Background
  Billy
Roper speaking at the Aryan Nations Congress
2003.
Billy Roper, head of
Arkansas-based White Revolution, a racist organization that promotes cooperation
between white supremacist groups, is devoted to unifying the disparate and
fractious racist right. In fact, White Revolution's inception is due, in large
part, to Roper's outreach efforts as an official with the neo-Nazi National
Alliance (NA), where he first made a name for himself. His vision of a
unified white power front conflicted with the NA leadership's conception of
itself as an elite vanguard poised to carry out a "white revolution." Roper's
views led to his dismissal from the NA in September 2002 and his founding of
White Revolution a few days later. Roper used the skills and contacts he had
cultivated as NA's Deputy Membership Coordinator to jumpstart White Revolution.
In
the National Alliance: Roper's
background
Roper, born in 1972, is a onetime
skinhead and a former high school history instructor who claims that three
generations of his family have belonged to the Klan. His teaching background and
conservative style of dress (he looks more like a computer geek than a neo-Nazi)
helped Roper fit in with the NA, which liked to promote itself as an
organization of white middle-class professionals. He became an organizer for the
group in 2000. The NA was at its height: it was the largest and best-organized
domestic neo-Nazi organization, spreading its message on short-wave radio, the
Internet and through nationwide literature distributions.
Membership was well over 1,000 and growing. William
Pierce, the group's since-deceased founder, was one of the most formidable
and best-known anti-Semitic propagandists in the country. Author of The
Turner Diaries , a blueprint in novel form for overthrowing the U.S.
government, Pierce hoped to form an elite group of revolutionaries that would
eventually be able to establish an all-white "living space" in the United States
and Europe. Roper appeared to be a natural for the
job of Deputy Membership Coordinator. He was articulate and energetic, and
responsive to the questions and complaints of members on the group's membership
list. He also focused on reaching out to potential constituencies, including
college students, law enforcement and racist skinheads. In addition, he ran "The
Kinsmen Rescue Project," a Web site mobilizing support to save "those of
European descent from the horrors of African rule in Southern Africa either
through relocation or intervention." Roper avowedly reached out to "as many
diverse and differently opinionated individuals as possible," and developed many
white supremacist contacts. This ecumenical
approach did not please Pierce and other NA leaders. Pierce denigrated the
notion of a unified white supremacist movement, and generally exercised strict
control over his followers. Nonetheless, he allowed Roper to continue reaching
out to other groups, probably because Roper was popular with members and had
good organizational and communication skills.
Roper built alliances with organizations such the
World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), now known as The Creativity
Movement, the now-defunct American Friends of the British National Party,
EURO (the European-American Unity & Rights Organization) and various racist
skinhead groups. In April and July 2001, Roper invited other white supremacist
groups to join the NA outside the German embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest
the treatment of neo-Nazi Hendrik Moebus. A 24-year-old from Germany, Moebus had
recently served time in that country for murder, and had come to the U.S. hoping
to do business with Pierce in the white power music industry. German authorities
sought to extradite the young fugitive after he violated the terms of his
probation by publicly giving a Nazi salute and making demeaning remarks about
his murder victim, both illegal in Germany. Moebus was arrested in August 2000
as he left the NA compound in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Despite becoming a
far-right cause
célèbre - in part because of
Roper's efforts - he was soon extradited. After
the September 11 attacks, Roper organized rallies in November and December 2001
in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., which blamed Israel and
Jews for the tragedy. Each rally Roper organized grew in size and inter-group
participation, and led to a worsening conflict for him within the National
Alliance.
In
the National Alliance: organizing
rallies
In this period after September 11,
Roper's career with the NA appears to have been marked by both misjudgments and
successes. Shortly after the terrorist attacks, he proclaimed on an NA e-mail
list that "the enemy of our enemy is, for now at least, our friends...We may not
want them marrying our daughters...but anyone who is willing to drive a plane
into a building to kill Jews is alright [sic] by me. I wish our members had half
as much testicular fortitude." While these comments gained publicity for the
group, Pierce was apparently displeased and required Roper to put an advisory on
his e-mail saying his views and opinions "do not necessarily reflect the
official policies or positions of the National
Alliance."Pierce probably recognized that the 9/11
attacks offered recruiting and organizing possibilities, however, and let Roper
go forward with the two anti-Israel rallies, which other groups joined and which
numbered between 50 and 75 protestors. In January 2002, the NA and the World
Church of the Creator sponsored a joint rally at a library in York,
Pennsylvania. Both Roper and WCOTC head Matt Hale
were scheduled to make speeches, but Roper and other white supremacists were
mobbed by approximately 350 anti-racist demonstrators, and Roper never made it
inside. Media coverage of the incident focused on
the WCOTC, which may have irked Pierce. In the January 2002
National Alliance
Bulletin, he stated that the NA "certainly
will not become stronger by 'uniting' with weak or defective organizations-and
that includes virtually every 'movement' group." He suggested that NA members
interested in being part of the "movement" should resign, adding that the NA
"will act independently of other organizations" and "not engage in joint
activities..." Despite Pierce's pronouncements,
Roper continued to invite other organizations to rallies. In planning a third
demonstration at the Israeli embassy in May 2002, he created an incentive to
attract protestors: only those who attended the rally would be admitted into a
white power concert afterward. About 250 neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and other
extremists showed up for the protest, which Roper considered a great success.
