Fear, anger and frustration. These are three themes that run throughout all hate groups. Most hate groups form during times of economic hardship or social change. Certain groups ofpeople begin to blame another group for the reason of a major social or economical change. After the Civil War, the South suffered from both economic hardship and drastic socialchange. For centuries, the south had relied on slaves to harvest crops at plantations.
When theslaves were freed, the plantations werent being worked on anymore, causing the owners to loosea lot of money. When this happened, six former Confederate soldiers started a hate group calledthe Ku Klux Klan. During the post-Civil War era, the Klan was very popular among southernwhites. Their ignorance was feeding the fire that blacks were the root of their problem, when inreality the whites ignorance is the root of their own problems.
The Klan has since died down and risen numerous times with the start of many socialchanges such as the womens rights movement (1920s) and the civil rights movement (1960s). Another large and devastating hate group is the neo-Nazis. These working-class peopleblame all immigrants for taking jobs away from the whites. Their ignorance pushes them so faras to violently attack and kill blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and homosexuals. Hate Crimes can happen anytime, anywhere. In a small Texas town of Jasper, Texas, 3white men are under heavy guard after being accused of a murder of an innocent man.
ShawnBerry,23, Lawrence Brewer,31, and John King, 23, allegedly members of the extremist AryanBrotherhood, dragged a black man to his death behind a pick-up truck, ripping his body topieces. James Byrd, Jr. , a 49 year-old, former vacuum cleaner salesman disabled by an arminjury, was walking home from a party celebrating the wedding of his niece, when he was pickedup by the three white men, who offered him a ride. According to Berry, who informed on histwo companions, they drove to an isolated wood, and King was alleged to have said that he wasfixing to scare the s**t out of that n****r.
James Byrd was beaten and kicked by the threewhite men. Seemingly unconscious, he was chained by the ankles to a hook on the back of thetruck, which then pulled him about two miles along a narrow, winding asphalt road. Hisbelongings, a wallet and keys, were scattered in his wake, along with dentures and parts of hisbody. The torso was found in a creek. Close by, empty beer cans were scattered on the grass.
James Byrds head, neck and right arm were discovered a mile away. Hate crimes are not always committed against minorities. In Las Vegas, two Anti-RacistAction members were murdered. According to reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal andfrom Anti-Racist Action in Columbus, the bodies of Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25,were found in the desert 150 yards from each other.
The bodies were located in an area of thedesert known for a place where Nazis target shoot. The two men were murdered in executionstyle slayings. Sometimes these horrible crimes occur within ones own family. On the night of March5, David and Bryan Freeman decided it was time to act. Time to act on the new beliefs they hadlearned. Time to prove to their new friends that they were real soldiers of the racial war theywere told was coming.
On that Sunday night, hate came to the Freeman house. The boys, ages15 and 17, ambushed their mother in the downstairs hallway, stabbing and clubbing her until shedied. Then they went upstairs and did the same to their dad while he lay in his bed. Their littlebrother Erik, 11, was asleep when the older brothers entered his room and beat him to death aswell.
What would make people commit such horrendous crimes such as these? Why dont youask Mark Thomas, a fascist organizer who operates a ministry for racists in easternPennsylvania. It was at this Aryan Nations of Pennsylvania where the Freeman brothers weretaught by Mark Thomas that it was O. K. to hate. The brothers, along with hundreds of othersattended a Hitler Youth Festival last April where Mark Thomas taught them weapons skills on arifle range and other things of the sort.
As a self declared reverend, Mark Thomas teaches atwisted religious known
