Band of Others: KKK leader says Gibson aligned with white supremacists

Former Mississippi Imperial Wizard Steven Shane Howard hopes to hold events in Portland and Vancouver early this year.

"I know Joey Gibson" said Steven Shane Howard, a former Imperial Wizard for the North Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan living in Vancouver, Washington. "I've seen white supremacists at his events."

Howard's associations with the Klan and Neo-Nazi movements have been well-documented. The Anti-defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have focused on his actions. Internal emails from the Vancouver Police Department obtained through a public records request reveal that the FBI has known about Howard's new Vancouver residence since at least February 2017. The FBI told Vancouver police about Howard's KKK activities.

Gibson has repeatedly insisted that neither he nor his group, Patriot Prayer, is racist. However he and Patriot Prayer continue to draw support from racist people. Howard said Gibson has discouraged him from attending Patriot Prayer events. "He told me, 'It's better for me if you don't come to my events,'" Howard said. "The only reason he doesn't want guys like me coming around is because it hurts his image."

Howard has talked with Gibson and other members of Patriot Prayer and found them sympathetic to his cause. He said it was no accident that people like him show up at Patriot Prayer rallies. "Joey Gibson does align himself with white supremacists. That's what pisses a lot of people off, that he hides it," Howard said. "But it's obvious that it's there. I am a white nationalist, and I've seen other white nationalists at his events."

Howard plans to hold a "white nationalist" rally in downtown Portland in February, followed by a "cross-burning ceremony" in Vancouver. "This is a stronghold I'm trying to get in the Pacific Northwest," Howard said. "I want this rally to put us back on the map."

And, Howard said, he's taking his cues from Gibson. "Joey raises all this money and manpower. He's causing all these problems with his little group."