Possibly the best-known racist currently active in politics, David Duke was born in 1950 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His father was a Shell Oil Company executive, and the family traveled extensively in Duke's early years. He attended school in the Netherlands, a military academy in Georgia, before settling in New Orleans where he attended high school.
Duke's father was an absent figure for most of his early life, and the young David found a mentor in James Lindsay, a New Orleans real estate dealer who founded the New Orleans Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960's. David joined while still in high school.
While at LSU, from which he earned a BA in History in 1974, he founded the neo-Nazi youth group White Youth Alliance. Becoming the National Director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1974, Duke tried to move the KKK into the mainstream with an appeal to moderate sensibilities. Bolstering the standard racist arguments with psuedo-scientific rationalizations, he attracted a large following whom he urged to "get out of the cow pasture and into hotel meeting rooms."
In 1978 he resigned and formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP), a "white civil rights" organization, which even he was to admit was a "Klan without the robes."
In 1988 he ran for President of the United States on the Populist Party ticket with Bo Gritz as his running mate. Gritz ran for President himself as the Populist nominee in 1992.
Duke was elected in 1989 to the Louisiana House of Representatives, serving on committees for Health and Welfare, and Judiciary. Duke ran as a Republican, which infuriated Republican Party National Chairman Lee Atwater, whose party was attempting to attract minority voters. Atwater slammed Duke in a public statement, calling him "a pretender, a charlatan, and a political opportunist."
In 1991 he ran for Governor of Louisiana against Edwin Edwards, losing, but garnering 39% of the vote. In 1999 he ran for Rep. Bob Livingston's (R-LA) vacated seat, losing by 3000 votes to former Governor David C. Treen and state Representative David Vitter who entered a runoff against each other.
He was elected to Chairmanship of the Republican Parish Executive Committee of the largest Republican parish (county) in Louisiana. (St. Tammany RPEC, At-Large Representative, term 1996-2000.) By some reports, he was able to do so by the other candidates dropping out, and showing up at the courthouse to qualify at the last minute, ensuring his unopposed election.
Duke tried in the 90's to make it as a radio talk show host but proved not popular, and when he couldn't raise the money needed to finance the show, embraced the Internet and established the David Duke Report Online. His website is now known simply as duke.org, serving as a clearinghouse for Duke's publicity machine and hate organizations.
In Jan 2000 Duke announced formation of the National Organization for European American Rights (NOFEAR). He continues to be a focal point for racial hatred, and to gain publicity for his outspoken views.
