White Supremacist groups emerged early-on in the history of United States. They usually operated clandestinely, in an attempt to avoid the attention of law enforcement and the media. Historically, these groups relied primarily on word-of-mouth notoriety to intimidate their intended targets. Their numbers were sporadic until recently. Now there is unprecedented growth in the number of and membership in, white supremacist groups. According to the Florida Gang Investigators Association (FGIA), a group that includes members of law enforcment, lawyers and Judges, about 25,000 Americans are hardcore ideological activists for the white supremacist movement, and though their numbers area tiny fraction of the population, they appear more visible today than a decade ago. They range from seemingly innocuous religious sects or tax protesters to openly militant, even violent, neo-Nazi skinheads and Ku Klux Klan Klaverns. Every morning, Chester Doles, a fourth generation Ku Klux Klansman, former leader of the white supremacist National Alliance, and convicted felon, begins the day around 5 a.m., sometimes doing the laundry and folding the clothes for the family, or else heading to the gym. The 59-year-old, a direct descendant of a Confederate General named Chester Pierce Doles, considers himself above all a mainstream white American. As he sees it, his own project is no different from that of a long line of white American leaders, even though these days, Doles’ claims he has softened his own description of it. The self-declared white nationalist now says he is simply fighting against the extinction of what he considers to be the ‘white race.’ He said he is a ‘God, country and family man’ who shares 95% of President Trump’s goals and is considering a run for Georgia’s legislature, to replace retiring state Rep. Doug Collins. Despite his violent past, Doles’ day to day reality these days is ordinary, more conventionally American than revolutionary. He likes his coffee with Creamora and Stevia. He is loyal to Harley Davidson motorcycle brand. He is known for his chili and omelets and hot, homemade salsas. He works at a job loading five-gallon water containers into trucks for distribution around his hometown of Dahlonega, in northern Georgia, and has a side job training body builders. He is a father of 13, a grandfather of 27, a man who clings to his old beliefs even as he tries to make them palatable to the changing world around him.
