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A White Man Speaks Out

The former leader of the largest active
White Rights Group in the United States,
Speaks out for White America.

...by F.Glenn Miller

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Chapter 6:
$1 Million Dollar Lawsuit, Morris Dees,
And The Beginning Of My Downfall

Morris Segelman Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Alabama came to Raleigh in October 1983, and filed a $1 million dollar civil lawsuit against Glenn Miller and the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, for violating the civil rights of Bobby Person (a Black) and conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Black citizens of the state.

This was the beginning of my downfall and the downfall of the organization which I had begun in December of 1980.

Though it would take Morris Dees and his friends in the U.S. Justice Department the next three years, they would succeed in destroying my organization, and in getting me forcibly exiled from the White Movement.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, with Dees as chief attorney and head of that group and it's subsidiary group "Klanwatch," was primarily a civil rights organization for Blacks and other minorities, and was known nationally for their successful court actions against White racist groups from around the country.

It was Morris Dees, for example, who succeeded in winning a lawsuit against Robert Shelton and his Klan group (the United Klans of America), and having their huge headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama awarded to the Black plaintiff in that case. Robert Shelton, during the 1960's headed the largest Klan organization in the entire country.

Dees also represented Vietnamese fishermen successfully in a court case against Mississippi Klansmen who were protesting against and harassing them on behalf of White fishermen who objected to the competition of new immigrants in, as they saw it, their fishing waters off the coast of Mississippi.

And, so Morris Dees, et al., came to North Carolina after Klansman Glenn Miller, and the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

This former chief fund raiser for presidential candidate George McGovern; this darling of the liberals; this close friend of the John F. Kennedy family; this Klan-hater who had recently been given a $15 million dollar endowment by Eastern liberals "to combat racism" according to a report in the Charlotte Observer, was in North Carolina and out to get me. And, though I never admitted it to anyone, I knew he would succeed in the end, even though I was innocent of all the dozens of allegations contained in the civil lawsuit.

If I knew then what I know now, I would just simply have refused to participate in that court case, and surrendered to the judgment of the court.

Fearing lawsuits in the past, I had taken all my property out of my name. I owned nothing of much value, and at that time neither did the CKKKK, other than a few flags, tobacco sticks, message machines, an old typewriter, and other inexpensive odds and ends.

I should have just explained to Judge Earl Britt in the Federal District Court in Raleigh, who presided over that case, that since neither myself not the CKKKK had money to hire an attorney, and we certainly weren't sophisticated enough to wage an equal court battle with the Southern Poverty Law Center on our own, that I just flatly refused to participate in the court proceedings.

I knew I couldn't be given a prison sentence because it was a civil suit and not a criminal one. And, Morris Dees and his plaintiffs couldn't get anything of value from us because we didn't have anything, even if they won the lawsuit.

By refusing to participate, the court would have had to render its judgement, thus ending the lawsuit, and ending further investigations of the CKKKK by Dees, at least for the time being.

Why in the hell didn't I do that?

Well, actually Steve and I and other CKKKK leaders did entertain this legal maneuver, but after pondering and discussing a multitude of possible ramifications of it, all conjured up in our judicial ignorance and paranoid brains, we decided to fight. We didn't have the benefit then, of the 20/20 hindsight I have now.

We didn't have a lawyer either, nor did we ever have one to represent the CKKKK, due to a shortage of capital with which to pay him.

This was almost a year before that problem would be solved with a sizeable cash donation from "The Order," in the nice round figure of $200,000. More later about that.

Bobby Person, the only named plaintiff in this $1 million dollar lawsuit, was, at that time, a prison guard at a state prison located in Moore County. The other plaintiffs were the two million Black citizens of North Carolina, whom I thought were neglectfully, though understandably, unnamed.

Since I had the constitutional right to face my accusers, I should have sent Judge Britt a motion demanding that Dees bring all two million Blacks to court, so I could face them, But him being the short-tempered Judge I would come to know, I'm glad I didn't.

I thought I tested Judge Britt's temper enough during that case, when I sent him a motion requesting he order Morris Dees to undergo a test for AIDS, so I'd feel safe in the courtroom.

That motion, the story of which went out over TV news and the newspapers, not only tested Judge Britt's temper, but tended to make Dees even more determined to put me behind bars.

The reader is warned here that my story about Morris Dees and our court battles is somewhat lengthy, and may be a little boring, but for those who wish to fully understand why I later went underground and declared war against minorities and the government, and how my organization was destroyed, it is essential reading.

Plaintiff Bobby Person, a short and chubby Black fellow in his mid thirties, had, according to allegations contained in the lawsuit, suffered tremendous suffering and racial harassment at the hands of three members of the CKKKK, Mike Lewis, Gregory Short and Joann Short. Those three were also named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with myself and the CKKKK.

The lawsuit stated that those three Klanspeople had carried out a continuing campaign to threaten, harass, and intimidate Bobby Person and his family, by phone threats, by driving by Person's house in Klan robes, and waving shotguns, and by other Klan-like actions. There was no allegation of any actual physical harm at all.

