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The Rev. Thom Robb has a dream. Robb and his wife recently bought 40 acres of scenic Ozark Mountain greenery near Zinc, Ark., a few miles north of legendary Dogpatch. The couple envisions transforming the meadowland into a small Biblecamp resort with family-size cabins, recreational facilities such as volleyball and, eventually, a video-production center for the Robbs and their guests to make movies. Three flags already fly over the campgrounds: the Stars and Stripes, the Confederate battle flag and the white and gold Christian banner. Robb, 43, the grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, wants to create a mecca for white supremacists--and a national headquarters, with a Kleagle in every cabin, for revitalizing the Klan. "People still think of the Klan as running through the night shooting black people," he says. "This is the '90s. We don't hate anybody."
That kind of smooth talk has made Robb into the most influential and charismatic Klansman since David Duke. In 1975, 15 years before he became a spoiler in Louisiana Republican politics by running for U.S. senator, Duke founded the Knights, a splinter group of the KKK. Duke wanted to recruit new "quality" members and to polish the Klan's image, a cause his successor has embraced. An ordained Baptist minister, Robb shed his hooded robe for business suits and doesn't shy away from the press or public. "This will be an open camp," he says. "Everybody is welcome. Well, not somebody like the Anti-Defamation League. I want to know who's here, but we have nothing to hide."
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"Jewish' flag: Sounding conciliatory is part of Robb's well-crafted strategy. "These groups are trying more vigorously to mainstream their agenda through hypocritical and misleading rhetoric," says Dan Levitas of Atlanta's Center for Democratic Renewal, which monitors white supremacists. But within his own circle, Robb's language is old-fashioned inflammatory. In his newsletter, The White Patriot, he defined a black man's concept of freedom: "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." Robb offers followers a "Jewish" flag, bearing a Star of David, "for blowing noses, wiping feet or burning." He rails against the "curse of immigration" for flooding the nation with non-European newcomers, and urges whites to return to their roots. "I expect black people to be proud of their heritage," he says. "I don't see why the same pride has to be denied to us."
However mixed his signals, Robb's tactics appear to be effective. The grand wizard has made a point of reaching out to other white-supremacist organizations; he recently addressed an Aryan Nation conference in Idaho, where, The White Patriot reported, "over 100 skinheads and other young people attended the three-day event, which included speakers, fellowship, a hammer toss and a rope tug." In Montgomery, Ala., Klanwatch believes Robb has led the most successful recruiting drive since Duke's-- though it estimates his membership at only a couple of thousand. But Robb is counting on the camp, which he hopes to have open by October, to become a powerful recruiting tool. Klan watchers say the camp will be a vehicle for integrating children into the movement - making hate a family affair.
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