09/24/2025
Back when I fought the K*K in northwest Arkansas….
Oh, you don’t know that chapter of my life? It was only ten years ago but it might as well be another lifetime.
In 2012, I thought I was moving to a small, peaceful town in the rural Ozarks to heal for a couple years, with plans of moving to Montana afterwards. Instead, I was thrown into the front lines of a culture war. Hate speech on billboards, public presentations hijacked by the Klan, attacked by Neo-Nazis online, me and my extended family doxxed by these same groups…the list goes on and it lasted for years.
My fight against racism and hate put me in print, radio, and television news outlets from Missouri all the way to the UK—CNN, BBC, NPR, and more. I was even featured in a CNN-produced series hosted by W. Kamau Bell. It put me in the mayor’s office and in front of city council on several occasions. The organization I chaired even partnered with the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission to bring peace rallies to town.
Ultimately, though, the threats were literally hitting too close to home. And when we had a chance to escape, I took it.
