Tom Metzger 1938-2020
WE ARE saddened to announce the death of Tom Metzger, an influential White nationalist leader of the late 20th century, who died in Hemet, California on November 4th, aged 82.
Metzger was born in Indiana but settled in California in 1964 after three years in the US Army. He first became politically involved while working in the electronics industry in southern California, where the radically anti-communist John Birch Society was very active.
After moving to Fallbrook, near San Diego, Metzger campaigned for pro-White presidential candidate George Wallace at the 1968 presidential election. This proved a valuable training ground for a generation of White nationalist activists, including Dr. William Pierce and Willis Carto. Wallace polled 13.5% nationwide, including 487,000 votes (6.7%) in California.
In the 1970s version of Ku Klux Klan led by David Duke, Metzger became Grand Dragon for California, where he organised a “border watch” to capture illegal Mexican immigrants.
A California-based Klan split in 1980 led by Metzger evolved into White Aryan Resistance in 1983. Led by Metzger and with headquarters in Indiana, WAR became notorious as a movement of radical White nationalist skinheads.
In November 1988 three skinheads allegedly loosely associated with WAR murdered an Ethiopian immigrant in Portland, Oregon. The “anti-racist” Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — the same organisation that a decade later targeted H&D editor Mark Cotterill — exploited tenuous connections between Metzger’s WAR and the killers, mounting a civil case against Metzger and his organisation on behalf of the victim’s family.
The outcome was a $12.5 million judgment that bankrupted Metzger.
Despite this setback, Metzger continued to publish a WAR newsletter and for more than twenty years had a widely-read website. Though many readers will associate his name with ultra-radical street activity, he also had some electoral success, notably in 1980 when he won more than 40,000 votes in a primary and gained the Democratic nomination for a US House seat in a California district near San Diego. Consequently the Democratic Party ended up denouncing their own candidate Metzger in the main congressional election that year, and unsurprisingly he lost to the Republican candidate.
Yet even with his own party leadership campaigning against him, Metzger still won more than 46,000 votes.
In 1982 he won 76,502 votes (2.8%) in the Democratic primary for Governor of California.
British readers will remember Metzger best for two of his many television appearances — in Louis Theroux’s 2003 BBC documentary Louis and the Nazis, and the 1996 Channel 4 series Stars, Tsars and Swastikas, where Metzger was interviewed by the black activist Darcus Howe.
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Source: Heritage and Destiny magazine
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RIP Tom.
You were a true warrior and enlightened many during your lifetime.
I remember in the early 1980s, San Francisco and the bordering cities were still new to the overwhelming rise in the non-white population. There was still what I call an old-stock white population which was not at all happy about it. Rather than white vs non-white, it was more of a free-for-all of violence in the schools. Tom Metzger’s message found it’s way into some of the mostly white high schools even though he was based near San Diego. I think his message gave rise to a mostly young adult group known as the American Front. They were more of a Strasserist-Left organization, and they actually marched in San Francisco without much resistance. Tom Metzger’s group had a message line, and later a type of telephone-radio program by various associated… Read more »
He was a Hero. He opened the eyes of thousands of young men and made a difference in many lives. He should never be forgotten.
RIP Tom. In his spirit we still have National Alliance and the newly formed National Justice Party. The National Alliance and the National Justice Party should join ranks in politics and seek power. For those unfamiliar with the NJP listen to their 25 point plan and recent speeches:
https://nationaljusticeparty.com/
We will be stronger and closer to taking power if we join ranks!
A S: The National Alliance and the National Justice Party should join ranks in politics and seek power… — I looked over NJP’s 25 point plan. Thanks for that, AS. Some of the planks in NJP’s plan seem to me to be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. like supporting “a two percent ceiling on Jewish employment in vital institutions so that they better represent the ethnic and regional population balance of the country.” Our Alliance won’t be endorsing that or many other planks in NJP’s 25 point plan. I have a couple of questions. What is the spiritual basis of the NJP? I don’t see that it addresses Christianity as a problem, so assume that it simply avoids the issue like so many other pro-White groups… Read more »
Mr. Metzger, like him or not, no one can say, honestly, that he did not put up a great fight for his and our cause. The one thing I admire most about him is that he never surrendered to the splc as so many before him has. He, Mr. Metzger, spit in their face and kept on fighting. He was a True Warrior
I always admired Tom. Used to enjoy his weekly phone message line in the early 90s. Was disappointed that his son John, who had so much potential, sort of quietly left the movement. But Tom never quit, to the bitter end. Sent them a few bucks back in the day. RIP Tom.
Tom on a talk shows:
https://youtu.be/s9S8N9BXlaE
https://youtu.be/Zzt0RXEOk0o
After years of studying anthropology, economics, history, the JQ and theology I believed it was time for me to become active in solving the problems I was reading about. I had recently left college and had been in contact with several groups including the National Alliance and Dr. Pierce. By this time Tom had evolved out of the Klan and Christianity, which was important to me as I was not a Christian, nor was I into wearing uniforms. After a chance meeting with someone on the periphery of Our Struggle, I had the opportunity to attend my first meeting and met Tom for the first time in 1984. I was impressed by what I heard and by what I saw, so I decided to stay on the west coast and… Read more »
Hello, Lone Wolf. Sometime in the 80s, on his Race and Reason video series, Tom interviewed Richard Cotten. The copy of that interview that I had has been lost, and I would like to re-publish it as it was excellent. If you, or anyone reading this, has a source for that recording, even an audio-only version of it, please get in touch with me via the contact form here at National Vanguard: https://nationalvanguard.org/contact/
The Race and Reason show with Richard Cotten has been posted on the front page of the resist.com website for all those that are interested in watching. As Mr. Strom mentioned, it was a very good interview.
The resist.com website is going to continue to be an educational repository on the benefits of racial separation. Additional material will continually be added that will include Tom Metzger interviews, shows, newspapers and his own daily radio shows. Please stop by and take a look.
Thank you so much! It brought back so many memories.
Tom was a cool and reasoned individual, whether dealing with a hostile talk show host, or law enforcement. There was a great video of how Tom handled two FBI agents who came to his house asking questions about some incident in downtown San Diego they were trying to pin on his organization. His son John did the filming. Tom just calmly repeated over and over “I have nothing to say,” during the questioning. The agents finally gave up and drove away defeated.