Now I was familiar with those incidents because I had been to court with Mike months earlier where he was tried by the state for them. He had also filed charges against Bobby Person, and in fact, they were both tried together. Mike contended that Person had pointed a shotgun at him while cursing and threatening him. And, Mike had two eye witnesses who confirmed it.

After the Chatham County judge had heard both sides in that case, he found them both not guilty and dismissed all charges.

Of course, I had nothing to do with the incidents at all, and the lawsuit did not even allege that I did.

In truth, I had heard about them from Mike, but not until after the fact, and not being empowered by the state or federal government to act as a law enforcement officer, I couldn't have prevented the incidents anyway. But, I did plead with Mike not to engage in further confrontations with Bobby Person, adding that it would harm the CKKKK.

It was obvious that Morris Dees was using Bobby Person and those three Klanspeople to get at me. In fact, Mike told me moths later that he had been approached by one of Dees' assistants and told that the lawsuit against him would be dropped if he would cooperate, and further that they just wanted Glenn Miller anyway and not anyone else, and were willing to pay money for cooperation by CKKKK members who would help them achieve that end, though the Dees assistant did not mention how much money.

The lawsuit went on to list dozens of allegations of harassment, intimidation, or conspiracy involving the CKKKK. The vast majority of those allegations were based on information Dees had taken directly from my own newspaper, The White Carolinian. For example, where I reported that we had marched through a town to promote White voter registration, the allegation would state that the march was intended to harass and intimidate the Black citizens of that town. Or, where I reported that the members of one of our dens had gotten together and conducted training in map reading, firearms assembly and safety, and self defense, Dees alleged that they had gotten together in a Klan conspiracy to train themselves to commit violent acts against Black people. And, Morris Dees and his legal associates worded the allegations so convincingly, they would be easily believed by a judge or jury. He also stated names, dates, time, and places which he took directly out of my newspaper.

I reported all CKKKK activities, monthly in The White Carolinian, including training activities, as a means to inspire the White readers.

When we finally went to court, Dees presented as evidence, stacks upon stacks of blown up White Carolinian articles, to support his allegations.

When Judge Britt read the allegations, he had no way of knowing how truthful they were and, of course, had to give Dees the benefit of the doubt, by accepting the lawsuit rather than throw it out. But, by doing so, he gave Dees legal power to subpoena any CKKKK member or supporter he so desired and to interrogate them to his heart's content by way of "depositions."

Depositions, incidentally, are the same as subpoenas.

Dees would file the depositions at the Clerk of Court's office, and then local Sheriff's Departments or U.S. Marshals served them upon our members and supporters, requiring them to present themselves to Dees or Dees assistant at the time and date prescribed, usually at the courthouse nearest the member's residence.

I estimate that 70 or 80 of our members were subjected in this way to interrogation by Dees, between 1983 and July 1986 when the case finally went to court.

The really amazing thing about the entire three-year investigation by Morris Dees, who incidentally, was assisted in every way possible by county, state, and federal law enforcement officials, was that the most Dees could ever get me charged with was "CONTEMPT OF COURT," a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment. And he did in fact get me convicted for that, but not without using two lying witnesses, both of whom were serving active prison sentences at the time, and who testified in order to gain favor with their parole boards and for other benefits.

The biggest question of all is why Dees didn't file criminal charges against me in 1983 instead of civil charges, since civil charges could not result in a prison sentence. The answer is of course, he didn't know of anything criminal I'd done, and never learned of anything other than "Contempt of Court" during his entire three-year investigation.

But, Morris Dees was attacking White racism, which was the job he was paid to do. And since Glenn Miller was spreading White racism so successfully, then Dees was compelled to attack me.

Dees never really cared whether or not I'd done anything illegal. He just wanted me to quit spreading all that White racism, and he knew the only way to stop me was though the court. So, he filed a civil lawsuit in hopes that would get the job done.

Dees in point of fact engaged in a conspiracy with his civil rights associates and others, to deprive me of my constitutional rights which enabled me to work legally for the cause I believed in. This is exactly what he did, and any honest person who followed the case, will admit it.

Following the filing of the lawsuit in October of 1983, Steve and I and a dozen or so other members were subpoenaed to appear before Morris Dees at the federal courthouse in Raleigh. And, we showed up punctually, but in our uniforms of camouflage fatigues and combat boots.

Dees was visibly shaken when he saw us, as were his three or four associates, one of whom was a very thin and extremely flat-chested woman of about 35, who got mad when I inquired if she was a male or female. And, another got into a shoving match with a CKKKK member who had tried to take his picture with a Polaroid camera. After the shoving match, the CKKKK member went down to the magistrate's office and filed assault charges, which were duly served on the Dees assistant by a U.S. Marshal during one of the interrogations. And, he had to accompany the Marshal down several flights of stairs to post a signature bond, before being released.

All this innocent harassment on our part bothered Dees and company, and he later succeeded in obtaining a court order from Judge Britt, forcing us to stop them

One of Dees ' objectives in filing lawsuits against White groups was to force those groups to spend money, time, and effort in court battles, thereby reducing their effectiveness at spreading racism. "Hit 'em in their pocketbooks," was his motto.

