David Duke (born 1 July 1950) was Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from the 82nd district from 1989 to 1992 (R), succeeding Charles Cusimano and preceding David Vitter. Duke gained notoriety for his 1991 gubernatorial run, as well as for his endorsement of the far-right businessman Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee during the 2016 election.
Biography[]
A young David Duke
David Duke was born on 1 July 1950 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, and he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, rising to become Grand Wizard. Duke made a major change in the Klan in 1974 when, faced with dwindling membership numbers and popularity, Duke began to admit white Catholics into the Klan, causing for it to cease to be a white Protestant group and turn into a white nationalist group. Duke also passed other reforms, including realignment towards legality and politics from violence and intimidation, made women equal members of the Klan, and rebranded the KKK as a "pro-white" organization from an "anti-black" organization.
Political career[]
Duke in a 1991 debate
From 1989 to 1992 he served one term in Louisiana's state house as a Republican Party member, but he failed in his run for the senate and Governor of Louisiana, losing to Democratic Party governor Edwin Edwards; nevertheless, Duke won over 38% of the popular vote. Duke's white supremacist views were clearly stated, as he claimed that Jews controlled the Federal Reserve Bank, that Zionists controlled much of the government, and that Syria's fight was the same as the Americans' fight for freedom. In 2016, he announced the KKK's support for Donald Trump as the US Republican Party's candidate for president. Trump refused to disavow his support, and the KKK would score a major victory when Trump was elected President on 8 November 2016. After the election, racist incidents spiked, with swastikas being spray-painted at Canisius College on the day after the election and at the Adam Yauch Park in New York City on 18 November 2016. Duke later reaffirmed the white supremacist cause's support for Donald Trump during the Unite the Right rally of 2017.
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