Thomas Robb

Thomas Robb is an Arkansas-based Christian Identity pastor and head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which he took over in the 1980s after the departure of David Duke.

In His Own Words:
"When the Negro was under the natural discipline of white authority, white people were safe from the abuse and violence of the Negro, but the Negro was also safe from himself."
 – Editorial in The Torch, April 1990
 
"Dats when A'hs does what A'hs want. Dat's also when A'hs kin have da white girls, and da free food stamps."
– The White Patriot, 1991
 
“My name’s not Paul Revere, but one of the things I’d be saying if I was on that stallion in 1775, but I’m not, so in 2009, the Mexicans are coming, the Mexicans are coming!”
–   At White Christian Heritage Festival, Pulaski, Tenn., Oct. 24, 2009\

Background:
Thomas Robb, born in Detroit, was raised in Tucson, Ariz., before attending college in Colorado. He is the pastor of the Christian Revival Center in Bergman, Ark., where he espouses the racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity theology. According to the Thomas Robb Ministries website, “We believe that the Anglo Saxon, Germanic, Scandinavian, and kindred people are THE people of the Bible – God’s separated and anointed Israel.” The statement goes on to declare, “Our people must … resist the call of Satan, which the Bible says will come disguised as light and love … brotherly – interracial love.”

With the departure of longtime Klan leader David Duke in the 1980s, Robb took over leadership of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Much like Duke, Robb favored a more “mainstream” approach to managing the Klan. However, this did not stop him and Louis Beam from attempting to gain access to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s office in 1984 while posing as documentary filmmakers. This occurred just a year after three Klansmen came out of the sewers to torch the SPLC’s office, causing extensive damage. The Klansmen were recognized and refused entry. 

Rather than the traditional title of “Imperial Wizard,” Robb opted for the less-charged “National Director.” He took up Duke’s strategy of using the Internet to reach a wider audience, giving the false appearance of an explosion in Klan growth. Robb also attempted to start a family-oriented Klan camp, aimed at creating a “kinder, gentler” image for the Klan. In a move that angered many Klan constituents, he also abandoned traditional initiation procedures in favor of a simple mail-in fee that earned applicants booklets and tests, allowing them to move through the ranks by paying for promotions.

Like Duke, Robb took strong control of the Klan’s finances. He was eventually accused of embezzling hotline proceeds and a $20,000 anonymous donation, resulting in a split with several high-ranking members. Ed Novak, the founder of the Chicago-based Federation of Klans, was one of those who left, taking with him almost one third of Robb’s membership. Other factions that split with Robb’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, including one Michigan-based group, immediately returned to more “traditional” practices, donning the notorious white robes and hoods. 

Robb has since renamed the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan as “the Knights Party” in a further attempt to move the group closer to the mainstream. The ranks of this newly titled group have grown some as other struggling groups, like Billy Roper’s White Revolution organization, have been forced to merge in order to continue surviving. Roper’s decision to fold his group into Robb’s can be explained partly by the geographic proximity between the White Revolution’s Russellville, Ark., headquarters and Robb’s home 70 miles away in Harrison, Ark.

Robb, more than just a Christian Identity preacher, has spoken at events such as the Aryan Nations’ “World Congress” – an annual gathering of hate group leaders that has included notable extremist figures such as the late founder and leader of the National Alliance William Pierce, former Texas Klan leader Louis Beam, Tom Metzger of the Aryan Resistance, late Michigan Klansman Bob Miles, and James Wickstrom and Jack Mohr of the Posse Comitatus. He has appeared on Jamie Kelso’s show on the now-defunct white supremacist Voice of Reason Radio Network. Robb has also been a regular contributor to the white supremacist web forum Stormfront, where he regularly posts a weekly “Sunday Sermon.”

In the aftermath of President Obama’s election in 2008, Robb characterized what he saw as a “race war … between our people, who I see as the rightful owners and leaders of this great country, and their people, the blacks.”

On the summer of 2013, Robb announced he would hold a weeklong camp in August called the Soldiers of the Cross Training Institute in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. The “Klan kamp,” hosted on Robb’s property, was aimed at instilling “the tools to become actively involved” in the “struggle for our racial redemption” in both young and old “campers.” The “faculty” included white supremacist Paul Fromm and Billy Roper, the neo-Nazi former head of the White Revolution organization.