Extremists

Weaver, who earned a bachelor’s in theology from Bob Jones University (which until 2000 banned interracial dating), is the pastor of Freedom Baptist Ministries in Fitzgerald, Ga., and preaches weekly in Waycross, Ga., and Live Oak, Fla. But his interests go way beyond preaching. For years, Weaver...

Boyd Cathey

In the late 1970s, an extremist Catholic sect ordained Cathey, but he didn't maintain the faith and became a North Carolina state archivist shortly thereafter. In the first years of the 21st century, Cathey aided an extremist takeover attempt aimed at the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a Southern...

Kirk Lyons

Billing itself as a defender against "heritage violations" — attacks on the culture and symbols of the Confederacy — the SLRC was formed in 1996 by Lyons and his brother-in-law Neill Payne, and it has handled a number of cases involving the Confederate battle flag. But controversy has dogged the...

Michael Hill

Ironically, Hill was a professor for years at a historically black college before establishing the League of the South in 1994 as an institution devoted to reviving Southern heritage and, eventually, pushing for secession. As Hill spurred the group to become increasingly racist and militant in the...

Michael Ralph Tubbs

A former United States Army Green Beret and demolitions expert, Tubbs was arrested in 1990 while on deployment in Saudi Arabia for his role in the theft of arms and munitions from the United States military. An adherent of the rabidly antisemitic Christian Identity ideology, Tubbs planned to use...