David Duke
David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American politician, white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.[3] From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the Republican Party. His politics and writings are largely devoted to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system.[4][5] In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called Duke "perhaps America's most well-known racist and anti-Semite".[6]
For other people with the same name, see David Duke (disambiguation).
David Duke
Position established
Republican (1989–1999, 2016–present)[1]
-
- Reform (1999–2001)
- Populist (1988–1989)
- Democratic (1975–1988)
- American Nazi (before 1975)[2]
2
Duke unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate for state legislature during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. After failing to gain any traction within the Democratic Party, he gained the presidential nomination of the minor Populist Party. In December 1988, he became a Republican and claimed to have become a born-again Christian, nominally renouncing antisemitism and racism.[7][8] He soon won his only elected office, a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He then ran unsuccessful but competitive campaigns for several more offices, including United States Senate in 1990 and governor of Louisiana in 1991. His campaigns were denounced by national and state Republican leaders, including President George H. W. Bush. He mounted a minor challenge to President Bush in 1992.
By the late 1990s, Duke had abandoned his pretense of rejecting racism and antisemitism, and began to openly promote racist and neo-Nazi viewpoints. He then began to devote himself to writing about his political views, both in newsletters and later on the Internet. In his writings, he denigrates African Americans and other ethnic minorities, and promotes conspiracy theories about a Jewish plot to control America and the world.[9][10][11] He continued to run for public office through 2016, but after his reversion to open neo-Nazism, his candidacies were not competitive.
During the 1990s, Duke defrauded his political supporters by pretending to be in dire financial straits and soliciting money for basic necessities. At the time, he was in fact financially secure and used the money for recreational gambling.[12] In December 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony fraud and subsequently served a 15-month sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring in Texas.[12][13]
Political and ideological activities
Early campaigns
Duke first ran for a seat in the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat from a Baton Rouge district in 1975. During his campaign, he was allowed to speak on the college campuses of Vanderbilt University, Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and Tulane University.[31] He received 11,079 votes, one-third of those cast.[14][32]
Duke ran for a seat in the state senate again in 1979, losing to the incumbent, Joe Tiemann.[33][34]
In the late 1970s, several Klan officials accused Duke of stealing the organization's money. "Duke is nothing but a con artist", Jack Gregory, Duke's Florida state leader, told the Clearwater Sun after Duke allegedly refused to turn over proceeds from a series of 1979 Klan rallies to the Knights. Another Klan official under Duke, Jerry Dutton, told reporters that Duke had used Klan funds to purchase and refurbish his home in Metairie. Duke later justified the repairs by saying most of his home was used by the Klan.
He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination during the 1980 presidential election. Despite being six years too young to be president, Duke attempted to place his name on the ballot in 12 states, saying he wanted to be a power broker who could "select issues and form a platform representing the majority of this country" at the Democratic National Convention.[35][36] In 1979, he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace when he led 70 to 100 Klansmen to surround police vehicles in a Metairie hotel parking lot in September 1976, and was fined $100 and given a three-month suspended sentence. Duke and James K. Warner had originally been convicted on that charge in 1977, but the Louisiana Supreme Court had reversed the ruling because the state had introduced inadmissible evidence.[37][38] Duke was arrested for illegally entering Canada in order to discuss third-world immigration into Canada on a talk show.[39]
He left the Ku Klux Klan in 1980, after he was accused of trying to sell the organization's mailing list for $35,000. He founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People and served as its president after leaving the Klan.[40][41][42] Using the group's newsletter, he promoted Holocaust denial literature for sale such as The Hoax of the Twentieth Century and Did Six Million Really Die?[3]
Duke allegedly conducted a direct-mail appeal in 1987, using the identity and mailing-list of the Georgia Forsyth County Defense League without permission. League officials described it as a fundraising scam.[43]
Antisemitism
Racial theories
In 1998, Duke self-published the autobiographical My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding.[19] The book details Duke's social philosophies, including his advocacy of racial separation: "We [Whites] desire to live in our own neighborhoods, go to our own schools, work in our own cities and towns, and ultimately live as one extended family in our own nation. We shall end the racial genocide of integration. We shall work for the eventual establishment of a separate homeland for African Americans, so each race will be free to pursue its own destiny without racial conflicts and ill will."[9]
A book review by Abraham Foxman, then the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), describes My Awakening as containing racist, antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic opinions.[19]
Duke promotes the white genocide conspiracy theory and claims that Jews are "organizing white genocide".[117][118][119][120][121] In 2017, he accused Anthony Bourdain of promoting white genocide; in response, Bourdain offered to "rearrange" Duke's kneecaps.[122][123]
