Tag: Greg Johnson

Notes on Martin Kenneth O’Toole and White Supremacy, Part Two

In April 2022, we published the first part of “Notes on Martin Kenneth O’Toole and White Supremacy.” Now, four years later, Martin O’Toole unfortunately remains relevant to anti-racists due to his ongoing activism as a white nationalist, as well as his continuing role as the spokesperson for Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Media outlets still quote O’Toole as the voice of this Confederate “heritage” organization without referencing his decades of white nationalist activity. 

Martin O’Toole

Our first “Notes” on O’Toole discussed O’Toole’s racist organizing at University of Georgia in the 1970s. We then covered his activities in the 1980s facilitating the production and mass mailing of newsletters for NSDAP/AO, a neo-Nazi group. We also discussed O’Toole’s assistance with Instauration, a racist and antisemitic publication. We concluded with a discussion of O’Toole’s activity in the Holocaust denial scene, which included hosting events for Hitler-sympathizer David Irving in the Atlanta area, as well as operating a related publishing company.

In this second article, we finish our coverage of O’Toole’s racist career by outlining his history with three virulently racist groups: American Renaissance, the Charles Martel Society, and the Foundation for Human Understanding (FHU). During the period when O’Toole led FHU, the Foundation reprinted Siege, a notorious book which has inspired neo-Nazi terrorist attacks. Finally, we discuss O’Toole’s travel to Russia with other white nationalists in 2018 in an apparent networking mission.

Just as with our first “Notes” on O’Toole, this article is not an attempt at a comprehensive biography of O’Toole, or even an exhaustive account of his racist and antisemitic organizing. Our aim is to synthesize existing documentation on O’Toole—scattered around multiple sources—and to add relevant findings from our own research. We hope this provides readers with a clearer picture of O’Toole’s white nationalist campaigning over the decades.

Continue reading “Notes on Martin Kenneth O’Toole and White Supremacy, Part Two”

“Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”: White Nationalists and Atlanta Property Development

Update 10/11/2017 here.

Introduction

Since the early 2000s, Atlanta white nationalist attorney Sam Dickson has been accumulating property in Atlanta, making a profit from gentrification and rising property values in our city. Dickson has built a “multi-million dollar business” from purchasing unpaid tax debts, then using them as leverage to obtain properties at bargain prices. Dickson has focused on property in South Atlanta, often in neighborhoods that are historically Black and working class. Dickson has been accused of “bullying” tactics to gain title.

Dickson’s moneymaking from the Atlanta property market was highlighted in a 2006 article published by the state-friendly, anti-extremist Southern Poverty Law Center. Other white nationalist and far-Right figures — currently or recently involved in the Atlanta property market — have received less attention. This article discusses some of these figures, showing how organized white nationalists gain both politically and economically from gentrification in our city.

Sam Dickson

Georgia attorney Samuel Glasgow Dickson has been a major figure on the racist far-Right since the 1970s. In 1978, Dickson campaigned for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia on a segregationist platform, receiving 11% of the vote. A lawyer since 1972, Dickson was known for representing Klansmen. Dickson participated in organizations such as the World Anti-Communist League (which included war criminals and far-Right terrorists) as well as the Council of Conservative Citizens (which traces back to the segregationist White Citizens’ Councils.) Dickson was active in Holocaust-denial circles – he published “Revisionist” materials and hosted events in Atlanta. Holocaust-denier David Irving spent time at Dickson’s property in Key West, Florida while facing criminal charges in Europe.

In 1994, Dickson gave a talk at the first American Renaissance conference, a suit-and-tie-style white nationalist gathering. Dickson has presented at every American Renaissance conference since then. He is also a regular speaker at the “Alt-Right” gatherings of the National Policy Institute. Predictably, Dickson was a speaker at the “Atlanta Forum” gathering in Marietta, Georgia this January, which brought together racist Southern nationalists and “Alt-Right” white nationalists. When Auburn University in Alabama tried to cancel an appearance by white power leader Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute, Dickson filed a lawsuit so the event could go ahead. Dickson gave a talk when white nationalists assembled in mass in Charlottesville, Virginia on May 13, 2017 – the white nationalists’ evening event was reminiscent of Klan ceremonies. Sam Dickson was again in Charlottesville for the bloody “Unite the Right” far-Right rally on August 12, 2017, where white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. murdered anti-racist Heather Heyer and wounded over a dozen more in a car attack.

dickson charlottesville may 2017
Sam Dickson holding megaphone at white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, May 13, 2017. “Alt-Right” leaders Richard Spencer, Nathan Damigo and Mike Peinovich (“Mike Enoch”) also visible in photo.

While staying active on the white power scene, Dickson has spent over a decade and a half buying up land around Atlanta, frequently using tax liens he has purchased to encourage property owners to sell low. When areas are redeveloped, Dickson stands to profit. Predictably, other white nationalists and far-Right figures now have their names on Fulton County property records, operating at various degrees of proximity or separation from Dickson himself. Continue reading ““Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”: White Nationalists and Atlanta Property Development”