Hate groups fragmented but still active

              Hate groups fragmented
By KATHY HOKE
Alamance Bureau
Although withered by recent convictions of
some leaders, groups espousing racial hatred
and violence continue to find North Carolina
fertile ground for their activities.
People who monitor hate groups say North
Carolina continues to hold the dubious distinction as a national leader in racial violence and
intimidation, along with Florida and Georgia.
"Until last summer, North Carolina was
probably the state with the most Klan activity," said Pat Clark, director of Klanwatch, a
branch of the Southern Poverty Law Center
in Montgomery, Ala.
In 1986, federal prosecutors won convictions of Glenn and
Hate group and
racist acts in
North Carolina
Marches       illegal
and rallies racist acts
1985
1986
1987
33
54
43
31
37
36
Source: North Carolinians
Against Racist and
Religious Violence, Durham
Stephen Miller, unrelated former leaders of the defunct
White Patriot Party, North Carolina's
most visible racist
group. The Millers,
under    a    federal
court order not to
engage in paramilitary training, were
convicted of violating the court order.
Their convictions contributed to a drop in
hate-group activity among "grassroots" racists, including various factions of the Ku Klux
Klan, Clark said.
"There are some people who say the Klan is
just an anachronism — that it's just a group of
people playing dress-up," Clark said. "Unfortunately, they have done enough intimidation
and violent activity that you just can't view
them as a group of folks who are trying to find
a place to fit in."
This summer, many Greensboro residents
didn't think a Klan march proposed for downtown fit in with the city's self-image.
Outraged that Greensboro officials would
let the Klan march, in three days opponents
gathered 4,000 signatures
on petitions seeking to revoke the parade permit.
But at numerous doorsteps, they found both
black and white people
who — while opposed to
the Klan — refused to
sign their names or list
but still active
Tina Gerson/News & Record
names
their addresses.
"There's a lot of fear Opponents failed to prevent Klan from marching in Greensboro in June
about the Klan," said Al-
C. Miller ma Adams, a Bennett Col
lege professor and Greensboro City Council member who helped
organize the drive. "I guess they were afraid
the petition would get into the wrong hands."
The petition didn't keep the Klan from
marching June 7 — its first major public
demonstration in Greensboro since a November 1979 confrontation between Klansmen,
Nazis and the Communist Workers Party left
five people dead.