Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler on Nov. 3, 2003 in Hayden, Idaho. The deaths of older white supremacist leaders like Butler respected within the movement left a leadership vacuum. (William B. Plowman/Getty Images)
Three white supremacist leaders have been arrested on sex-related charges since Dec. 22, 2006. Two of them — Matthew Downing, National Vanguard's Boston unit leader, and Gordon Young, former leader of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and current member of the National Socialist Movement — have been charged with sexually assaulting minors. The third, Kevin Alfred Strom, founder of the National Vanguard organization, has been charged with possession of child pornography and witness tampering. It has clearly been a hard month for the self-appointed defenders of white virtue. In the wake of these arrests, and with this being the week Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and legacy, it seems fitting that we take the time to review the state of the white supremacist movement in the United States today, and to look at where it is heading in the future.
