Recruiting efforts by two white supremacist groups in eastern Baltimore County are troubling to officials and local residents, who say the activities reflect poorly on an area that has been trying to overcome an undeserved reputation for racial intolerance.
As lawyers argue whether it was legal for the county to prohibit one of the groups - the World Church of the Creator - from meeting at the Rosedale public library this month, questions remain about what drew the organization to the area: Was it because the Rosedale area is predominantly white and working class? Is the group trying to capitalize on past racial tensions?
In addition to the World Church of the Creator - a group that bills itself as the fastest-growing white racist and anti-Semitic organization in America - a racist organization called the National Alliance distributed fliers in Essex late last month. The literature was loaded with racial innuendo about the recent Washington-area sniper attacks.
The two groups' effort to attract new members has been roundly condemned.
"I think the racial tension is behind us," said Don Crockett, a longtime community activist in Essex. "I think most people in this area are upset about these racist groups. It makes the majority of us look bad."
David Pringle, membership coordinator for the National Alliance, based in Hillsboro, W.Va., said the group is merely exercising its constitutional rights.
"We're reaching out to white Americans," said Pringle of the group, which has a chapter in Parkville.
He said about 500,000 fliers are distributed by Alliance members annually. "It's us exercising our freedom of speech."
The east side has had some difficult times when it comes to matters of race.
History of problems
As recently as the mid-1990s, Essex, Dundalk, Middle River and Rosedale were associated with efforts to keep out housing developments that many said would attract black families to the area.
A program to desegregate the city's public housing system called Moving to Opportunity created a furor in 1994 in the county's blue-collar, east-side communities. Activists and politicians claimed that MTO was the first step in a plan by city and federal officials to move thousands of poor city residents to their neighborhoods, though up to half of the east side wouldn't have been affected.
In the mid-1980s, a number of racially motivated attacks on black east-side residents were reported. One involved a woman in North Point Village who endured a cross-burning near her house, two firebombings at her home and nearly two years of abusive telephone calls and racial insults before she moved.
And within the last two weeks, a half-dozen parents withdrew their children from Evangel Christian Academy, a private Christian school in Rosedale, after two former teachers accused school administrators of making racist remarks.
Today, many east-side communities remain overwhelmingly white, according to 2000 census figures.
More than 90 percent of Dundalk's 62,000 residents are white. That figure is 84 percent in Middle River, and 76 percent in Rosedale. Most residents in these communities are middle class and have not earned college degrees, according to census data.
'We're not racists'
But officials and residents say racial strife is a thing of the past, and that the supremacist groups are not welcome.
"This is a hard-working, blue-collar area. We're not racists," said Baltimore County Council Chairman John A. Olszewski Sr., who represents Essex and Dundalk. "And I think we feel the way any community would if they had those groups coming to recruit - that it's offensive and disturbing. I don't see any particular reason why they'd chose this area."
Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, whose district includes part of the east side, added: "I don't see them getting support here. I think most people have ignored them. I'm frankly surprised" at the recruiting.
Organizations that track hate groups said such groups don't necessarily target neighborhoods because they're more sympathetic to racist causes.
"These groups aren't usually that sophisticated in their efforts to recruit members," said Elliot Mincberg, vice president for the People for the American Way Foundation, a liberal nonprofit civil rights group in Washington.
The World Church of the Creator and the National Alliance are the most aggressive recruiters among white supremacist groups, according to Gail Gans, director of the civil rights information center for the Anti-Defamation League.
"Both groups try to recruit young people," Gans said. "They try to exploit social issues in a community, like violence in schools, which is part of the reason they're so dangerous. They're looking for people who have issues with American society, those, for example, who have been displaced by minority groups."
County officials decided this month that allowing the World Church of the Creator's request to use the Rosedale library would pose a safety threat to staff and patrons. The church has challenged that ruling and has asked for assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, which would not comment on whether it will assist the church.
'More welcomed'
Matt Hale, leader of the East Peoria, Ill.-based church, said communities such as the historically white neighborhoods in eastern Baltimore County are usually most receptive to its message.
"We find in the suburbs we're more welcomed and understood," he said, speculating that some Rosedale residents chose the area "because of integration and the destruction of the neighborhoods in Baltimore City."
The World Church of the Creator chose the county, Hale said, partly in response to an incident in August when about 200 white supremacists on their way to a rally in Washington were assaulted by 30 protesters with gas grenades, tire irons, baseball bats and hockey sticks at a Southeast Baltimore hotel. There were no serious injuries.
But Hale said the main reason the east side was chosen was because John King, the organization's leader in Virginia, lived there as a child.
King, who lived in Rosedale until he was 9, said he didn't recall anything about the neighborhoods that would make him believe residents were especially open to the group's message.
"Because we don't have a chapter in Maryland, and I know where the Rosedale library is, we chose it. There's no reason we didn't have it someplace else, other than it's one of the places, in addition to Towson, that I know how to get to," King said in a telephone interview.
Courtney Speed, a community activist who operates a hair salon and grocery store as a Christian outreach center in the predominantly black enclave of Turners Station in Dundalk, said she doubts the group's motives are that benign.
"They wouldn't come to a predominantly African-American community," she said. "They go where they know there's an audience."
Speed said she doesn't believe the groups picked the east side because of its working-class roots. "I've heard that there's this 'redneck' thinking in this area," Speed said. "But I believe these [supremacist] movements involve all types of people - judges, preachers, teachers."
She said race relations have improved in the 30 years she has lived on the east side, but believes most racism is more subtle.
Bias incidents decrease
Baltimore County police reports show there were 130 bias incidents - events motivated by racial, religious or ethnic prejudice - countywide last year. Through the end of November, 104 such incidents were reported, indicating a likely decline this year, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman.
Still, the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission is planning to offer a training program next month to show community groups how to deal with bias.
"A lot of times when there's an incident, people don't know what to do," said Celestine Morgan, HRC executive director. "We want to show them, 'This is how you rally together.' "