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{{Short description|American neo-Nazi (1953–2018)}}
'''Harold Armstead Covington''' (born [[Burlington]], [[North Carolina]], 14 September 1953) American White separatist leader and novelist.
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Harold Covington
| image =
| caption = Covington circa 1970
| order =
| office = 2nd President of the [[National Socialist Party of America]]
| term_start = 1977
| term_end = 1981
| predecessor = [[Frank Collin]]
| successor = organization disbanded
| birth_name = Harold Armstead Covington
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1953|9|14}}
| birth_place = [[Burlington, North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|7|14|1953|9|14}}
| death_place = [[Bremerton, Washington]], U.S.
| occupation = Author
| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
|allegiance = United States
|branch= United States Army
|serviceyears= 1971–1973
|rank= Private First Class
}}
}}


'''Harold Armstead Covington''' (September 14, 1953 – July 14, 2018)<ref name=SPLC/> was an American [[neo-Nazi]] activist<ref>{{cite news|last1=Murphy|first1=Dan|title=Why would an American white supremacist be fond of Rhodesia?|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2015/0618/Why-would-an-American-white-supremacist-be-fond-of-Rhodesia-video|access-date=27 March 2016|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|date=18 June 2015}}</ref> and writer. He advocated the creation of an "[[Aryan race|Aryan]] homeland" in the [[Pacific Northwest]] (known as the [[Northwest Territorial Imperative]])<ref>Brennan Clarke (July 25, 2011). [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/neo-nazi-sympathizer-fatally-shot-by-nanaimo-police-didnt-fire-flare-gun-probe-told/article2109423/ "Neo-Nazi sympathizer fatally shot by Nanaimo police didn't fire flare gun, probe told"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727122701/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/neo-nazi-sympathizer-fatally-shot-by-nanaimo-police-didnt-fire-flare-gun-probe-told/article2109423/ |date=July 27, 2011 }}. ''Toronto Globe and Mail''. Retrieved November 7, 2013.</ref> and was the founder of the '''Northwest Front''' ('''NF'''), a [[White separatism|white separatist]] political movement that sought to create a [[white ethnostate]].<ref name=SPLC/>
Covington became racially aware in high school in Chapel Hill, N. C. and joined the National Socialist White People's Party [NSWPP], successor to George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party in 1972, while still a soldier in the United States Army. He served as editor of the party's newspaper WHITE POWER from 1972 to late 1973 when he left for Southern Africa, at that time under White rule. After working for Grinaker Construction in Johannesburg, South Africa, Covington joined the Rhodesian Army and served in the bush war until 1976, when he and two other Americans, Eric Thomson and Jeffrey Spencer, were deported by the Ian Smith regime for attemping to form a rightist opposition to what they and many White Rhodesians saw as a sellout by the Rhodesia Front government.
<ref>{{cite web |last=Donner |first=Andreas |title=On the Death of Harold Covington |url=http://northwestfront.org/2018/07/on-the-death-of-harold-covington/ |website=Archive |date=July 24, 2018 |access-date=June 21, 2023 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725115458/http://northwestfront.org/2018/07/on-the-death-of-harold-covington/ |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
==Early life (1953{{endash}}1971)==
Covington was born on September 14, 1953, in [[Burlington, North Carolina]], to Forrest McAllister Covington (1925 – 1999) and Frances Anne Covington (née Glass) as the eldest of three children.<ref>{{cite web |title=Covington History Full Report|url=http://www.covingtonhistory.co.uk/CovhistoryHI.htm}}</ref>
According to an interview with Covington, at age 15 in 1968 he was sent to [[Chapel Hill High School (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)|Chapel Hill High School]].<ref name=counter>{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Greg |author-link=Greg Johnson (white nationalist)|title=Interview with Harold Covington |url=https://www.counter-currents.com/2010/07/interview-with-harold-covington/ |website=Counter-Currents Publishing |date=July 15, 2010 |access-date=26 July 2018}}</ref>


In 1971, he graduated from high school and joined the [[United States Army]].<ref name=SPLC>{{cite web |last1=Lenz |first1=Ryan |title=Harold Covington, founder of white separatist group, dies at 64 |url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/07/25/harold-covington-founder-white-separatist-group-dies-64 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |access-date=26 July 2018 |date=July 25, 2018}}</ref>
Covington was involved in the landmark Operation Skokie free speech case in 1978 and was one of the 35 National Socialists who went onto Daley Plaza in Chicago on June 25, 1978 to celebrate the successful Supreme Court decision.


