White Supremacist Sponsors Speech by Black Anti-LGBT Pastor
Texas-based white supremacist and activist Preston Wiginton, best known for bringing racists to college campuses, is at it again, this time sponsoring anti-LGBT pastor James Manning to speak at Texas A&M University next month.
The topic of Manning’s speech will be “The True State of Black America”—an interesting title considering Manning is African American speaking at the invitation of a man who once claimed, “beating down a mud [person of color] when they try to poisen [sic] one of our own or when they try to seduce one of our [white] girls may not be God inspired, but rather a righteous act of collective preservation.”
Wiginton emerged publicly on the white supremacist scene in 2005 soon after he turned 40, when he attended Hammerfest, a neo-Nazi skinhead festival in Draketown, Georgia. Since then, he has become known as a behind-the-scenes major player with ties to David Duke, who he calls a good friend.
Soon after his first Hammerfest, Wiginton brought anti-immigrant extremist Frosty Wooldridge to Texas A&M and then engaged in various publicity stunts like an aerial “No Aztlan” banner campaign. Aztlan is a popular natavist conspiracy theory that claims the existence of a secret plan for Mexico to take over the American Southwest. He also has organized talks co-sponsored by the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens at Clemson University.
At first glance, then, it might seem odd that Wiginton would invite Manning, who is African American, to speak. But maybe not, considering his extremism elsewhere.
Manning directs ATLAH Worldwide Church (All The Land Anointed Holy) in Harlem, New York, and is known for his virulent anti-LGBT views, which he often posts on the church sign, including “Jesus would stone homos.” But he also endorses conspiracy theories questioning President Obama’s citizenship, as well as bizarre anti-LGBT conspiracies such as his claim in November 2014 that Starbucks served “sodomite semen” in its lattes to “flavor them up.” Manning has also claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin will out President Obama (who he refers to as a “long-legged mack daddy) as an “outright gay, pervert, homosexual sodomite.”
But Manning also has strong words for fellow African Americans, blaming them in 2009 for slavery and for the state of the cities in which they live.
“To this very day, “ he said, “black people will not realize they’ve not built anything, that all of their cities are ghettoes, filled with crime, laden with darkness and filth ... black people could be cleaner, safer, more loyal…they can be, they don’t want to be.” He went on to say that black people “enjoy being dependent.”
In addition to his birther claims, Manning also criticizes what he calls the president’s “mixed blood.” In a 2011 video that Manning posted, he asked, rhetorically, “Did you know that it is honorable and noble and biblical to not intermarry?” Later in the video, he backpedaled a bit and said that it was okay for black and whites to marry, so long as they are Christian, “however, for us to seek out a presidential leader—the mixed blood is repulsive, and would only be received by a group of people without honor.”
Obama would love to be a Muslim, Manning claims, “but he’s a half-breed. And everybody knows he’s a half-breed and therefore, he is unacceptable to Muslims in terms of leadership.”
Hatewatch attempted to contact the Texas A&M GLBT Resource Center and the Black Student Council Alliance via phone and email, but received no response. The event is being publicized in a static banner across the top of the website of The Battalion, the Texas A&M student newspaper.
