A Hundred Little Hitlers The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America

by Langer, Elinor

• ISBN13: 9780312423636
• ISBN10: 0312423632
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

On November 12, 1988, a group of Portland, Oregon, skinheads known as East Side White Pride encountered three Ethiopians in a street fight, resulting in the brutal death of Mulugeta Seraw. For award-winning journalist Elinor Langer, the Seraw case is the launchpad for a thorough investigation of the Nazi-inspired racist movement in the United States. She vividly reconstructs the world of the skinheads: their origins in the punk scene, their basement shrines to Nazi power, their moments of glory on Oprah and Geraldo. She examines the long-standing radical groups that encouraged the movement, tracking the progress of such powerful figures as White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger through key bastions of the Far Right. In gripping detail, she follows civil-rights lawyer Morris Dees's efforts to prove Metzger responsible for the Portland killing-a sensational campaign to curb the growth of neo-Nazism. Compelling, disturbing, and important, A Hundred Little Hitlers is both an epic account of racism and justice and a close examination of social forces that loom ever more dangerously today.

Author Biography

Elinor Langer, author of the acclaimed biography Josephine Herbst, has written for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and The Nation, among other publications. A Hundred Little Hitlers was chonsen as a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Award for work-in-progress. Langer lives in Portland, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Ifs	1	(1)
History and Law	2	(4)
About This Book	6	(3)
PART ONE: HISTORY
The Death of Mulugeta Seraw
The Skinheads' Afternoon	9	(5)
From Ethiopia to Portland	14	(8)
Downtown	22	(4)
``Girls' Night Out''	26	(2)
An Ethiopian Farewell Party	28	(2)
Back Where They Started	30	(1)
The Death of Mulugeta Seraw	31	(4)
Engedaw Berhanu Gets the News	35	(2)
Underground
A Skinhead Apartment	37	(5)
Skinheads, Power, Music, Violence	42	(12)
Portrait: Ken Mieske	54	(13)
Portrait: Kyle Brewster	67	(11)
Portrait: Steven Strasser	78	(3)
Movement Rising	81	(9)
Earlier the Same Year	90	(7)
Aryan Update
Aryan Update	97	(3)
An Indiana Childhood	100	(8)
Disenchantment	108	(9)
Birth of a Racist	117	(20)
``Gas' Em All''	137	(12)
Radical Racism	149	(10)
A Hundred Little Hitlers
Alliance	159	(9)
Fathers and Sons	168	(4)
The Adventures of Dave Mazzella	172	(9)
Vanguard	181	(11)
The Personal and the Political	192	(5)
Dave in Portland	197	(10)
PART TWO: LAW
The Case at Law
Exclusion	207	(12)
An Empty Theater	219	(4)
Uproar	223	(4)
In the Skinhead Camp	227	(5)
Investigation	232	(15)
A ``Moral Panic''	247	(10)
Cakes and Causes
``The Morris Dees Story''	257	(21)
Engedaw Berhanu Honors His Nephew	278	(1)
More Adventures of Dave Mazzella	279	(5)
``I Relish It---Almost''	284	(10)
Still More Adventures of Dave Mazzella	294	(7)
``Metzger's Racism Goes on Trial''	301	(2)
The Trial of Tom Metzger
The Setting	303	(3)
The Bat That Started in Fallbrook	306	(3)
The Plaintiff's Case	309	(26)
Tom Metzger's Defense	335	(4)
The Law and the Lawyers	339	(5)
Decision	344	(6)
Curtain Calls	350	(3)
EPILOGUE
A Visit to Ethiopia	353	(6)
History and Law Revisited	359	(2)
Ifs	361	(2)
Notes	363	(20)
Acknowledgments	383	(4)
Index	387