I knew that and was determined to minimize Dees success in that regard, by increasing CKKKK activities, and using the lawsuit attack as a means to chide members into working even harder for the CKKKK. Though, we lost a lot of members who quit out of fear of Dees investigations, we gained many more than we lost, and in fact continued to grow substantially in number through the entire three-year investigation. And by July 25, 1986, the day the court exiled me from the White Movement, our group would be the largest active White racist group in the entire country, and the fastest growing, with over 5,000 members and supporters.

Let me interject something here. I always felt that once we had 1,000 uniformed men marching in the streets on a regular basis, that the White masses, seeing this, would throw away their fears, and pour into our organization. They would be so inspired by us.

Fear, I felt, was the main obstacle holding them back, fear of being attacked by mobs of Blacks, fear of losing their jobs, fear that their children would be attacked by Blacks in their schools, etc.

But, the sight of 1,000 uniformed men marching in step, carrying large Confederate battle flags, while " Dixie " rang out over loud speakers, would give the Southern masses the courage, pride, and inspiration necessary to join with us.

We never did field 1,000 marching men, but we did manage to field around 500 men, women, and young people for two marches through downtown Raleigh, and 300 or 400 for marches in several other towns. And we managed to attract over 2,000 at one of our outdoor rallies.

From October 1983 to January 1985, when I signed an agreement with Dees in return for his dropping of the lawsuit, the lawsuit troubled me to no end.

Signing that agreement didn't get Dees of my back, incidentally, it just marked another stepping stone on my way to prison, as I'll explain later.

Every few days, I'd receive yet another batch of legal papers, which required some action on my part. There were court orders, memorandums, depositions, motions for this and that, and dozens of other types of legal documents. And, in the beginning, I was ignorant about all of them, as many were written in legal jargon only lawyers really understand.

By 1986, I had received a stack of these documents four or five feet in height.

The law firm of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Morris Dees had plenty of lawyers and paralegals to write those documents and no doubt, greatly enjoyed playing that judiciary game of cat and mouse with us.

Steve and I finally talked to two lawyers about taking our case. One wanted $50,000 and the other $20,000. And, the $20,000 one told us we probably didn't have a chance to win, pointing out that the Southern Poverty Law Center was a powerful and proficient law firm, with an excellent track record.

Neither of those lawyers really wanted to take our case, anyway, because of the adverse publicity they would receive for representing "The Klan."

I had one Raleigh lawyer tell me, "Glenn, this is off the record, and I'll deny I ever said it if you tell anyone I did, But there is no way you'll ever get a fair trial in Raleigh, North Carolina." That lawyer's name was Russell Dement.

Federal courts do not, under any circumstances, provide court appointed attorneys in civil cases. The lawsuit was civil, therefore, a free lawyer was out. I did in fact, file a motion to Judge Britt for a court-appointed lawyer, but he was prevented by Federal Rules and Procedures from giving me one.

Anyhow, I taught myself how to type court motions to respond to those filed by Dees. I just simply used his as my format. I'd type the court heading, the case number, and the subject of the motion, all in the proper format, and then state my case, in my own words, in the body of the motion.

For example, I might say, "Now comes defendant Glenn Miller, this 3rd day of October 1984, in response to plaintiffs' motion of 28 September 1984 for a court order which would place certain physical restraints upon the members of the CKKKK, and I do hereby make the following motion": (blah, blah, blah). And, I'd go on to explain my wishes, in my own words, the best I could.

Of course, I didn't know how to look up or cite Supreme Court decisions or other legal precedents, but I knew the U.S. Constitution, which I cited a great deal of in my arguments.

I'm sure my feeble attempts to communicate with the court, by way of the documents I submitted through the Clerk of Court's office, provided great amusement to all those there who read them, including Judge Britt.

The lawsuit did succeed in worrying the hell out of me, and took up a great deal of my time as well as that of other members, time I'd rather have spent working to build the CKKKK.

When filing my motions at the courthouse, I'd sometimes hold a press conference outside and give xeroxed copies of the motion to reporters, to assure all my redneck rooters, that I was fighting back.

Meanwhile, myself and the CKKKK continued to increase our activities around the state, staging marches, rallies, meetings, and other actions designed to get more and more people to join.

Not only did our number increase, but our finances did, as well. Donations from those wanting to help us fight Dees came increasingly, and by January 1984, we were taking in about $1,500 per month average, all tolled, which wasn't much comparatively, but more than we'd taken in before.

We were progressing and growing, and that was what mattered to me.

By June of 1984, two anti-Klan groups in North Carolina (Klanwatch and North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence), would proclaim during a press conference that North Carolina had the fastest growing Klan groups in the whole country, and described us as "dangerously burgeoning North Carolina Klans."

There were actually about seven different Klan organizations in North Carolina in 1984, but only four of any significant size, and the CKKKK had more members and supporters than all the rest combined.

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