Two months later, however, the unexpected death of
William
Pierce in July left him suddenly vulnerable.
In
the National Alliance: power struggle
When Pierce died on July 22,
observers inside and outside the white power movement considered Roper a
possible successor. However, the NA board of directors chose Erich Gliebe, a close
associate of Pierce who ran Resistance Records,
the NA's hate music business. Although Roper was reportedly disappointed, he
pronounced himself loyal to Gliebe and continued organizing a "Rock Against
Israel" rally to be held at the U.S. Capitol in August. The event became in part
a tribute to Pierce, and attracted more than 1,000 participants. It was one of
the largest gatherings of white supremacists in the nation's capitol since World
War II. Roper reveled in the success of the rally
and praised the other groups who attended, particularly skinheads. However, some
NA members felt that the rally projected exactly the kind of image Pierce and
his associates had tried to avoid-that of swastika-clad neo-Nazis shouting "Seig
Heil" in the streets. Roper argued that "either more National Alliance members
must become activists and come to demonstrations, or we must continue to work
with other organizations and accept the fact that they might not always do
things exactly as we would, but their presence and help is necessary for large
and successful demonstrations." Gliebe and others within the NA, who were not
willing to work with other groups, contended that Roper had put his ego before
the goals of the organization, that he had plotted behind Gliebe's back and had
not obeyed or cooperated with the new leadership. (Faced with the difficult task
of succeeding the unassailable Pierce, Gliebe may have perceived any difference
as an unacceptable threat to his new position.) On September 16, 2002, Roper was
"fired" from the NA.
White
Revolution:
Founding
Just two days later, Roper
announced the creation of White Revolution. In the group's mission statement, he
stated, "We seek a paradigm shift in our values, a revolutionary worldview in
our people, and a fundamental change in the form and focus of our governing
bodies." According to Roper, White Revolution's goal was to create an all
white-government whose foreign and domestic policy are based only on the
interests of white people. Roper (perhaps consciously echoing a WCOTC
mantra in order to attract its members) claimed that "the guiding principle of
the State should be that what is good for the race is good, and what is bad for
the race is bad." He added that, "at this stage of the revolution, our weapons
of choice are the pen, the leaflet, the keyboard, the videocamera, and every
other weapon of mass construction which allows us to reach out to our people and
awaken them to the dangers which threaten our very existence."
Roper lost no time in soliciting support for his
new organization, and he won the endorsement of such white supremacist leaders
as Matt
Hale , Morris Gulett (Church of the Sons of Yahweh), Jeff Schoep (National
Socialist Movement) and Bradley Jenkins (American Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan-now the Aryan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan). Notably absent was the National
Alliance. Roper pledged not to disparage the group, however, and called the
circumstances surrounding his departure "not a matter for public discussion or
debate."
 "At
this stage of the revolution, our weapons of choice are the pen, the leaflet,
the keyboard, the videocamera, and every other weapon of mass construction which
allows us to reach out to our people and awaken them to the dangers which
threaten our very existence."
White
Revolution's "Mission
Statement"
White
Revolution:
Ideology
In many ways Roper's ideology
resembled Pierce's: he was racist, anti-democratic and anti-Christian in
addition to being anti-Semitic. In a June 7, 2003,
White Revolution
Report, he evoked Pierce in speaking about
racial determinism: "I'm a biological racist. I'd rather have the entire species
become extinct except for one white boy and one white girl who were raised by a
pack of wild wolves, than have our race go under and the world inherited by
Asians and mulattos who can play the classical violin and recite Shakespeare all
day long..."
"I'm
a biological racist. I'd rather have the entire species become extinct except
for one white boy and one white girl who were raised by a pack of wild wolves,
than have our race go under and the world inherited by Asians and mulattos who
can play the classical violin and recite Shakespeare all day long..."
