Black man who led neo-Nazi group dies amid bid to destroy it
A black activist who took control of one of the nation’s largest neo-Nazi groups — and vowed to dismantle it — has died amid a legal fight over who would lead the group.
James Stern died Oct. 11 after getting hospice care for cancer, according to one of his attorneys, Bob Ross, and a friend, Arne Edward List. Stern, 55, died at home in Moreno Valley, California, List said.
“James was a very unconventional crusader,” Ross said Monday, praising his client’s “quiet confidence.”
Earlier this year, Stern told The Associated Press and other news outlets that he persuaded the National Socialist Movement’s former leader, Jeff Schoep, to give him control of the group. Schoep says Stern essentially tricked him into the transfer.
Michigan corporate records show Stern replaced Schoep in January. However, Stern sued several group members in March after Schoep signed corporate records naming a different president.
Stern’s lawsuit is pending in California court. William Daniels, another of Stern’s lawyers, said the activist’s death doesn’t necessarily end the “full-blown dispute” over the group’s leadership.
“But it’s just not clear to me now how it’s going to unfold,” Daniels said.
After members removed his name from corporate records, Stern also filed a complaint with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in March. The hate crimes unit in Nessel’s office was preparing to notify Stern that This file photo shows James Hart Stern, of Jackson, Miss., at a news conference in Jackson, Miss.
it didn’t find sufficient evidence to file any criminal charges, a spokesman said in an email Monday.
Group members used to attend rallies and protests in full Nazi uniforms, including at a march in Toledo, Ohio, that sparked a riot in 2005. More recently, members attended the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that erupted in violence in August 2017.
Stern met Schoep several years ago after Stern invited him to attend a summit on race in California, the Washington Post reported . Both had connections to onetime Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted in the “Mississippi Burning” killings of three civil rights workers.
Stern served a prison sentence for mail fraud at the same facility as Killen, who died in January 2018. In
2012, Stern claimed Killen signed over to him power of attorney and ownership of
40 acres of land while they were in prison together. A lawyer for Killen asked a judge to throw out the land transfer and certify that Killen and his family owned the property.