==Early political activities, Rhodesia and South Africa (1971{{endash}}1979)==
He came to national prominence on the Nazi scene as in 1979 when National Socialists and KKK members were involved in a gun battle with the Communist Worker's Party in Greensboro, N. C. The Communist attacked a Klan motorcade with firearms and were repulsed with five dead Reds. Covington spearheaded the legal defense activities for the Greensboro 16 defendants and was widely credited with being instrumental in the acquittals in November of 1980.
In 1971, Covington joined the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), the political successor to the [[American Nazi Party]] (ANP).<ref name=SPLC/> He moved to [[South Africa]] in December 1973,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/05/14/nazis-showing-in-nc-race-embarrasses-gop/84295cd5-37c3-449c-b8b6-cea599978b14/?noredirect=on|title=Nazi's Showing in N.C. Race Embarrasses GOP|last=Guillory|first=Ferrel|date=1980-05-14|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> after his discharge from the U.S. Army, and later to [[Rhodesia]] (now [[Zimbabwe]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbKJU3e59MsC&pg=PA45|title=Codename Greenkil: The 1979 Greensboro Killings|last=Wheaton|first=Elizabeth|date=2009-04-01|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820331485|pages=45|language=en}}</ref> Covington was a founding member of the [[Rhodesian White People's Party]] and later claimed [[Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces|to have served]] in the [[Rhodesian Army]]. He was deported from Rhodesia due to his racist beliefs, particularly due to his threatening letters to the Jewish community.<ref name=":0" />


==Political activities after returning from Rhodesia==
In 1979, National Socialist Party of America members at the Chicago headquarters found "films, pictures and addresses of some little boys", as a result of which they caused the then leader, Frank Collin, to be arrested and sent to prison on buggery charges.
In 1980, while leader of the [[National Socialist Party of America]], he lost a primary election for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nomination for candidates for [[attorney general]] of [[North Carolina]].<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QxQyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i6IFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3115,5477183&dq=harold-covington&hl=en "Nazi Loses in Republican Primary"]. ''Reading Eagle'' via Google News. May 7, 1980. Retrieved February 18, 2013.</ref> Covington resigned as president of the NSPA in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VYgiAAAAIBAJ&pg=5063,4821415&dq=harold-covington+underground&hl=en|title=N.C.Nazi Chief Quits|date=March 27, 1981|access-date=July 23, 2011}}</ref> That same year, Covington alleged that would-be presidential assassin [[John Hinckley Jr.]] had formerly been a member of the NSPA. Law enforcement authorities were never able to corroborate this claim and suggested the alleged connection "may have been fabricated for publicity purposes".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AD8aAAAAIBAJ&pg=4414,3778065&dq=hinckley+covington+law-enforcement-authorities&hl=en|title=Doubts grow over Hinkley's nazi ties|date=April 2, 1981|access-date=July 23, 2011}}</ref>


Covington later settled in the United Kingdom for several years, where he made contact with British far-right groups and was involved in setting up the [[neo-Nazi]] terrorist organisation [[Combat 18]] (C18) in 1992. C18 openly promotes violence and [[antisemitism]] and has adopted some of the features of the American far right.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.axt.org.uk/antisem/archive/archive2/uk/uk.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713035219/http://www.axt.org.uk/antisem/archive/archive2/uk/uk.htm|archive-date=July 13, 2015|title=antisem/archive|publisher=[[Institute for Jewish Policy Research]]|date=September 1998|access-date=July 23, 2011}}</ref>
Covington is currently involved in the Northwest Migration, an attempt to establish a Homeland for all White people in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the Northwest Trilogy, a series of futuristic novels detailing a successful revolution in the Northwest and establishment of an all-White Homeland for all Aryan peoples there.


In 1994, Covington started an organization called the National Socialist White People's Party, using the same name of the successor to the American Nazi Party under [[Matthias Koehl|Matt Koehl]], in [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill]], North Carolina. He launched a website in 1996; using the pseudonym "[[Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Winston Smith]]" (taken from the novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''), Covington became one of the first neo-Nazi presences on the Internet.<ref name="web.archive.org">{{cite web|url=http://hatemonitor.csusb.edu/US_Senate/Howard_Berkowitz.html |title=Hate on the Internet: The Anti-Defamation League Perspective – Statement of Anti-Defamation League before the Senate Judiciary Committee |publisher=Hatemonitor.csusb.edu via [[Waybackmachine]] |date=September 14, 1999 |access-date=July 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103132832/http://hatemonitor.csusb.edu/US_Senate/Howard_Berkowitz.html |archive-date=January 3, 2008 }}</ref><ref name=blacksun>[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]] (2001). ''[[Black Sun (Goodrick-Clarke book)|Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity]]''. [[New York University]] Press. p.28. {{ISBN|0-8147-3124-4}}.</ref> Covington used the website and the Winston Smith pseudonym to disseminate [[Holocaust-denial]] material.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gardell |first1=Mattias |title=Gods of the blood : the pagan revival and white separatism |date=2003 |publisher=Duke university press |location=Durham |isbn=9780822330714 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIwwWSSL5JIC&pg=PA106 |access-date=26 July 2018}}</ref>
⚫
==References==