Ben Vinyard, another White
Revolution leader, extended these sentiments to include among the dregs of
humanity whites who "betray" their race. He wrote, "Race traitors like Nicole
Kidman [who reportedly dated a bi-racial singer] will continue to exist until
someone decides to make an example out of her: to cut off the tip of her nose,
to cut off her ears, to strap her to a kitchen chair, soak her in gasoline and
burn her flesh off...."
While White Revolution
leaders expressed hatred and contempt for non-whites and "race traitors," they
scapegoated Jews for all the world's evils. In the April 4, 2003,
Report,
Vinyard identified a "vicious and
intentional stranglehold designed to choke the life out of predominantly White
rural areas. And who, you may ask, is the architect behind this grand scheme?
Well, every time you kick over a pile of garbage it seems like a jew [sic]
scuttles out."
Roper also expressly praised
National Socialism, saying, "A state should just be the mechanism by which a
race helps itself, in the same manner that a family helps itself. That's the
true meaning of National Socialism. That's what we need in America today." Like
Pierce, Roper hoped to break the world-control of the "alien" Jews, but where
the anti-populist Pierce looked to an elite revolutionary vanguard, Roper
believed that previously disunited pro-white groups needed to pool their
strength.
White
Revolution:
Structure
Roper set up a Board of Directors
- which included a number of former NA members - about two months after forming
the group. Roper became Chairman and Victor Gerhard, a former lawyer for NA who
was also kicked out of that group, was named Chief Counsel and Vice Chairman.
Chris Quimby, a once-active NA member in Arkansas, was named North American
Membership Coordinator and former NA member Tina Edwards was named Women's
Issues Coordinator (she has since reportedly left the group and the position has
been taken over by Justina Cook). Roper later named Tom Martin, a well-known
West Virginia skinhead who once worked at the NA warehouse, as Youth Coordinator
(later Webmaster). Although Roper was clearly in
charge, he announced he would form a planning and decision-making "Unity Board"
made up of the leaders of every group that worked in partnership with White
Revolution. Roper's hope was to position White Revolution as an umbrella group
that could coordinate and unify white supremacist efforts without threatening
the movement's various leaders. White Revolution
did not need the participation of other groups or their leaders to stand on its
own as an organization, however. Roper soon planned a number of events and
created a Web site and newsletter, which featured various writers, including David
Lane, an imprisoned member of The Order, the notorious 1980s white
supremacist terrorist group.
White
Revolution:
Activities
For White Revolution's "inaugural
event," Roper planned an anti-Israel rally and white power concert in
Gainesville, Florida on November 9, 2002. As he had done with NA, Roper tried to
incite anti-Israel sentiment, claiming he chose Gainesville - the home of the
University of Florida - because of a clash at the university between pro- and
anti-Israel groups. In a press release, he promised to gather members from the
WCOTC,
Aryan
Nations, the National Socialist Movement, National Alliance and other white
supremacist organizations. In fact, relatively few people - only 30 - attended,
although the rally did attract media
coverage.Roper announced another rally on January
25, 2003, this time to protest the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery,
Alabama, and its "attacks" against white supremacist groups (the SPLC has won
several damaging lawsuits against racist organizations). A number of white
supremacist activists quickly signed on. Aryan
Nations' octogenarian leader Richard
Butler, whose group lost a 2000 lawsuit brought against it by the Law
Center, was a featured speaker. About 70 white supremacists from various groups,
including (along with White Revolution) Aryan
Nations, the Creativity
Movement, the Southern Patriots Party and two Klan factions - the North
Georgia White Knights and the American White Knights - attended. Victor Gerhard,
writing about the demonstration for
White Revolution
Report, said that the most notable
development was the participation of Klan groups and the fact that the Klansmen
and skinheads were able to work together. Gerhard added that if these two
groups, both large (albeit internally splintered), were able to unify, "it would
immediately be the biggest pro-White organization in the country." A merger of
separate white supremacist groups did occur, in fact: the American Knights of
the KKK merged with Aryan Nations and became the Aryan Nations Knights of the
KKK. This sort of amalgamation was exactly what Roper aimed for when he founded
White Revolution (though the Klan group later broke with Aryan
Nations).Roper next sponsored a March 2003
anti-immigration rally in San Antonio, along with the National Socialist
Movement, Aryan
Nations, the Celtic Knights and others; about 30 people participated. In
September, to commemorate the group's first anniversary, Roper planned
simultaneous anti-immigrant demonstrations in Little Rock, Arkansas, and
Chicago. The rallies responded to "Freedom Ride" bus tours by immigration
advocates seeking to draw attention to the troubles of undocumented workers.
