The Racist Next Door

Black doesn't operate in a racist vacuum. As of today more than 50,000 white supremacist compact discs have been sold with titles like Stretched by the Rope, Racial Holy War, and White Terror, according to Resistance Records, a racist music distributor near Detroit. In 1996 the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 858 militia or patriot groups and 241 KKK groups throughout the country. The most foreboding benchmark, however, is the sharp increase in domestic terrorism. Since the Oklahoma City bombing and the emergence of the Internet in 1995, the number of open domestic-terrorism investigations has climbed from fewer than 100 to more than 900, according to the Center.

"The Internet is a real boon to these groups," Potok said. "There is a real threat. I don't see the race war that they want so much. The threat is against individuals. And I think it's entirely likely we'll see another Oklahoma City. It doesn't take much to motivate someone who's been talking about revolution for years. The more people mouth rhetoric, the more likely it is someone will act on it -- and that's what we're seeing now."

In West Palm Beach a low- flying jet thunders overhead, rattling the Confederate general on the wall. To Black -- whose three-bedroom house is directly under the flight path of Palm Beach International Airport -- the jets are as inaudible as the static sounds of clicking onto the Internet. He doesn't seem to notice the shaking. He's busy bickering with his son, who's barefoot and wearing a long Spiderman T-shirt, playing pinball on a nearby computer.

Black regains his composure. He smooths his uncombed coif and straightens his sweat-stained shirt. Then with a piercing glare and a calm voice, he recites his mission. "We want to take America back," he says, with Stormfront's German-Gothic font glowing on a monitor behind him. "We know a multicultural Yugoslav nation can't hold up for too long. White's won't have any choice but to take military action. It's our children whose interests we have to defend.