Beginning in 2005, Covington maintained a political blog titled "Thoughtcrime".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tsai|first1=Robert|title=America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community|date=2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674059955|page=338|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09aDAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Harold+Covington%22++++blog++%22Thoughtcrime%22&pg=PA338}}</ref> As a fiction writer, Covington authored several occult-themed novels.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=harold%20covington|title=Internet Archive Search: Harold Covington|access-date=February 18, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2003/neo-nazi-harold-covington-authors-cheesy-occult-novels|title=Neo-Nazi Harold Covington Authors Cheesy Occult Novels|publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]]|date=Summer 2003|access-date=July 23, 2011}}</ref> As an author, he is best known for his series of five Northwest Independence novels: ''A Distant Thunder'', ''A Mighty Fortress'', ''The Hill of the Ravens, '' ''The Brigade'', and ''Freedom's Sons''. In November of 2008, he founded the Northwest Front, a movement devoted to creating a white ethnostate similar to that depicted in the novels.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294090243_Fighting_for_an_Aryan_Homeland_Harold_Covington_and_the_Northwest_Front|title=(PDF) Fighting for an Aryan Homeland: Harold Covington and the Northwest Front}}</ref>
<references />

Covington was mentioned in the media in connection with the [[Charleston church shooting]], whose perpetrator [[Dylann Roof]] discussed the Northwest Front in his manifesto, and was critical of its means and objectives.<ref>{{cite news |last=Berger |first=Knute |date=2015-07-08 |title= Hate-Filled Zone: The racist roots of a Northwest secession movement |url= https://crosscut.com/2015/07/hate-filled-zone-a-group-of-white-racists-wants-a-nw-secession-a-vile-dream-with-deep-historic-roots |work=Crosscut|access-date=2020-11-25}}</ref> According to Covington, the shooting was "a preview of coming attractions", but he also believed it was a bad idea for his followers to engage in random acts of violence, instead supporting organized revolution.<ref name="roof">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/28/harold-covington-northwest-front-dylann-roof-manifesto-charleston-shooting|title=White supremacist calls Charleston 'a preview of coming attractions'|website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=June 28, 2015}}</ref>

==Death==
Covington died in [[Bremerton, Washington]], on July 14, 2018.<ref name=SPLC/>

⚫
==References==
{{reflist}}


==External links==
==External links==
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/harold-covington/harold-covington-part-01/view Harold Covington Part 01] on the [[FBI Index|FBI Vault]]
*[http://nwhomeland.blogspot.com Northwest Homeland], a blog by Covington

*[http://downwithjugears.blogspot.com/ Thoughtcrime], a blog by Covington
{{Neo-Nazism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}


[[Category:1953 births|Covington, Harold]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Covington, Harold}}
[[Category:Living people|Covington, Harold]]
[[Category:1953 births]]
[[Category:Neo-Nazis|Covington, Harold]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American far-right politicians]]
[[Category:American neo-Nazis]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American Nazi Party members]]
[[Category:American volunteers in the Rhodesian Bush War]]
[[Category:People from Burlington, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Novelists from North Carolina]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:North Carolina Republicans]]
[[Category:Chapel Hill High School (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) alumni]]
[[Category:People deported from Rhodesia]]
[[Category:Neo-Nazi politicians in the United States]]
[[Category:Activists from North Carolina]]

Revision as of 03:31, 8 May 2024

Harold Covington
2nd President of the National Socialist Party of America
In office
1977–1981
Preceded byFrank Collin
Succeeded byorganization disbanded
Personal details
Born
Harold Armstead Covington

(1953-09-14)September 14, 1953
Burlington, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedJuly 14, 2018(2018-07-14) (aged 64)
Bremerton, Washington, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
Military career
AllegianceUnited States
Service/branchUnited States Army
Years of service1971–1973
RankPrivate First Class

Harold Armstead Covington (September 14, 1953 – July 14, 2018)[1] was an American neo-Nazi activist[2] and writer. He advocated the creation of an "Aryan homeland" in the Pacific Northwest (known as the Northwest Territorial Imperative)[3] and was the founder of the Northwest Front (NF), a white separatist political movement that sought to create a white ethnostate.[1] [4]

Early life (1953–1971)

Covington was born on September 14, 1953, in Burlington, North Carolina, to Forrest McAllister Covington (1925 – 1999) and Frances Anne Covington (née Glass) as the eldest of three children.[5] According to an interview with Covington, at age 15 in 1968 he was sent to Chapel Hill High School.[6]

In 1971, he graduated from high school and joined the United States Army.[1]

Early political activities, Rhodesia and South Africa (1971–1979)

