MSU-YAF Part of Skinhead’s Campus Speech Operations

Preston Wiginton (left, in the silly hat)

On Oct. 26, 2007 Nick Griffin, the Chairman of the British National Party, spoke at MSU. Griffin has a history of anti-Semitism, Holocaust Denial and racist remarks. The event on campus was sponsored by the Michigan State University Young Americans for Freedom (MSU-YAF), the first university affiliated hate group listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But MSU-YAF wasn’t alone in arranging the event. Griffin’s MSU speech was part of a larger three-university speaking tour for the British political leader. Before speaking at MSU, Griffin spoke at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. Behind all three events was one man, Preston Wiginton.

The Griffin tour coincided with, but was not part of, Islamofacist Awareness Week, a nationwide event arranged by conservative David Horowitz. Horowitz condemned the event by Griffin because of Griffin’s past statements denying the Holocaust.

I. Background

Wiginton and MSU-YAF Chair Kyle Bristow had known each other before the Nick Griffin speech. In Sept. 2007, MichiganMessenger.com reported that Bristow and Wiginton were co-administrators in two Facebook groups, “The American Patriot Movement” and “Jobs a White Man Won’t Do.” Both groups were anti-immigration groups with white nationalist leanings.

Despite this report, Bristow welcomed Wiginton and Griffin to campus. In a press release for the event Bristow said that YAF was honored to bring Nick Griffin to campus. Bristow hasn’t publicly changes his stance on Wiginton, even though in the week after bringing Griffin to MSU, Wiginton went to Russia to attend an anti-immigrant rally. The International Herald Tribune reported:

“As Preston Wiginton, a white supremacist from Texas, stepped forward to address thousands of Russian nationalists at a rally Sunday in Moscow, he lifted his black cowboy hat high in the air.

‘I'm taking my hat off as a sign of respect for your strong identity in ethnicity, nation and race,’ he said, exposing his close-cropped head to a freezing drizzle.

‘Glory to Russia,’ Wiginton, 43, said in broken Russian, as the crowd of mostly young Russian men raised their right hands in a Nazi salute and chanted ‘white power!’ in English.”

II. Trouble in Texas

The Nick Griffin speech at MSU was not the first college event arranged by Wiginton. As far back as 2005 Wiginton was going to campus to promote his white nationalist views against non-white immigration.

Wiginton took part in arranging a speaking tour for author Frosty Wooldridge, an anti-immigration author and activist.

The purpose of the tour was to gather signatures on a petition against Texas House Bill 1403, a law which gave children of illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates if they had graduated from a Texas high school and lived in the state for three years.

Wiginton was by Wooldridge’s side at the stops on the tour. Wooldridge faced protests from pro-immigrant groups, and conservative groups as well. At the University of Houston College Republicans joined with College Democrats to oppose Wooldridge’s petition. Student Government Association Speaker Pro-Tem Mark Annas, a member of the UH College Republicans, told the University of Houston student newspaper the Daily Cougar.

"He called and asked if I would sponsor his petition against the bill, and I said ‘no way,'" Annas said. "College Republicans won't support something that prevents people from getting an education."

The College Republicans weren’t the only group to get an invitation to host Wooldridge. David Morris, then Chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas A&M University, received an invitation from Wiginton. Morris wrote in the Texas A&M Battalion about the invitation:

“He assured me that he had already spoken to the state officers of YCT and received permission to have similar events sponsored across Texas. With that assurance in mind, I went about setting up the speaking event.

It occurred to me to check up on Preston before I finalized the event, so I called the state officers to talk to them about it and, to my suprise [sic], they had never heard of Preston Wiginton and, in fact, had no idea what I was talking about.”

In a phone interview Morris explained why he looked into Wiginton before the event.

“It’s just that I didn’t want to host an event about someone I had never heard of,” Morris said.

Morris was not on campus the day of the Wooldridge event, but another member of the Young Conservatives of Texas went to observe. Morris said Wiginton was handing out literature opposing immigration on racial and ethnic grounds, which was not what the event had been advertised as. Morris said he was approached later by Wiginton during the university open house.

