are signalling their intention to abide by honourable standards in relations with others in the nationalist movement."
The document created significant buzz on white supremacist Web sites and mailing lists following the conference, demonstrating once more Duke's gift for attracting attention. In prison just days before, he propelled himself over the weekend back to the center of American white supremacy.
But while the agreement may keep his profile high and improve his fundraising opportunities, it seems unlikely to maintain harmony. Duke's disclination to share a spotlight, the brittle nature of the movement and the prickly personalities of the Protocol's backers all weigh against its success. Willis Carto, for instance, has left behind seething former colleagues in nearly all of his myriad organizations dating to the 1950s. Ed Fields, having published a vulgar hate sheet for 45 years, is also an improbable convert to gentility.
Nonetheless, the high rank of racist figures attending the conference and signing on to the Protocol, the discussion it has triggered and the ongoing lack of authoritative leaders in the movement underscore that Duke - and the Protocol - merit continued attention.