In 1971, Covington joined the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), the political successor to the American Nazi Party (ANP).[1] He moved to South Africa in December 1973,[7] after his discharge from the U.S. Army, and later to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).[8] Covington was a founding member of the Rhodesian White People's Party and later claimed to have served in the Rhodesian Army. He was deported from Rhodesia due to his racist beliefs, particularly due to his threatening letters to the Jewish community.[8]

Political activities after returning from Rhodesia

In 1980, while leader of the National Socialist Party of America, he lost a primary election for the Republican nomination for candidates for attorney general of North Carolina.[9] Covington resigned as president of the NSPA in 1981.[10] That same year, Covington alleged that would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. had formerly been a member of the NSPA. Law enforcement authorities were never able to corroborate this claim and suggested the alleged connection "may have been fabricated for publicity purposes".[11]

Covington later settled in the United Kingdom for several years, where he made contact with British far-right groups and was involved in setting up the neo-Nazi terrorist organisation Combat 18 (C18) in 1992. C18 openly promotes violence and antisemitism and has adopted some of the features of the American far right.[12]

In 1994, Covington started an organization called the National Socialist White People's Party, using the same name of the successor to the American Nazi Party under Matt Koehl, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He launched a website in 1996; using the pseudonym "Winston Smith" (taken from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four), Covington became one of the first neo-Nazi presences on the Internet.[13][14] Covington used the website and the Winston Smith pseudonym to disseminate Holocaust-denial material.[15]

Beginning in 2005, Covington maintained a political blog titled "Thoughtcrime".[16] As a fiction writer, Covington authored several occult-themed novels.[17][18] As an author, he is best known for his series of five Northwest Independence novels: A Distant Thunder, A Mighty Fortress, The Hill of the Ravens, The Brigade, and Freedom's Sons. In November of 2008, he founded the Northwest Front, a movement devoted to creating a white ethnostate similar to that depicted in the novels.[19]

Covington was mentioned in the media in connection with the Charleston church shooting, whose perpetrator Dylann Roof discussed the Northwest Front in his manifesto, and was critical of its means and objectives.[20] According to Covington, the shooting was "a preview of coming attractions", but he also believed it was a bad idea for his followers to engage in random acts of violence, instead supporting organized revolution.[21]

Death

Covington died in Bremerton, Washington, on July 14, 2018.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lenz, Ryan (July 25, 2018). "Harold Covington, founder of white separatist group, dies at 64". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Murphy, Dan (June 18, 2015). "Why would an American white supremacist be fond of Rhodesia?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  3. ^ Brennan Clarke (July 25, 2011). "Neo-Nazi sympathizer fatally shot by Nanaimo police didn't fire flare gun, probe told" Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Toronto Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  4. ^ Donner, Andreas (July 24, 2018). "On the Death of Harold Covington". Archive. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved June 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "Covington History Full Report".
  6. ^ Johnson, Greg (July 15, 2010). "Interview with Harold Covington". Counter-Currents Publishing. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  7. ^ Guillory, Ferrel (May 14, 1980). "Nazi's Showing in N.C. Race Embarrasses GOP". The Washington Post.
  8. ^ a b Wheaton, Elizabeth (April 1, 2009). Codename Greenkil: The 1979 Greensboro Killings. University of Georgia Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780820331485.
  9. ^ "Nazi Loses in Republican Primary". Reading Eagle via Google News. May 7, 1980. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  10. ^ "N.C.Nazi Chief Quits". March 27, 1981. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  11. ^ "Doubts grow over Hinkley's nazi ties". April 2, 1981. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  12. ^ "antisem/archive". Institute for Jewish Policy Research. September 1998. Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  13. ^ "Hate on the Internet: The Anti-Defamation League Perspective – Statement of Anti-Defamation League before the Senate Judiciary Committee". Hatemonitor.csusb.edu via Waybackmachine. September 14, 1999. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  14. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2001). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York University Press. p.28. ISBN 0-8147-3124-4.
  15. ^ Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the blood : the pagan revival and white separatism. Durham: Duke university press. p. 106. ISBN 9780822330714. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  16. ^ Tsai, Robert (2014). America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community. Harvard University Press. p. 338. ISBN 978-0674059955.
  17. ^ "Internet Archive Search: Harold Covington". Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  18. ^ "Neo-Nazi Harold Covington Authors Cheesy Occult Novels". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2003. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  19. ^ "(PDF) Fighting for an Aryan Homeland: Harold Covington and the Northwest Front".
  20. ^ Berger, Knute (July 8, 2015). "Hate-Filled Zone: The racist roots of a Northwest secession movement". Crosscut. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  21. ^ "White supremacist calls Charleston 'a preview of coming attractions'". TheGuardian.com. June 28, 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_Covington&oldid=1222821287"