National Alliance leaving fliers at homes
The News Journal, Aug. 16, 2002
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2002/08/15whitesupremacis.html
By MICHELE BESSO
Bear Bureau reporter
A national white supremacist group said it is recruiting in Delaware, distributing fliers in several New Castle County neighborhoods in the last few days.
The West Virginia-based National Alliance has chapters in 33 cities including Philadelphia and Baltimore, but none in Delaware. Chairman Erich Gliebe said the group plans to become more visible in the region.
He said more people are “ripe for our message,” because of the Sept. 11 attacks and the poor economy.
Residents of Lilac Drive in Middletown said racist and anti-Semitic fliers from the group were rolled into plastic bags and left on their driveways overnight Monday.
The literature included a membership application for “a white person of good, moral character” to “build a secure and healthy future” for whites.
[…]
Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which monitors extremist groups, said the National Alliance is America’s leading neo-Nazi organization, with 55 chapters in 25 states and about 1,500 members.
The group was founded in 1977 by William Pierce, who died July 23 of cancer.
“The organization flew under the radar, but that has changed over the last couple years,” Potok said. “You’re seeing part of the National Alliance going public across the country since the Sept. 11 attacks. They are looking to recruit more through leafleting. It’s a money thing and the publicity aids in their recruiting mission.”