Thomas Robb (born 1946) is an American

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

leader and

Christian Identity Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity) is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or Aryan people and people of kindred blood, ...

pastor.Extremist Files: Thomas Robb
Southern Poverty Law Center. He is the National Director of The Knights Party, also known as the

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cath ...

, taking control of the organization in 1989.

Early life

Robb was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, and grew up in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. He attended college in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

Christian Identity and Klan activities

Robb is the pastor of the Christian Revival Center in Zinc, Arkansas, a

center where Robb espouses racism and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. Robb's "Thomas Robb Ministries" website declares that "the

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wi ...

'sic'' Germanic, Scandinavian, and kindred people are THE people of the Bible." In 1989, Robb took over the

, originally led by

David Duke David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a membe ...

. In a bid to gain mainstream acceptance, he took the title of "National Director" instead of "

Imperial Wizard The Grand Wizard (later the Grand and Imperial Wizard simplified as the Imperial Wizard and eventually, the National Director) referred to the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad. The ti ...

", and chose to rename the organization "The Knights Party". He also decided to accept members via mail-in forms, rather than through initiation rites that had been common Klan practice in the past. Robb defends the Klan as a harmless organization, claiming that it is "gentle, upbeat, and friendly"; when featured in the PBS documentary ''Banished'', Robb compared a Klan hood to a businessman's tie, claiming that "it's just tradition". Robb has maintained ties to other far-right groups; he has spoken at the

Aryan Nations Aryan Nations is a North American antisemitic, neo-Nazi, white supremacist organization that was originally based in Kootenai County, Idaho, about miles (4.4 km) north of the city of Hayden Lake. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in ...

' annual "World Congress" of hate group leaders, appeared on Jamie Kelso's white supremacist Voice of Reason Radio Network, and contributed regularly to the white supremacist

Internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least tempora ...

'' Stormfront''. In 1996 Robb began to pioneer the concept that white people were being targeted for

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...

. In 2009, Robb's daughter Rachel Pendergraft and his granddaughters, Charity and Shelby Pendergraft, formed a "white nationalist" band called Heritage Connection. Robb's Party publishes ''The Crusader'', a quarterly publication. In November 2016, just days before the presidential election, Robb wrote a front-page article under the title "

Make America Great Again "Make America Great Again" or MAGA is an American political slogan popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants ...

" in ''The Crusader'', devoted to a lengthy endorsement of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

and Trump's message. The Trump campaign responded by denouncing ''The Crusader'' article.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robb, Thomas 1946 births Living people People from Boone County, Arkansas Politicians from Detroit Politicians from Tucson, Arizona American Christian creationists Christian Identity Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragons Activists from Arkansas Arkansas Independents Arizona Independents Colorado Independents