(NewsWorthy.news) – A former poster boy for the Ku Klux Klan and child of a renowned White Supremacist has come out as transgender in a new memoir.
Derek Black’s father, Don Black, is a former KKK leader who founded the Neo-Nazi internet forum Stormfront in 1995. Derek is also the godchild of former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke. The 35-year-old had attempted to disguise white nationalist views while studying in college, before a student-run internet forum outed Derek as a white nationalist. In 2013 Derek disowned the KKK ideology and published an article declaring a shift towards antiracist views.
A 2012 Anti-Defamation League article described Derek’s father and former Grand Dragon as one of the country’s most influential white supremacists, mainly due to his involvement with Stormfront. The ADL considers the forum, whose slogan was “White Pride World Wide”, a platform for racist and antisemitic views held by Black. The forum was shut down in 2017 after a civil rights action.
The ADL article mentioned Derek as a “rising figure” in the movement at the time, and expressed concerns about the Stormfront’s focus on “demeaning and demonizing” Jews and other races. Derek told reporters when discussing the memoir, named “The Klansman’s Son”, that Stormfront taught its users that the idea of privacy was “absurd”. Derek also related it to an upbringing that discouraged discussion of gender identity or private matters, and recounted being given the “consistent” advice by Don to never say anything without being happy to see it published in mainstream newspapers the following day.
Derek won a seat on the Republican executive committee for Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 19. After making national headlines, the teen was compared by the press on a regular basis to Duke, who also held political office from 1982 to 1999 as a member of Louisiana’s House of Representatives. According to the newly published memoir, Duke referred to Derek as Don’s “heir”. Duke himself denied to reporters that he had said this, however. Derek said it took a long time to abandon white supremacist views after being exposed by students, and credited friends who were supportive and persuasive in encouraging the change in views.
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