The KKK is one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist organizations, and its decline over the past decade has impacted the overall number of hate groups the SPLC tracks. Last year’s report identified 47 KKK groups — including three in Ohio — and noted numbers had steadily declined from 190 in 2015.
“A major reason for this is that the Klan’s name has become extremely toxic — if you are a Klan member and your employer finds out, for instance, you are all but guaranteed to be fired. Unfortunately, those declining numbers do not reflect a parallel reduction in support for their ideas,” the new report says.
While the number of hate groups tracked by the law center declined, it says hate did not. The SPLC says that work was picked up by groups such as the Proud Boys, who vandalized historically Black churches in Washington D.C. The Proud Boys have a presence in Columbus and Canton, the report says. And many people aren’t members of an organized group, but spread hateful ideologies online.
Bill Sandlin, founder and “imperial wizard” of the White Christian Brotherhood KKK group in Dayton, says the group was formed about two years ago and has a half-dozen members locally.
Their goal, he said, is to advocate the separation of the races. He made a number of racist and factually inaccurate assertions. Sandlin, of Riverside, is self-employed, owning his own painting and drywall business.
He said the White Christian Brotherhood is separate from the Honorable Sacred Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a KKK group from Madison, Indiana, that held a rally at Courthouse Square in Dayton in 2019.
The 2019 event was costly to local governments because of security concerns. Montgomery County commissioners denied a request from the Indiana group to have another event in 2020.
Sandlin said he didn’t appreciate the May 2019 rally, saying the group that held it should have focused more on homosexuality and segregation.
Sandlin said his group is a “peaceful organization” — contrary to his social media posts referring to war, killing and images of nooses. He said he “wholeheartedly” supports the actions of protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Sandlin said he believes KKK membership is declining because the younger generation is more drawn to Nazi-ism and skinheads. The SPLC lists five Neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups it says operate statewide in Ohio.
“They just transferred their brand,” said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. “The Klan is just old school hatred and Proud Boys are just new school hatred. Call it what you want, it’s still hate.”
‘It’s very dangerous’
Whaley said the establishment of a KKK group in Dayton is “very disappointing.”
“That’s why it’s so important we are very clear that it is not tolerated in our community, and it’s not something we support,” she said. “And the work we’ve done these last two years and continue to do against any sort of racism and hatred is incredibly important, now more than ever.”
Asked if the KKK group or any other local “hate groups” have been a problem in recent years, Dayton police issued a statement.
“The Dayton Police Department takes the threat posed by any violent extremist group seriously and works closely with our law enforcement partners to address and respond to issues related to these groups,” the statement says. “The Dayton Police Department is an active participant in these partnerships and has assigned detectives to federal task forces to include the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Joint Terrorism Task Force.”
The Rev. Chad White, who was active in organizing community events to counter the KKK’s 2019 rally, was surprised to learn that the Klan has a local chapter.
“It’s very dangerous,” he said, calling it disingenuous for anyone to claim to be both KKK and nonviolent.
“Every nationalistic segregationist organization claims the same thing, yet they have a history of violence and they draw on the messages and images of that history as a reminder of what can be done to you if you seek to overthrow white supremacy and ‘take our country from us,’” he said. “You can’t say you’re nonviolent when you carry a noose around.”
White said it’s important to draw attention to such groups, and use their existence as a reminder of how important it is to teach about equity and inclusion, and to build relationships across racial and cultural lines.
“I don’t believe you can ignore hate,” he said. “Hate doesn’t dissipate by ignoring it.”
Other area ‘hate groups’
The Southern Poverty Law Center also names the Nation of Islam as a hate group, as it has for years. The report says Dayton has one of four Nation of Islam groups in Ohio.
The law center says the Nation of Islam has a “theology of innate Black superiority over whites and the deeply racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric of its leaders have earned the NOI a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.”
Messages left with members of the Nation of Islam study group in Dayton were not returned. The national organization has long disputed that it is anti-Semitic or a hate group.
The SPLC lists the group Christ or Chaos in West Chester as a “radical traditional Catholicism” hate group. The organization’s leader couldn’t be reached for comment.
“Adherents of radical traditional Catholicism, or ‘integrism,’ routinely pillory Jews as ‘the perpetual enemy of Christ’ and worse, reject the ecumenical efforts of the Vatican, and sometimes even assert that recent popes have all been illegitimate,” the SPLC says.
A website for Christ or Chaos includes a response from being labeled a hate group by the SPLC in 2012. The site’s author Thomas Droleskey wrote that he has no “group,” and while his website refers to Judaism as a “false religion,” he doesn’t hate Jews; he wants to convert them.
The SPLC identifies hate groups as organizations that attack or malign an entire class of people. In response to questions from critics, the SPLC explained that this is why Black Lives Matter and Antifa aren’t hate groups.
They note BLM’s mission is ending the marginalization of Black Americans, not promoting anti-white ideology. And though some of Antifa’s adherents have been violent, the group does not promote hatred based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.
The SPLC separately tracks antigovernment groups, such as the Oath Keepers and other militia groups whose members are accused of taking part in the U.S. Capitol attack. A separate report will be released this year on those groups.
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