Editor’s update: Lynda Carson’s stories on Indy Media about contributors to David Duke’s failed Senate campaign created a widespread outcry against those who have supported white supremacists. The stories also spread to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel and other mainstream news outlets.
Her stories led to a boycott of the popular O’mei Restaurant in Santa Cruz. The restaurant was a thriving business in Santa Cruz for 38 years, yet it was forced to close within days of the publication of Carson’s stories documenting that the owner had contributed to David Duke’s campaign. Customers and staff launched a boycott and utilized social media to denounce the restaurant owner for supporting Duke’s racism and bigotry.
Club Jager in Minneapolis closed as of September 1 after customers, staff and entertainers scheduled to perform there denounced the owner’s contribution to David Duke’s electoral campaign.
Lynda Carson’s reporting demonstrates the power of advocacy journalism to challenge social injustice, and the people who led boycotts and protests show the power of activists to overcome human rights violations.
According to Newsweek, David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan praised President Donald J. Trump for supporting the fascists, neo-Nazis, KKK and hate-mongering white supremacists who brought blood and violence to the streets of Charlottesville during the Unite the Right rally in August 2017.
The violent, white supremacist rally that David Duke attended resulted in the death of Heather Heyer when she was run down by a Nazi sympathizer, who plowed into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators protesting the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Nineteen others were injured.
In 1927, Trump’s father was arrested after a KKK rally in Queens, which may help to shed light on why Trump is evidently a supporter of hate groups and the KKK that helped to bring him into office.
According to Wikipedia, David Ernest Duke, born July 1, 1950, is an American white nationalist, politician, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, convicted felon and former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Reports sparked boycotts
Some have suggested that the best way to fight back against all the hate being spread around by the Trump regime, the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists is by exposing the supporters of hate and violence in the United States.
Recently, when the campaign contributors of David Duke were outed by my stories in Indy Media, many people were shocked to learn that Roger Grigsby of Santa Cruz gave $500 to David Duke’s failed Senate campaign in 2016.
Roger F. Grigsby, owner and founding chef of O’mei Restaurant in Santa Cruz, is a proud supporter of David Duke. After being in business for 38 years, O’mei Restaurant closed a week after an article on Indybay exposed the owner as a campaign contributor to David Duke, and patrons started a boycott.
The ripple effects of the story about campaign contributors giving money to David Duke is still spreading, with some employees of Club Jager in Minneapolis quitting their jobs and a well-known DJ pulling their shows from the popular nightclub, as well as the Huge Improv Theater in Minneapolis telling the Nazis and KKK to “fuck straight off.”
The stories outing the campaign contributors of David Duke have resulted in people and DJ’s refusing to work at Club Jager in Minneapolis. Special thanks to all who have boycotted O’mei and Club Jager!
Duke Supporters in the Bay Area
David Duke, from Mandeville, Louisiana, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and lost. However, according to public records, that campaign brought Duke a number of campaign contributions from supporters located in the Bay Area.
According to records, William Hubbel of Walnut Creek is one of the proud supporters of David Duke in 2016, and gave $500 to Duke’s campaign. When I asked him about his support for David Duke, Hubbel was very surprised, but said: “In this era of Communism, as the noose is tightening around our necks, we may be rounded up and shot in the back of the head. I decline to comment about my contribution to David Duke. I am not a member of the KKK, but I sure as hell am not a member of the Black Lives Matter movement either.”
Karen Ardith Woodbury of San Francisco is another supporter of David Duke. She gave $250 to Duke’s campaign in 2016. Once an attorney who no longer practices law, Woodbury has a chiropractor’s license that expires in November of 2017. Woodbury did not respond to my request for an interview regarding her support of David Duke.
Other supporters of David Duke’s 2016 campaign include: Jake Mavity of San Francisco gave $600. Brodin L. Sutherland of Martinez gave $500. Roger Grigsby of Santa Cruz gave $500. John Downey of San Lorenzo gave $285. Kevin D. Barbaro of Hayward gave $240. Michael Born of Santa Rosa gave $245.
Club Jager owner’s support for Duke
Exposing the supporters of KKK fascist David Duke may help to slow down the rise of fascism in the U.S. At the least, it will allow the public to decide if they want to give their money to those involved in supporting anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan, bigots, racists and the hate mongers of the world. Here are snapshots of a few of them outside the Bay Area.
One of David Duke’s supporters is a wealthy landlord and developer in Minneapolis named Julius Jaeger De Roma, who gave $500 to David Duke’s Senate campaign in 2016. In 2012, a brouhaha with allegations of anti-Semitism arose over a fight involving a local musician in a club called Clubhouse Jager, which is owned by DeRoma.
According to the Star Tribune, “Allegations of anti-Semitism were made toward owner Julius Jaeger De Roma and his staff, with the situation flaring up to become one of those things everyone talks about but very few have any hard facts on.”
A wealthy developer, Julius DeRoma also owns the property where the Huge Improv Theater is located on 3037 Lyndale Ave S, in Minneapolis.
Another supporter of Duke is James Murray of Winthrop, Massachusetts, who gave $600 to Duke’s failed Senate campaign in 2016. According to the Winthrop Transcript, in 2009, James Murray was arrested and charged in the stabbing of two brothers.
Alphonse Petrus Kelz of Bel Air, Maryland, gave $1,250 to David Duke in 2016. Accused of a violent history and Nazi connections, the Baltimore Sun reported that Kelz was back in court in 2012 on forgery and theft charges.
Michael Mazzone, a driver for UPS, is a neo-Nazi in Palatine, Illinois, who gave $2,700 to the failed David Duke Senate campaign in 2016. Mazzone also proudly displays Nazi swastikas on his Twitter account just to make sure that people have no doubt about his beliefs.
Veita Minshall, the owner of Harbor Plaza Mini Storage in Aurora, Colorado, gave $500 to David Duke in 2016. Dr. Stephen C. Graves of Rudy, Arkansas, gave $250 to Duke in 2016.
Another Duke supporter is Steven R. Jeppson, who contributed $500 in 2016. Jeppson is a CPA with his own accounting firm in Reno, Nevada.
Robert W. Milos gave $2,700 to Duke’s Senate campaign in 2016. Milos is the incorporator of the Milos Family Foundation Inc., a nonprofit in Ogden Dunes, Indiana.
David B. Kinion of Lansdale, Penn., is an HVAC contractor and the owner of Comfort Air. In 2016, he gave $500 to David Duke’s failed Senate campaign. Shawn D. Fowler of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, gave $1,000 to Duke that year.
We Must Decide Whether to support businesses that support hate
The supporters of hate and David Duke appear to reside all over the country. It will be up to U.S. citizens whether they will support these people with their hard-earned money, or if they will find another place to do business that does not support hate or the likes of David Duke.
Groups spreading hate and violence across the nation are on the rise. Trump supporters, white supremacists, fascists, anti-Semites, homophobes, bigots and other hate mongers announced a “Freedom Rally” demonstration on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Crissy Field in San Francisco and another the following day, called “No To Marxism In America” at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in downtown Berkeley.
Instead, thousands marched in San Francisco and Berkeley against the forces of hate, and people celebrated their victory when the hate mongers were outnumbered by the thousands.
Lynda Carson may be contacted at tenantsrule@yahoo.com