Thomas Robb - Activities

Activities

In 1986, Robb organized a protest against the Martin Luther King National Holiday in Pulaski, Tennessee, which is the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. The event eventually became known as the White Christian Heritage Festival, held each October in Pulaski. Over the years Robb has developed a close relationship with other extremists including, J. B. Stoner, Ed Fields, Don Black, David Duke, Willis Carto, Billy Roper, Michael Collins Piper, Canadian extremist Paul Fromm and former Croatian diplomat Tomislav Sunic.

Robb defends the Klan as a harmless organization, "gentle, upbeat, and friendly". When featured in the PBS documentary Banished, Robb compared a Klan hood to a businessman's tie, claiming that "it's just tradition." Robb is a pastor who believes in creationism, "or as some call it intelligent design," and rejects evolution as "an attack upon our faith." He is the pastor of a church, Christian Revival Center, and broadcasts on shortwave radio and Stormfront internet radio.

In July 2009, his group lost a lawsuit and was ordered to pay $25,000 in punitive damages to the Rhino Times, a North Carolina newspaper, which it was illegally using to spread its propaganda. The case was filed in 2006 when the paper charged that the Klan inserted its fliers into editions of Rhino Times. The Klan counter-sued for defamation, but the case was dismissed. Recent attention has focused on his family, such as his daughter Rachel Pendergraft and his granddaughters, Charity and Shelby Pendergraft, who have recently formed a "white nationalist" band called Heritage Connection.