Editor’s Note - Inside hate

Great reporters sometimes find the best stories in the simplest ways.</
Last May, a man calling himself “Pastor Jonathan Williams” posted a comment on John Sugg’s blog (www.johnsugg.com). Sugg had just argued that race violence is still a factor in the South.</
Williams responded that “intelligent folks know that everyone must stay in their own place with their own Race! ... Just understand that their [sic] would be NO Racial violence if non-whites would quit agitating and go to their ... places of origin. The White Race is much too civilized for these creatures to adapt.”</
Odd talk, Sugg thought, for a man of God. He e-mailed Williams to ask exactly what church Williams pastored. Williams responded that his flock was the Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations.</
You may have heard of Aryan Nations before. It’s a neo-Nazi group, best known for twisting Christian teachings into hate and for encouraging many of its associates to do violence on minorities.</
Sugg told Williams he thought Aryan Nations was based in Idaho. But Williams corrected him: Now, the group is headquartered in Alabama, about 100 miles west of Atlanta on I-20. Its leader is Williams, an Atlanta native who lives in Conyers.</
Williams invited Sugg to attend Aryan Nations’ annual congress in South Carolina in September. The only condition was that he honor individual requests not to use the last names of those attending.</
The result is this week’s cover story, an exclusive peek inside the world of a dangerous group now in our midst.</
This article is an important one. Until now, there has been only spotty coverage of Aryan Nations’ move to the Southeast. Besides a photographer who’s been documenting the group as part of a long-term project, Sugg reports that he was the only journalist at the September conclave. His inside story offers a straightforward look at a scary phenomenon.</
ken.edelstein@creativeloafing.com