“We had our university open house at the event for all the organizations. He came up and wanted to talk to me and basically bragged about all the events he had hosted. He told me ‘I’ve even had skinheads at my events’” Morris said.

Morris said he didn’t approve of Wiginton’s methods or events.

“I have a very negative opinion about him. He was not straightforward about the event and felt he had to lie about our state offices giving him approval,” Morris said.

Morris wasn’t the only one who opposed Wiginton’s role in the tour. At the University of Houston, The Daily Cougar wrote an editorial, opposing Wooldridge’s stance on immigration but approving of the way he handled himself.

“Wooldridge never even delivered a speech, opting to carry on a few quiet conversations with protesters. Whether it was self-preservation or a genuine desire for intelligent discourse motivating him, Wooldridge tried to keep things civil, unlike the event's organizer, Preston Wiginton. If Wooldridge's relative respectfulness wasn't an act, he proved himself better than the vitriolic hate-mongers who share his extreme views on immigration”

By 2007 Wiginton had enrolled at Texas A&M and begun a campaign to push his white nationalist views. Wiginton posted on Stormfront about his challenge to Dr. Tito Guerrero, Associate Provost of Diversity at Texas A&M, to debate Jared Taylor.

Wiginton attended a diversity symposium set up to address racial tension at the university. Wiginton protested parts of the speech. The Battalion reported:

“[Wiginton] interrupted Feagin's explanation that racism on an institutional level occurs only by white people.

“Sir, you're lying and I'm having a hard time listening to this,” interjected Preston Wiginton. “I hate to see young minds get lied to.”

Wiginton later said he was not a racist but that he was a racial realist who believes that genetics and behavior make people different. About 20 students and community members approached Wiginton following the symposium to express their disapproval of his disruption.

Wiginton, class="storybody" working with the Aggie Independents, also hosted Nick Griffin at Texas A&M.

III. Shenanigans in South Carolina

Preston Wiginton’s next campus speech came on April 9, 2007. Wiginton, working with the Clemson Conservatives, hosted Jared Taylor, the editor of the white nationalist Web site American Renaissance.

Taylor spoke about multiculturalism as a weakness to the country and claimed that racial segregation was a natural state of being.

Preston Wiginton wrote in the online comment section of the Clemson newspaper, The Daily Tiger, praising the way the students at Clemson handled the event.

He also posted on the white supremacist Web site Stormfront (under the name ruskybound) calling for donations to support more speeches by Jared Taylor for fall 2007.

The speech was aided by Nathanael Strickland, a Clemson student with a history of anti-Semitic remarks and white supremacy beliefs. Clemson’s The Tiger reported him as being fundamental in arranging the speech. Strickland would be even more important when Griffin was looking for schools to host Nick Griffin’s American tour.

Griffin’s speech in Clemson almost didn’t happen. According to the White nationalist Western Voices World News, conservative groups backed out of sponsoring Griffin when they discovered parts of his past. But the event did go on.

“Thanks to one dedicated student the show will go on,” the article said.

A FOIA request to Clemson University for reservation documents showed that one student to be Nathanael Strickland.

IV. Why Universities?

Wiginton’s work setting up speakers at universities has come to the attention of civil rights groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

Carrie Waggoner, assistant director of the Michigan Region for the Anti-Defamation League, said that Wiginton was likely trying to draw attention to his ideas by hosting events on campus.

“He is likely trying to draw attention to and support for his point of view on immigration and white nationalism,” Waggoner said. “Ideas like Holocaust denial and white nationalism/white supremacy are not generally accepted by academia but may be discussed as concepts in a classroom setting.”

Waggoner couldn’t speak to the immigration debate issues, but said there were also strong pro immigrant views as well. Waggoner said that the message Wiginton was trying to send did concern the Anti-Defamation League.

“The ADL is a strong supporter of the First Amendment, so we recognize and support Mr. Wiginton’s right to express his point of view and to organize these events,” Waggoner said. “However, ADL finds it very troubling that such anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic rhetoric is being expressed on our campuses. It is important for students, faculty and community members to speak out against hate speech and make it known that they do not support these types of speakers.”

Wiginton declined to be interviewed for this article.

Original article by Philip Rodney Moon
Spartan Edge