Hammerfest Concert
At least 100 members of Hammerskin Nation, a racist skinhead group with chapters around the country, tried to attend the latest annual Hammerfest concert in Portland, Ore.
At least 100 members of Hammerskin Nation, a racist skinhead group with chapters around the country, tried to attend the latest annual Hammerfest concert in Portland, Ore., this one marking the 20th anniversary of the group's formation. Most of them made it to the secret venue, the Sherwood Elks Lodge in Portland, but lodge officials kicked them all out, ending the concert almost before it began, after local anti-racists alerted them to the true nature of the Hammerskins. (The Hammerskins had told lodge officials that they were merely a group putting on a rock band reunion party.) Frustrated Hammerskins and their hosts, members of the neo-Nazi Volksfront group based in Portland, attended a party after the concert fell apart. With the group, which was mainly composed of unhappy Volksfront members, was Mike Lawrence, who was decked out in a suit and tie. Lawrence is a former Confederate Hammerskin and currently the leader of The Christian Guard, a racist group based in Kathleen, Fla.
