As we wait to learn more about the stabbings that occurred last night at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, here's an interesting account of a similar David Irving speaking engagement scheduled for last week in Jackson, Mississippi.
It comes from a white nationalist website, whose group was going to host Irving at a speech in Jackson City Hall, despite condemnations from politicians and several minority rights groups. The nationalists weathered that controversy but didn't get much in return from the historian.
Irving had stated on his website that he would be appearing, but turned out to be a no-show. Most major television-networks were present, as well as interested spectators and considerable police-security. Nationalists held to their reservation of the venue, in order to defy those who had vowed to shut the appearance down.
It seems as though Irving's people learned something about the host group in Mississippi that made them call off the event. The page linked above from the National Movement's site included this statement from Janelle Antas, Irving's assistant:
Mr. Irving is concerned that you are doing things without consulting him. The press release contained inaccuracies he would have liked to correct. The way things are going, it seems likely there will be serious consequences which Mr. Irving has to avoid. He must not be associated, even indirectly, with any group of any kind.That makes no sense. Why would an author accept help from a white nationalist group only to then say he doesn't want to be associated with any group? Maybe because Irving didn't quite know who he was dealing with. The Mississippi group is run by Richard Barrett, a white supremacist known for his flair for scoring headlines and his willingness to litigate.
In a statement Irving gave to the Jackson Free Press, he didn't elaborate on his reasons for standing up the Nationalist Movement, choosing instead to speak facetiously (we hope) of synagogue torching and the logistical snafus that come with being a Hitler sympathizer:
"We had a number of people from Mississippi and (others) drive down from Tennessee to attend. We sat around plotting as neo-Nazis do, and finding synagogues we can set on fire and tombstones that we can throw around. All we can say is it was a hotel in Ridgeland. We try to keep our locations secret because if we don't, then the usual people put pressure on the hotel chain. It's the first time I've spoken in Jackson, and I will come back. I shall return, to quote MacArthur," he said when reached by phone today.
