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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Dillon Hopper | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dillon Irizarry 1988 (age 37–38) |
| Occupation | activist |
| Years active | 2016-present |
| Known for | Leader of Vanguard America Coordinator of the Unite the Right rally |
Dillon Irizarry (also known as Dillon Hopper) is an American far-right activist known for founding and leading the alt-right and white supremacist group Vanguard America and being one of the principle coordinators of the Unite the Right rally.
Irizarry was born in 1988 in New Mexico and is of Spanish ancestry.[1] He graduated from high-school in Roswell, New Mexico in 2005 and then immediately enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.[2] He joined the marines at the insistence of a Big Brothers Big Sisters of America mentor.[3]
Irizarry served in the War in Afghanistan as an information security technician.[4] He was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2008, and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2010.[1] He rose to the rank of staff sergeant and remained in active duty until 2017.[1]
In 2006 he legally changed his name to Dillon Hopper, although he still uses Irizarry when speaking on behalf of Vanguard America.[2]
Irizarry claims to have been a neo-fascist since 2012, the same year he started work as a recruiter for the marines.[1] Irizarry has been openly involved in American far-right circles since at least 2016 when he gave a speech at a neo-Nazi gathering in Pikeville, Kentucky.[4] This is despite the Marines policy prohibiting activity duty personnel from joining groups that "espouse supremacist causes."[1]
At the Kentucky speech he announced that he was the leader of a yet unheard of group, Vanguard America, which consisted of 200 members across 20 states.[4] Irizarry would later state that Vanguard America was founded in 2015 in California.[5] Irizarry also claimed that he was not the founder of Vanguard America, and that he took over leadership.[2] Irizarry structured Vanguard America as a hierarchical organization based on Führerprinzip, referring to himself as 'commander.'[2]
In June of 2017 Irizarry started to feud with Thomas Rousseau, the leader of the "Southern Front" of Vanguard America. A key moment came during a "Texas is Ours" rally in Austin, during which Rousseau gave a lengthy speech and sidelined Irizarry.[5] Irizarry claimed that Rousseau was attempting to portray himself as the leader of Vanguard America.[5]
Despite not participating in the Unite the Right rally himself, Irizarry was one of the event's key coordinators.[6] The rally started as a plan between Irizarry and Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Worker Party to bring together all the far-right groups in the country.[6] The rally's leadership consisted of Irizarry, Heimbach, Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement, and Michael Hill of the League of the South with Richard B. Spencer and Nathan Damigo of Identity Evropa being brought in later.[6] Irizarry himself would not attend the rally due to the death of his mother shortly beforehand.[1] Instead Rousseau would lead the Vanguard America group at the rally.[5]
The rally would be a disaster for the far-right, and Vanguard America specifically, due to James Alex Fields, who attended the rally carrying a shield with the Vanguard America logo, and wore the Vanguard America uniform of a white polo and khakis, later drove into a crowd killing a counter-protester.[5][7] Irizarry has insisted that Fields had no affiliation to Vanguard America, and his presence alongside Vanguard America was due to poor leadership and uncooordination on the part of Rousseau.[1]
As Irizarry dealt with the aftermath of the rally, Rousseau, the Southern Front and most of the more moderate neo-Fascists split to form Patriot Front, seizing Vanguard America's website and discord servers. Despite this, Irizarry and Vanguard America continued to limp along, until 2018 when the more radical neo-Nazis split to form the National Socialist Legion, after which Vanguard America has shown "very few signs of life" with Irizarry largely disappearing from public view.[5]
Irizarry has a brother who lives in Roswell.[3] Following his return to civilian life Irizarry has frequently moved around the country, living in California and Ohio and by the time of Unite the Right had his official residence listed as in Indiana.[2][3]
Irizarry has explicitly stated that he and Vanguard America are not white supremacists or neo-Nazis but that he cares for "my ethnicity above any others" and has labeled himself as a Fascist.[8] Despite this, Irizarry also said he is opposed to multiculturalism, and claims the United States is a country for white people.[4]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Dillon Irizarry (also known as Dillon Hopper) is an American far-right activist known for founding and leading the alt-right and white supremacist group Vanguard America and being one of the principle coordinators of the Unite the Right rally.
