logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
47m 36s

The Modern White Power Movement (2020)

NPR
About this episode
The recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has yet again highlighted the threat posed by domestic terrorism in the U.S. At the center are violent extremists – the most lethal and persistent of whom are white supremacists and anti-government militias. They're part of a deeply interconnected movement which, since the 1980s, has pursued a mission to topple the U.S government with guerrilla warfare. Today, this movement is made up of highly-organized groups with paramilitary capabilities, but it hasn't always been this way. This week, we trace the rise of the modern white power movement.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
Up next
Feb 5
The Man Who Took On The Klan
In 1871, Ku Klux Klan violence in South Carolina got so bad that the governor sent a telegram to President Ulysses S. Grant warning that he was facing a state of war. Grant sent him Amos Akerman: a former Confederate soldier and slaveholder who became the U.S. government’s most z ... Show More
48m 40s
Feb 3
Becoming Supreme | America in Pursuit
Political rebellions, family feuds, and power grabs – the founding of the Supreme Court has about as much drama as a Hollywood movie. In this week’s episode, the story of how the Supreme Court went from the weakest branch in the government to the powerful arbiter it is today. To ... Show More
13m 56s
Jan 29
James Baldwin's Fire
James Baldwin believed that America has been lying to itself since its founding. A sharp, funny, and insightful commentator on Black identity and American democracy, he never hesitated to bear witness, regardless of what it cost him. We speak with writer and professor Eddie S. Gl ... Show More
42m 32s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Prairie Fire | 4
<p>As the Civil Rights movement entered the Sixties, a new generation of activists took the fore. Frustrated by the pace of progress but emboldened by strides made in the previous decade, students embraced “nonviolent direct action,” protest techniques that were provocative but p ... Show More
38m 17s
Jan 2022
The Far-Right Isn’t All White
<p>The rioters on January 6th were overwhelmingly <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/pro-trump-whites-afraid-being-replaced-attacked-capitol-s-race-n1263216" target="_blank">white and male.</a><i> </i>But sprinkled throughout the mob were several Black people and other people ... Show More
17m 41s
Mar 2019
Replacement anxiety: White supremacist terrorism
The terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, has left 50 people dead and a lot of unanswered questions. How big a threat are violent white supremacists? We take a look at a network of museums in China trying to commemorate that country’s murderous experience in the 20th cen ... Show More
23m 43s
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Jim Crow Fights Back | 3
<p>After the <em>Brown V. Board of Education </em>ruling, civil rights activists had legal standing to desegregate schools. But doing so proved dangerous. The first black students to step into newly integrated schools faced extreme hostility from whites who felt Jim Crow society ... Show More
38m 40s
Sep 2019
#169 — Omens of a Race War
<p>Sam Harris speaks with Kathleen Belew about the white power movement in the United States. They discuss white supremacy, white nationalism, white separatism, the militia movement, "The Turner Diaries," the connection between the white power movement and war, the significance o ... Show More
43m 43s
Oct 2023
Orisanmi Burton, "Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt" (U California Press, 2023)
Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt (University of California Press, 2023) boldly and compellingly argues that prisons are a domain of hidden warfare within US borders. With this book, Orisanmi Burton explores what he terms the Long A ... Show More
52m 53s
Oct 2022
Episode 2: The Brooklyn Boys
<p>The most prominent media figure in America calls for the creation of a militia, armed Americans willing to use violence to get their way. What they want is to overthrow the U.S. government and to end democracy in this country – by force. Their plot raised alarming indications ... Show More
38m 30s
Sep 2020
Introducing: Recall: How to Start a Revolution
The 1950s & 60s saw a wave of radical movements. Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. The Black Panthers. Quebec and Canada had the FLQ — a showdown that dissolved into crisis. By October 1970, there were soldiers in the streets, communities on edge, kidnapping and terror in the ... Show More
32m 19s