by Laurence Hammack | Jul 24, 2015 | Race relations
FAIRFIELD — Raymond Agnor’s gigantic Confederate battle flag, the size of a backyard swimming pool, hung limply from its 80-foot pole on a windless summer day. From its spot on Billboard Hill just off Interstate 81, the flag is easily visible to thousands...
by Laurence Hammack | Jul 26, 2009 | Race relations
At a time when the power of the Internet was untested, one of the first people to see its dark potential was an 18-year-old college student named William A. White. In 1996, when White was a sophomore at the University of Maryland, he became convinced, based on hearsay...
by Laurence Hammack | Dec 8, 2002 | Race relations
CANA — A rolling pasture that separates the two Sechrist homes is the setting for a free speech battle now before the nation’s highest court. On the night of Aug. 22, 1998, during a Ku Klux Klan rally in the pasture, someone set fire to a 30-foot cross....
by Laurence Hammack | Nov 10, 2002 | Race relations
HILLSBORO, W.VA. — Erich Gliebe’s racism was forged in the boxing ring. “Blacks have thicker skulls,” said Gliebe, who called himself the “Aryan Barbarian” during his days as a professional boxer. “And my hands would hurt...
by Laurence Hammack | Feb 8, 1992 | Race relations
Fourteen Roanoke police recruits became rookie officers Friday, making history even before responding to their first call. With the graduation of the 36th Basic Police Academy, the seven blacks and seven whites became the most racially mixed class ever to enter the...
by Laurence Hammack | Nov 3, 1991 | Race relations
FOURTEEN police recruits sit in nervous anticipation, wearing crisp blue uniforms and polished badges that they have yet to earn. “Police Academy; ten-hut!” a sergeant barks from the back of the classroom. Chairs skid backward on the scarred floor as the...