Louis Cachet (born Kristian Vikernes; 11 February 1973), better known as Varg Vikernes (Norwegian: [ˈvɑrɡ ˈvìːkəɳeːs]), is a Norwegian musician, neo-Nazi, and convicted murderer. He released five albums under the name Burzum between 1992 and 1996, making him an influential figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene and its offshoot National Socialist black metal (NSBM). In May 1994, Vikernes was convicted of first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth. He was also convicted of arson for the burning of four Christian churches in Norway. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison, and was released after having served 15 years. A native of Fana in Bergen Municipality, Vikernes went on to join the band Old Funeral, in which he played guitar from 1989 until his departure in 1991. He recorded multiple tracks with the band, which were featured on the Devoured Carcass EP, as well as various compilation albums released years later. In 1992–1993, he also recorded bass for Mayhem's debut studio album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994). In 1992, Vikernes, along with other members of the scene, was suspected of burning down four Christian churches in Norway. In August 1993, he fatally stabbed Mayhem guitarist Aarseth during an altercation at the latter's apartment, and was arrested shortly after. In May 1994, Vikernes was convicted of first-degree murder, church arson and possession of explosives. Vikernes has always maintained the killing was self-defense, and unsuccessfully argued for the charge to be reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He has denied committing the arsons, though he supported them. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum penalty under Norwegian law. During his incarceration, Vikernes launched the neo-Nazi organisation Norsk Hedensk Front ('Norwegian Heathen Front'), had two books published, and released two ambient albums as Burzum. In 2009, he was released on parole. Afterwards, he moved to a small farm in Corrèze, France, with his wife and changed his name to Louis Cachet. In 2014, he was found guilty by a French court of inciting racial hatred against Jews and Muslims on his YouTube channel, Thulean Perspective, and sentenced to six months' probation. Described by Sam Dunn as "the most notorious metal musician of all time", Vikernes remains controversial for his crimes as well as his political and religious views. He promoted views which combined Odinism and Esoteric Nazism, and openly embraced Nazism during the mid-to-late 1990s. He has continued to be associated with far-right politics.
David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist, former politician and grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. His politics and writings are largely devoted to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system. In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called Duke "perhaps America's most well-known racist and anti-Semite". Duke unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate for state legislature during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. After failing to gain any traction within the Democratic Party, he gained the presidential nomination of the minor Populist Party. In December 1988, he became a Republican and claimed to have become a born-again Christian, nominally renouncing antisemitism and racism. He soon won his only elected office, a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He then ran unsuccessful but competitive campaigns for several more offices, including United States Senate in 1990 and governor of Louisiana in 1991. His campaigns were denounced by national and state Republican leaders, including President George H. W. Bush. He mounted a minor challenge to President Bush in 1992. By the late 1990s, Duke had abandoned his pretense of rejecting racism and antisemitism, and began to openly promote racist and neo-Nazi viewpoints. He then began to devote himself to writing about his political views, both in newsletters and later on the Internet. In his writings, he maligns African Americans and other ethnic minorities, and promotes conspiracy theories about a Jewish plot to control the United States and the world. He continued to run for public office through 2016, but after his reversion to open neo-Nazism, his candidacies were not competitive. During the 1990s, Duke defrauded his political supporters by pretending to be in dire financial straits and soliciting money for basic necessities. At the time, he was in fact financially secure and used the money for recreational gambling. In December 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony fraud and subsequently served a 15-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring, in Texas.
The Order of Nine Angles (ONA or O9A) is a Satanic left-hand path network that originated in the United Kingdom, but has since branched out into other countries. Claiming to have been established in the 1960s, it rose to public recognition in the early 1980s, attracting attention for its neo-Nazi ideology and activism. Describing its approach as "Traditional Satanism", it also exhibits Hermetic and modern pagan elements in its beliefs. According to the Order's own claims, it was established in the Welsh Marches of Western England during the late 1960s by a woman previously involved in a secretive pre-Christian tradition. This account adds that in 1973, a man named "Anton Long" was initiated into the group, subsequently becoming its grand master. Several academics who have studied the ONA believe that "Anton Long" is probably the pseudonym of the British neo-Nazi activist David Myatt; he denies this. From the late 1970s onward, Long wrote books and articles which propagated the Order's ideas; in 1988, the organization launched its own journal, Fenrir. Through these ventures, it established links with other neo-Nazi Satanist groups around the world, among them the Tempel ov Blood in the United States and the Black Order in New Zealand. During the 2000s, the ONA furthered its cause through embracing the Internet. By the 2010s it was attracting further attention for its influence over neo-Nazi militant groups such as Atomwaffen Division and National Action as well as broader extremist networks like 764. The ONA promotes the idea that human history can be divided into a series of aeons, each of which contains a corresponding human civilization. Adherents believe that the current aeonic civilization is that of the Western world, but that the evolution of this society is threatened by the "Magian/Nazarene" influence of the Judeo-Christian religion, which the Order seeks to combat in order to establish a militaristic new social order, which it calls the "Imperium". According to Order teachings, this is necessary in order for a galactic civilization to form, in which "Aryan" society will colonise the Milky Way. It advocates a spiritual path in which practitioners are required to break societal taboos by isolating themselves from society, committing crimes, embracing political extremism and violence, and carrying out acts of human sacrifice. ONA members practice magic, believing that they are able to do it by channeling energies into their own "causal" realm from an "acausal" realm where the laws of physics do not apply, and these magical actions are designed to help them achieve their ultimate goal of establishing the Imperium. The ONA eschews any central authority or structure; instead, it operates as a broad network of associates – termed the "kollective" – who are inspired by the texts which were originally authored by Long and other members of the "inner ONA". The group is composed largely of clandestine cells, which are called "nexions". Some academic estimates suggest that the number of individuals who are broadly associated with the Order falls in the low thousands. Various rapes, killings, and acts of terrorism have been perpetrated by far-right individuals influenced by the ONA, with various British politicians and activists calling for the ONA to be proscribed as a terrorist group. ONA has subsequently been banned as a terrorist group in New Zealand.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
