David Duke

David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the United States, and former Louisiana State Representative. He has run unsuccessfully for the Louisiana State Senate, Governor of Louisiana, and twice for President of the United States. Duke is a strong supporter of the white-nationalist movement in America. He is widely regarded as a white supremacist by a number of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Youth, the Klan, and first campaigns

David Duke was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his family moved soon afterwards, and after a short period of living in the Netherlands settled in Louisiana. He became interested in the white nationalist movement at an early age and joined the Klan in 1967. Duke went on to study at Louisiana State University and in 1970 formed a racist white campus-group known as the White Youth Alliance. He was involved in the campus ROTC and a year later he went to Laos and taught English to Laotian military officers.

Related Topics:
Tulsa - Oklahoma - Netherlands - Louisiana State University - ROTC - Laos

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Duke returned to LSU, graduating in 1974. He became notorious on campus for wearing a Nazi uniform and swastika paraphernalia, and holding parties on the anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler. The same year as his graduation he was elected to Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He attracted attention for trying to modernize the Klan and turn it into a modern nationalist political force. For example, he changed the title of Grand Wizard to National Director and sported a conservative suit as opposed to the traditional white robe.

Related Topics:
Nazi - Swastika - Adolf Hitler - Grand Wizard - Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

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In 1976, Duke sought a seat in the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat. In 1978 he left the Klan, and two years later formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People. In 1987, he conducted a direct-mail appeal using the identity and mailing-list of the Forsyth County Defense League, in Georgia, without permission, which League officials described as a fund-raising "scam" (detailed in The Rise of David Duke by Tyler Bridges). In 1988 he ran in the Democratic Party primary for candidate of the President of the United States. After a dismal showing in the Democratic primaries, he appeared on many state ballots as the nominee of the Populist Party, this time receiving approximately 25,000 votes in the 1988 general election.

Related Topics:
Democrat - National Association for the Advancement of White People - Forsyth County Defense League - Populist Party

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