Who is William A. White, and why is an Internet entrepreneur who'sbeen called the "Matt Drudge of the extreme right" buying up rentalproperties in an impoverished neighborhood in Roanoke's West End?
Critics are raising questions about why a man who professes anti-Semitism and controversial racial views would want to become landlordto large numbers of black and biracial tenants.
They point to postings he's put on his Web site, overthrow.com,with headlines such as "Niggers Are Plotting Against My Shrubs" and"More On My Ghetto Beautification Project." The Southern Poverty LawCenter, which monitors extremist political groups, says overthrow.comis "the second most popular racist site on the Internet" and listsWhite as one of "40 to Watch" among religious / racial hatepurveyors.
"He's been on our radar because he's a flat-out neo-Nazi," saidHeidi Beirich, a spokeswoman for the Alabama-based law center. "Weconsider him very dangerous."
White, 27, said he's not a Nazi or a racist - he's a "libertariansocialist" and "radical traditionalist" - and that critics aretargeting him as part of a political and personal vendetta. He saidhe's simply a businessman who moved to Roanoke to make a profit inthe rental business by investing his money and helping raise thequality of life in neglected neighborhoods.
"I wouldn't be out here buying and fixing up houses if I had someagenda against the black community," he said. "I don't have anythingagainst black people. The Jews, I despise. They hate me. I hate them.They can kiss my a--."
The article titled "Niggers Are Plotting Against My Shrubs" hasbeen taken down from his site. He said a version being circulated byhis critics has been altered and distorted. But he acknowledgedwriting the headline.
He also acknowledged declaring in the article that "the local nig-rats are already conspiring to test me" and opining that "trying toget a broad section of the black population to accept a higherstandard of living is always an uphill battle. . . . For centuriesblacks - particularly blacks descended from the Bantu tribes ofCentral Africa - have been lying to and stealing from not only whitemen, but each other."
White said someone pulled up the new shrubbery at one of hisproperties and he wrote about it as a way of "contrasting honestblack persons with the crack dealers, prostitutes and con artists."
He said he tries to be outrageous to provide entertainment andstimulate debate. In fact, he said, "I'm starting to work on projectsthat are much more vicious than Overthrow."
White, who said he had lived previously in Maryland and Missouri,began buying properties in Roanoke this spring. He said he has ninesingle- and multifamily properties in the 1500 and 1600 blocks ofChapman and Patterson avenues either in his possession or undercontract. He said he expects to spend a total of $3 million over twoyears, swelling his number of properties to 45 or 50.
He said he's investing lots of money fixing up the properties. Oneof his tenants, Stephanie Dobyns, is happy with what he's done. "He'sbeen fabulous," said Dobyns, who is white and has a 9-year-oldbiracial daughter. "He's been going out of his way to make sureeverything is updated. He's been very kind."
As for the concerns about his racial and religious views, shesaid, "I've heard, but I don't believe."
Another tenant, Deborah Burnett, is less pleased with White.Burnett, who is black, said she fears him, and that after learningabout his writings, she told him, "I don't want you on my propertybecause I have my babies to protect."
White's views came to light this week when a former friend andpolitical ally, Erica Hardwick, began distributing leaflets titled"Meet Your Local Racist."
Hardwick, 22, said in an interview that she is a former neo-Naziactivist who decided to leave the movement's violence and hatredbehind and fight prejudice through a radical anti-racist group, OnePeople's Project.
White said he and Hardwick were once romantically involved andthat he moved to Roanoke, her hometown, partly at her urging.Hardwick said that's not true.
The two had a confrontation Tuesday while Hardwick was passing outthe leaflets. Hardwick charges that White assaulted her. White saysshe assaulted him.
Burnett and a friend of Hardwick's, George Pierce, supportHardwick's account. White said he has witnesses who support him, butthey're afraid to come forward because they don't want to getinvolved with the police.
Hardwick has sworn out an assault warrant against White. White hassworn out assault and trespassing warrants against Hardwick and anassault warrant against Pierce.
White has also accused Burnett of aiding and abetting trespassingfor inviting Hardwick into her home. On Thursday, he gave Burnettnotice that he was evicting her as a result of "this criminalactivity and the disruption of the peace and quiet of my othertenants."
Burnett, a grandmother who's lived in her home eight years, vowedto fight. "I'm not going out without a battle," she said.
White said he might reconsider evicting Burnett if she would talkto him about the situation. But he said he reserves the right to keeppeople he considers undesirable off his properties.
He also e-mailed The Roanoke Times to accuse a newspaper reporterof trespassing for accompanying Hardwick on a visit to Burnett'shome.
Stan Barnhill, the newspaper's attorney, said the law is clearthat landlords have no right to prevent people from coming and goingon the landlord's property as long as they are invited by the tenantand they do no damage to the property.
Later, in an interview, White told a reporter, "you should ask mypermission" to visit his rental properties, regardless of whethertenants give permission.
Pressed on the issue, he said, "it's not a question of dictatingwho can come and who cannot." But, he said, the neighborhood has ahistory of crime, and it's important for him to "establishauthority."
He said his critics - and now the news media - have disrupted whathe's trying to do for the neighborhood. In a posting Thursday onoverthrow.com, he said he was being harassed by "the Jews and theJewish television stations who professionally manipulate the blackcommunity. Well, no surprise, all day reporters have been driving upand down harassing my tenants. My tenants are almost afraid to gooutside."
Later in the day, however, he agreed to sit on the porch of one ofhis properties and give a long interview to The Roanoke Times abouthis growing rental business - and about his embrace of what he termed"extreme" and sometimes "vicious" political views.
Double-check everything, he said, because his views are complexand easily misconstrued. "There are a lot of things that are saidabout me that are not true. Not only not true - but extremely nottrue."
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