An ADL profile of Duke states: "Although Duke denies that he is a white supremacist and avoids the term in public speeches and writings, the policies and positions he advocates state clearly that white people are the only ones morally qualified to determine the rights that should apply to other ethnic groups."[6]
Other affiliations and associations
Stormfront
In 1995, Don Black and Chloê Hardin, Duke's ex-wife, began a bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront. The website has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, white separatism, Holocaust denial, neo-Nazism, hate speech, and racism.[157][158][159] Duke is an active user of Stormfront, where he posts articles from his website and polls forum members for opinions and questions. He has worked with Black on numerous occasions, including on Operation Red Dog (the attempted overthrowing of Dominica's government) in 1980.[160][161] Duke continued to be involved with the website's radio station in 2019.[162]
British National Party
In 2000, Nick Griffin (then leader of the British National Party in the United Kingdom) met with Duke at a seminar with the American Friends of the British National Party.[163] Griffin said: "instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity … that means basically to use the saleable words, as I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticize them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable."[164]
This was widely reported in the media of the United Kingdom, as was the meeting between Duke and Griffin, following the party's electoral successes in 2009.[165][166][164]
Alt-right
Duke has written in praise of the alt-right, calling one broadcast "fun and interesting"[167] and another a "great show".[168] People for the American Way reported Duke championing the alt-right.[169] Duke described them as "our people" when describing their role in Donald Trump's election as president.[170]
There are also claims that while he is not an active member of the alt-right, Duke is an inspiration for the movement. The International Business Times wrote that he had "'Zieg-heiling acolytes in the so-called 'alt-right'".[171] The Forward has said that Duke "paved the way" for the alt-right movement.[172]
Legal difficulties and felony conviction
Tax fraud conviction and defrauding followers
On December 12, 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to the felony charge of filing a false tax return under 26 U.S.C. § 7206 and mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341[12] According to The New York Times: "Mr. Duke was accused of telling supporters that he was in financial straits, then misusing the money they sent him from 1993 to 1999. He was also accused of filing a false 1998 tax return... Mr. Duke used the money for personal investments and gambling trips... [T]he [supporter] contributions were as small as $5 and [according to the United States attorney, Jim Letten] there were so many that returning the money would be 'unwieldy.'"[173]
Four months later, Duke was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He served the time in Big Spring, Texas. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service and pay money still owed for his 1998 taxes. After his release in May 2004, Duke said his decision to take the plea bargain was motivated by bias he perceived in the United States federal court system, not his guilt. He said 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.
The mail fraud charges stemmed from what prosecutors described as a six-year scheme to dupe thousands of his followers by asking for donations. Using the postal service, Duke appealed to his supporters for funds by falsely saying he was about to lose his house and life savings. Prosecutors alleged that Duke raised hundreds of thousands of dollars this way. Prosecutors also stipulated that in contrast to what he wrote in the mailings, he sold his home at a hefty profit, had multiple investment accounts, and spent much of his money gambling at casinos.[13][174][175]
Other publications
To raise money in 1976, Duke (using the double pseudonym James Konrad and Dorothy Vanderbilt) wrote a self-help book for women, Finders-Keepers: Finding and Keeping the Man You Want.[185] The book contains sexual, diet, fashion, cosmetic and relationship advice, and was published by Arlington Place Books, an offshoot of the National Socialist White People's Party.[186] Tulane University history professor Lawrence N. Powell, who read a rare copy of the book given to him by journalist Patsy Sims, wrote that it includes advice on vaginal exercises and oral and anal sex and advocates adultery. The Klan was shocked by Duke's writing.[185][187][188] According to journalist Tyler Bridges, The Times-Picayune obtained a copy and traced it to Duke,[189] who compiled the content from women's self-help magazines.[23] Duke has admitted using the pseudonym Konrad.[190]
In the 1970s, under the pseudonym Mohammed X, Duke wrote African Atto, a martial arts guide for black militants; he claimed it was a means of developing a mailing list to keep watch over such activists.[14]
Personal life
While working in the White Youth Alliance, Duke met Chloê Eleanor Hardin, who was also active in the group. They remained companions throughout college and married in 1974. Hardin is the mother of Duke's two daughters, Erika and Kristin. The Dukes divorced in 1984,[191] and Chloe moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, in order to be near her parents. There, she became involved with Duke's Klan friend Don Black, whom she later married, and they began a small bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront, which has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, racism, and antisemitism in the early 21st century.[192][193][158][194]
Duke rented an apartment in Moscow beginning around 1999.[129] He lived in Russia for five years. Duke now resides in Mandeville, Louisiana.[195]
In the media
Topher Grace portrays Duke in Spike Lee's 2018 film BlacKkKlansman.[196] Duke was banned from Facebook in 2018, over a year after his participation in the Unite the Right rally.[42] Duke was banned from YouTube in 2020 for repeatedly violating its policies against hate speech, along with Richard Spencer and Stefan Molyneux.[197] Duke's Twitter account was permanently suspended in 2020 for violating the company's rules on hateful conduct.[42][198][199]
Biography portal
United States portal
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
Filmography