(New York, N.Y.) – Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and former KKK Grand Dragon, died in a Kansas prison last week where he was serving a sentence for capital murder and assault and firearms convictions. Miller was sentenced to death after he shot and killed three people, including a child, at a Kansas Jewish Community Center in 2014. An avowed antisemite, Miller testified that the purpose of the murders was to stop “the Jewish genocide against the white race.” When he was sentenced to death by a Kansas court in 2015, Miller responded, “Heil Hitler.”
In January, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released new resources evaluating the historical aspects of antisemitism and its modern manifestations. In CEP’s Antisemitism: A History and Antisemitism Resurgent: Manifestations Of Antisemitism In The 21st Century reports, CEP outlined information for understanding modern antisemitism and its resurgence in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. According to the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, 2019 report, hate crimes motivated by antisemitism rose by 14 percent year-over-year. The 953 recorded incidents targeting Jews is more than five times greater than incidents motivated by animus toward any other religious group. Pew Research estimates that 2.4 percent of U.S. adults identify as Jewish.
The KKK is America’s best-known and oldest hate group. Though influential among U.S. hate groups, its power and standing has declined dramatically in the decades since its peak years of millions-strong membership. In fact, the KKK is no longer a single, cohesive organization, having splintered into at least four main offshoots and dozens of smaller factions, all of which identify as members of “the Klan” and incorporate “Klan” in their group names. The KKK has also attracted “vast numbers of sympathizers” due to its geographical diffusion across 41 states and historical notoriety, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
To read CEP’s report Antisemitism: A History, please click here.
To read CEP’s report Antisemitism Resurgent: Manifestations Of Antisemitism In The 21st Century, please click here.
To read CEP’s Ku Klux Klan resource, please click here.