Website kevinalfredstrom.com Name Kevin Strom | Ex-spouse Elisha Strom | |
 | ||
Full Name Kevin Alfred Strom Known for Racist, white separatist, neo-Nazi activism | ||
Kevin Alfred Strom (born August 17, 1956) is an American White nationalist, neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier, White separatist and associate editor of National Vanguard. Strom resigned from National Vanguard in July 2006, but rejoined in 2012.
Contents
- Early life
- Activist history
- Arrest conviction prison and release
- Return to activism
- Misattributed and misquoted quotation
- References
In 2008 Strom pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 23 months in prison, of which he served four months.
Early life
Kevin Alfred Strom was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1956. Strom's marriage to his first wife, Kirsten Kaiser, produced three children. Since their marriage ended, Kaiser has spoken about her life with Strom in several interviews. She has also written a book on her experiences with Strom and the National Alliance entitled The Bondage of Self (ISBN 0-9720705-5-9).
Activist history
In 1982, Strom became a member of the National Alliance, a group that has been described as antisemitic, racist, and neo-Nazi. In 1991, he founded and frequently delivered the American Dissident Voices shortwave and Internet radio broadcasts. In 1995, he founded and edited Free Speech magazine, published by the Alliance as an adjunct to the radio program. In early 2002, a few months before his death from cancer on July 23, the Alliance's founder, William Luther Pierce, named Strom editor of National Vanguard magazine and Media Director for the Alliance. Pierce also named Strom editor of the Alliance's monthly Bulletin.
During the weekend of April 16–17, 2005, Strom and several others were expelled from the National Alliance because of a dispute with the Alliance leader Erich Gliebe. The expelled former Alliance members, led by Strom, formed their own organization which they called the National Vanguard. As he had done for the National Alliance, Strom again delivered weekly Internet radio broadcasts which he also called American Dissident Voices for National Vanguard, but they were often 1–3 weeks late. These broadcasts effectively ceased with his departure.
Strom was briefly the managing editor of The Truth at Last newspaper during 2005. Several sources have described this tabloid as being highly antisemitic and racist, often referring to Africans as an inferior race. Strom's boss at The Truth at Last, Edward Fields, is a former Grand Dragon of the New Order Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Strom was a close associate of University of Illinois Classics professor and nationalist writer Revilo P. Oliver, who has been described as "one of America's most notorious fascists" and, according to B'nai Brith Canada, was "a long time proponent of antisemitism". Strom was chosen by the Oliver estate to be the archivist and publisher of Oliver's papers after Oliver committed suicide in 1994. In 2002, Strom published Oliver's book, The Jewish Strategy.
Strom is a former broadcast engineer and holds amateur radio license WB4AIO. Between 1983 and 1991, a pirate radio station named "Voice of Tomorrow" operated on shortwave and mediumwave frequencies, broadcasting openly racist and neo-Nazi material. According to Strom's ex-wife, Kirsten Kaiser, "Voice of Tomorrow" was operated by Strom.
Arrest, conviction, prison and release
On January 4, 2007, Strom was arrested in Greene County, Virginia on charges of possession of child pornography and witness tampering. The Grand Jury later added the charges of receiving child pornography and of seeking to coerce a 10-year-old into a sexual relationship. At the October 2007 federal trial on charges of sexually coercing a 10-year-old girl, and of witness intimidation, the judge threw out both charges due to lack of evidence.
At the plea hearing on January 14, 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to possessing computer images of child pornography and was held at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail while awaiting sentencing. On April 21, 2008, he was sentenced to 23 months of incarceration, with credit for times served, and 15 years of supervised release. He was released from prison on September 3, 2008, at which point he resided in Earlysville, Virginia.
Return to activism
Kevin Strom announced the opening of the new National Alliance on December 28, 2013 and is continuing broadcasts of American Dissident Voices in the original format, from a compound under construction in Tennessee with a group of original followers of William Pierce.
Misattributed and misquoted quotation
The statement "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize" is often attributed to Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher. In fact, it is something said by Strom in his program, "All America Must Know the Terror That is Upon Us" (1993): "To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?" The misattributed quotation continues to spread across the Internet.