In addition to rallies, White Revolution has
distributed racist materials around the country, including special distributions
on Halloween and Thanksgiving. The group has also revived the Kinsmen Rescue
project - helping whites from South Africa and Zimbabwe emigrate to the U.S. -
that Roper operated for the NA. In addition, after the founder of the Aryan Baby
Drive, Christine Greenwood, was arrested and charged with having bomb-making
materials in her home, White Revolution took over the project. Now called the
"White Family Network," it provides free clothing and other items to "needy
Aryan families."
"Since
its founding, White Revolution has been active in at least 16 states, including
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas
and West Virginia."
Since its founding, White
Revolution has been active in at least 16 states, including Alabama, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and West
Virginia.
Roper also aggressively uses the
Internet to reach potential recruits and spread White Revolution's message. The
group's Web site contains video, text, audio, and image archives; downloadable
flyers; "racialist fiction"; movie reviews; interviews with white supremacists;
and reports of events. Roper also launched from the Web site "Revolutionary
Productions" - the "Storefront of the White Revolution" - which sells
white-supremacist-themed products
online.
Additionally, the group has created "White
Revolution Television" or WRTV, which offers Internet broadcasts of its video
news program. It also operates its own Internet server and has said it will host
other "pro-White" Web sites as a "gesture of unity." One of the first sites
White Revolution hosted was "Thunderbolt of Truth," a racist magazine created by
Bob DeMarais, a former NA board member. Because the group has its own server, it
can host hate sites created by groups from countries where such sites are
banned.
White
Revolution: Coalition
building
White Revolution does not merely
host events: members also participate in activities sponsored by other groups.
Roper and his WR colleagues have been invited to meetings and rallies held by
white supremacist groups ranging from the Council
of Conservative Citizens to the National Socialist Movement. In June 2003,
for example, Roper was a featured speaker at the Aryan Nations World Congress.
Afterward, Roper wrote approvingly about how "National Socialists mingled with
Aryan Nations members who mingled with skinheads who mingled with everyone
else." In August, the Aryan Nations Knights of the KKK, the International
Keystone Knights and White Revolution co-sponsored a white unity rally near
Colt, Arkansas, that included Roper and Ray Redfeairn (an Aryan Nations leader,
since deceased) as speakers. About 100 people attended the event. Roper was also
one of the featured speakers at Aryanfest 2004, a white power music event
sponsored by the neo-Nazi skinhead group Volksfront, which took place January 30
to February 1 in Phoenix and attracted nearly 300 white supremacists.
 Several
White Revolution members joined the Aryan Nations Knights, a Klan group, at an
August 2003 rally in Colt,
Arkansas.
Going beyond the formalities of
the unity board he envisioned (and in a manner that would be unthinkable to NA
authorities), Roper has also allowed leaders of other groups, particularly young
skinheads, to fill leadership roles in his organization. For example, Tom
Martin, the group's Webmaster, is also a prominent member of the West Virginia
Skinheads. Kenneth Zrallack, the White Revolution state representative for
Connecticut, also leads the White Wolves, a neo-Nazi skinhead group in
Connecticut.
Additionally, White Revolution has
initiated contact with foreign white supremacists. In April 2003, Roper noted
that the group's International Membership Coordinator, Brad Forbes, had recently
returned from a trip to Denmark and Germany, where he met with "prominent
European White Nationalists" and spoke at a meeting of the Danish Nationalist
Socialist Party in Denmark. Roper claimed that the meeting heralded "a new era
of cooperation" between white supremacists in the U.S. and Europe. In September
2003, an interview with Roper was posted on a Finnish white supremacist Web
site. In the same month, the Polish white supremacist "Blood and Honour"
magazine interviewed Chris Quimby, White Revolution's Membership
Coordinator.
Roper's
future
Achieving unity among white
supremacists is a difficult and seemingly impossible task. Roper had been adroit
enough, since founding White Revolution, to avoid the infighting and feuds that
characteristically afflict far-right groups and leaders. Nonetheless, the
situation on the far right remains very fluid. Many of the charismatic leaders
in the movement have died, are in prison or are aging, which has given Roper
both the flexibility and opportunity to work with other groups. Presumably, some
of the groups would not cooperate with each other if they had leaders strong
enough to attract substantial, committed followings.
To succeed over time, Roper will have to continue
positioning White Revolution as an umbrella organization that is not perceived
by other leaders as a threat; cultivating goodwill between organizations or
movements with competing interests or philosophies; satisfying moderates content
with distributing flyers as well as radicals who urgently want major change. No
white supremacist in decades has walked this tightrope successfully. For the
moment, at any rate, Roper has established White Revolution as one of the
prominent purveyors of bigotry and racism in the United States.
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