The Klansman’s Son

From the former heir apparent to White nationalism, an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, and of breaking from a community of hate

Derek Black was raised to take over the White nationalist movement in the United States. Derek’s father, Don Black, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and started Stormfront, the internet’s first White supremacist website—Derek built the kids’ page—and David Duke was a mentor. Racist hatred, though often wrapped up in respectability and American history, was all Derek knew. It was their inheritance, their community, their identity.

Then, while in college in 2013, Derek publicly renounced White nationalism and apologized for their actions and the suffering that they had caused. The majority of their family stopped speaking to Derek, and they disappeared into academia, convinced that they had done so much harm that there was no place for them in public life. But in 2016, as Derek watched the rise of Donald Trump, they recognized language and arguments they had once helped cultivate—and they knew that they couldn’t stay silent.

The Klansman’s Son is a thoughtful, insightful, and moving account of a singular life, with important lessons for our contentious times. The place where Derek’s world turned upside down—New College of Florida—has become a prominent battleground in the fight over race, gender, and education, and few understand the ideology, motivations, or tactics of the White nationalist movement likeDerek. As coded language and creeping authoritarianism spread the ideas of White nationalists, this is an essential book from a powerful voice.

“Your family or your soul? That is what the choice finally came down to for Derek Black, whose searching memoir has much to teach us all. Surprises and insights abound in this page-turner composed with candor and grace. For instance, why do White power recruiters focus on those who say, ‘I’m not a racist, but … ’? The Klansman’s Son is a must-read for all who hunger for hope in these cruel times.”—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America and Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan