John Brown Anti-Klan Committee

Last updated
John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
AbbreviationJBAKC
Formation1978-ca. 1990
TypeRadical left
PurposeOpposition to white supremacy and US foreign policy
Location
  • United States of America

The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC) was an anti-racist organization based in the United States. The group protested against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racist literature. Members of the JBAKC were involved in a string of bombings of military, government, and corporate targets in the 1980s. The JBAKC viewed themselves as anti-imperialists and considered African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans to be oppressed colonial peoples. [1]

Contents

The JBAKC was started in 1978 by a group of white anti-racist activists with ties to the Weather Underground. They named the organization after abolitionist John Brown, who advocated and engaged in violence as a means to end slavery in the U.S. According to founding member Lisa Roth, the event that triggered the formation of the group was the discovery that the KKK was actively organizing in New York State prisons. [1] The JBAKC soon had chapters in several states, but was most active in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. [2] The group promoted itself by distributing fliers at punk rock concerts, and was supported by benefit concerts from punk bands like the Dead Kennedys, The Contractions, and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. [3] [4]

The JBAKC shared members with several other radical groups active at the time, and some have claimed that it was a front organization for the May 19th Communist Movement. [5]

Publications


In 1980, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee distributed a pamphlet entitled "Take a Stand Against the Klan", which outlined the group's "Principles of Unity":

  1. Fight White Supremacy in All Its Forms! Death to the Klan! Support the Struggle of the Black Nation for Self-Determination! Support the Struggle to Free the Land!
  2. Follow Black and Other Third World Leadership
  3. Support the Struggle of Third World People for Human Rights! Oppose White Supremacist Attacks!

The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee published a quarterly national newsletter, originally called Death to the Klan, and later renamed No KKK, No Fascist USA!. The paper had a circulation of 10,000 and focused on issues such as the racist nature of tracking in schools, homophobia, and political prisoners. [1] The New York chapter also published a local newsletter called Up South. In 1991 the JBAKC released a video about fascism and anti-fascism in the US entitled Behind the Burning Cross: Racism USA. [2]

Protests

Flier distributed by the JBAKC Los Angeles chapter in 1984 Cross Burning.jpg
Flier distributed by the JBAKC Los Angeles chapter in 1984

The JBAKC directly confronted white supremacists when they held rallies, and the confrontations sometimes became violent. In 1983 the group worked with the Brown Berets to disrupt a KKK march in Austin, Texas. The protesters hurled rocks and bottles at the marchers, and the ensuing fights resulted in 12 injured people and 11 arrests. The Austin police chief blamed the violence on the JBAKC and Brown Berets, but one police officer was found to have used excessive force in the arrest of a Brown Beret member. [6] Later that year, three members were arrested for participating in a riot outside an Arlington, Virginia high school, where neo-Nazis held a demonstration to mark "White Pride Day". [7]

When a group of KKK members protested at a Gay Pride Parade in Chicago in 1986, they were met by counter-demonstrators from JBAKC and another anti-racist group. A crowd of around 2,500 Klan supporters chased the anti-Klan groups, leading to 17 arrests and minor injuries to eight police officers. [8]

In addition to confronting white supremacists, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee also took a stand against what they saw as police brutality. In 1983, 20 members of the Los Angeles chapter demonstrated outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to protest the shooting of a five-year-old black boy by a white police officer from the Stanton Police Department. The protesters passed out a pamphlet headlined "Stop Killer Cops!" and claimed that the officer overreacted because he felt threatened being in a black community. A police spokesperson claimed that the child had waved a realistic toy gun at the officer. [9]

As part of their effort to challenge white supremacy, the group worked to clean up antisemitic and racist graffiti in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. The swastikas and similar graffiti were spray-painted on the 40th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Jewish-owned businesses across Germany were vandalized. The vandalism was attributed to William G. Leinberger, a member of the neo-Nazi group Chicago Area Skin Heads. [10]

Despite their work opposing certain forms of antisemitism, not all Jewish groups supported the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. At two California anti-Klan rallies, the JBAKC were confronted by protesters from the Jewish Defense League (JDL), who accused the group of antisemitism for their strong positions against Zionism. JDL spokesman Irv Rubin said of the Committee, "They hate Israel with a passion". [11] [12] The Anti-Defamation League also criticized the JBAKC, claiming that the organization "actually promotes racism and advocates organized violence." [5] The JBAKC, for its part, referred to Zionism as "the enshrinement of white supremacy," accused Zionists of "work[ing] with the Klan and other white supremacist groups," and asserted that there was no inherent opposition between "Zionism and Nazism." [13]

Bombings

Between 1982 and 1984 a group of radical activists planted a string of bombs at military, government, and corporate targets along the East Coast to protest apartheid in South Africa and what they saw as American aggression in Central America, Grenada and Lebanon. The activists used a variety of names, such as the Armed Resistance Unit, Guerrilla Resistance, United Freedom Front, and the Revolutionary Fighting Group, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believed that a single group was responsible. [14] While the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee never claimed responsibility for the bombings, three members of the group were later convicted for their participation in them. [15] Laura Whitehorn and Marilyn Buck served long prison sentences for related crimes, and Linda Evans was released in 2001 when President Bill Clinton commuted her 40-year sentence after she had served 16 years. [16] Five members of the JBAKC and one member of the New Movement in Solidarity with Puerto Rican Independence and Socialism were found in contempt of court for refusing to testify before a grand jury regarding the bombs planted at the U.S. Capitol and two military targets during the bombing campaign. [17] [18]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (1980). "Take a Stand Against the Klan". In Trodd, Zoe (ed.). American Protest Literature . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press (published 2006). pp.  281–285. ISBN   0-674-02352-8.
  2. 1 2 "U.S. Left-Wing Militant Anti-Fascist History V. 1". Insurgence Records Discussion Forums. Archived from the original on 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  3. ↑ "Mike's Old School Punk Rock Garage Sale" . Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  4. ↑ Gattesman, Les (June 1984). "The Klan: The Face of Amerikkkan Fascism" (PDF). Maximum Rocknroll (14). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
  5. 1 2 "Adherents.com". 2007-04-23. Archived from the original on October 21, 2003. Retrieved 2007-12-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ↑ "Police Chief Says Anti-Klan 'Hoodlums' Caused Klan Rally Violence". Associated Press. 1983-02-24.
  7. ↑ "3 Demonstrators Released". The Washington Post. 1983-11-07.
  8. ↑ "Klan Violence Recalls King Era". Associated Press. 1986-06-29.
  9. ↑ "no title". Associated Press. 1983-03-07.{{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  10. ↑ "Man Charged in Anti-Semitic Vandalism". Associated Press. 1987-11-14.
  11. ↑ "Marchers Harassed by Militant Jews". Associated Press. 1983-10-29.
  12. ↑ "Police Avert Clash Between JDL and Jackson Supporters". Associated Press. 1984-07-17.
  13. ↑ Evelyn Torton Beck, "Next Year in Jerusalem?", in Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology (Watertown: Persephone Press, 1982), p. 194
  14. ↑ "Bombings may be work of a single group". United Press International. 1984-09-27.
  15. ↑ Rowley, James (1990-09-07). "Three Leftists Plead Guilty to Bombing the U.S. Capitol". Associated Press.
  16. ↑ Gamino, Denise (2001-04-08). "Unrepentant Radical; Freed from prison by President Clinton". Austin American-Statesman.
  17. ↑ Seppy, Tom (1985-02-12). "Judge finds four in contempt in bombing probe". Associated Press.
  18. ↑ "Two men found in contempt in bombing probe". The Washington Post. 1985-06-29.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Defense League</span> Jewish far-right organization

The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right wing terrorist group" by the FBI since 2001, and is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorism watch groups classify the group as inactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ku Klux Klan</span> American white supremacist terrorist hate group

The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, in recent decades is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, atheists, and abortion providers.

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory</span> Antisemitic conspiracy theory

The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization controls international banks, and through them the governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.

Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people is superior to all others. The supposed superior people can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nation, culture, or belong to any other part of a particular population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White pride</span> Racial expression

White pride and white power are expressions primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints. It is also a slogan used by the prominent post-Ku Klux Klan group Stormfront and a term used to make racist/racialist viewpoints more palatable to the general public who may associate historical abuses with the terms white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Fromm (white supremacist)</span> Canadian white supremacist

Frederick Paul Fromm is a Canadian former high school teacher, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and perennial political candidate.

White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, and pejoratively known as Boneheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and some of them are members of prison gangs. The movement emerged in the United Kingdom between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, before spreading across Europe, Russia and North America in the 1980–1990s.

Domestic terrorism in the United States consists of incidents which are confirmed to be domestic terrorist acts. These attacks are considered domestic because they occurred within the United States and they were carried out by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.

Mark "Mordechai" Levy is a U.S.-based political activist and founder of the militant Jewish Defense Organization (JDO), a breakaway faction of the Jewish Defense League. David Tell of the Weekly Standard wrote that the group is "located at the farthest, shadowy margins of American public life." Levy has organized a paramilitary training camp located in Upstate New York, named after Revisionist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Marvin Weinstein known as Meir Weinstein and previously known as Meir Halevi is the former national director of the Canadian branch of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and in 2017 claimed to also be the leader of the JDL in North America. He announced on July 9, 2021, that he was leaving the JDL.

Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and islamophobia, as well as anti-feminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.

Roy Everett Frankhouser, Jr. was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a member of the American Nazi Party, a government informant, and a security consultant to Lyndon LaRouche. Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times. In 2003 he told a reporter, "I'm accused of everything from the sinking of the Titanic to landing on the moon." He was convicted of federal crimes in at least three cases, including dealing in stolen explosives and obstruction of justice. Irwin Suall, of the Anti-Defamation League, called Frankhouser "a thread that runs through the history of American hate groups".

Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi skinhead leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined $12 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan</span> White supremacist and antisemitic hate group

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a group styled after the original Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Formed around 2012, it aims to "restore America to a White, Christian nation founded on God's word".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redneck Revolt</span> American far-left political group

Redneck Revolt is an American far-left socialist political group that organizes predominantly among white working-class people. The group supports gun rights and members often openly carry firearms. Its political positions are anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-fascist. Founded in Kansas in 2009, members were present at several protests against Donald Trump and against the far-right in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unite the Right rally</span> 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia

The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and far-right militias. Some groups chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic groups. The organizers' stated goals included the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park. The rally sparked a national debate over Confederate iconography, racial violence, and white supremacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot Front</span> American white nationalist group

Patriot Front is an American white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. The group reportedly had between 200 and 300 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.