

Steven Shane Howard at a previous hate rally

On Saturday February 8th, 2020, Ku Klux Klan “Imperial Wizard” and National Socialist Movement member Steven Shane Howard is planning a rally in downtown Portland. Join us in telling Howard and any KKK members or their allies they are not welcome anywhere near our city.

We've written about Howard before, when in March of 2017 he marched in the “March4Trump” in Lake Oswego, protected by III%er militia members. His appearance at the rally was part of a campaign to “expand the KKK into the Pacific Northwest”. He was featured more recently in an article profiling Joey Gibson.

Howard says he’s talked with Gibson and other members of Patriot Prayer and has found them sympathetic to his cause. He says it’s no accident that people like him show up.

“Joey Gibson does align himself with white supremacists” says Howard.

“That’s what (peeves) a lot of people… that he hides it. But it’s obvious that it’s there,” says Howard. “I am a white nationalist, and I’ve seen other white nationalists at his events.”

Members of Joey Gibson's Patriot Prayer organization have also displayed a willingness to organize and collaborate with Howard in the past.



Now-deceased Patriot Prayer YouTuber Leo Stratton conspires against political enemies with KKK Imperial Wizard and National Socialist Movement member Steven Shane Howard.

It's no surprise to anyone paying attention that Howard has seen his white supremacist peers at Gibson's events. Since the begining of his political career, Joey Gibson has made white nationalists and neo-Nazis feel at home, providing them with opportunities to network and recruit. Howard's upcoming rally can be understood as an unwelcome advance in the radicalization process that Gibson started. Here is a sample of some of the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other violent members of the far right who have attended Gibson's rallies.

Long before the March4Trump, Howard was active in the racist far-right, and held the rank of “Imperial Wizard” in the KKK since at least 2012. In 2016, Howard's “North Mississippi White Knights” attended a hate rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania organized by the National Socialist Movement. Howard was also in the headlines giving support to fellow racists who were convicted after they “rode a convoy of trucks up to an 8-year-old black child’s birthday party and yelled racial slurs” and at one point pulled a shotgun on a family and threatened to kill people. Howard called their conviction “a tragedy”. Howard also threatened the judge for the trial, and, despite claiming 200 Klansmen would protest at the courthouse, not a single one showed.



Steven Shane Howard calls for a KKK rally in downtown Portland.



Steven Shane Howard at the “March for Trump” rally in Lake Oswego in March of 2017, with his hand on a weapon as he yells at counterprotestors.



Howard waves a Confederate flag with the “Punisher” logo on it.



A Facebook post by Howard valorizing fascist fighting forces in Ukraine and vilifying undocumented immigrants.



Howard's Facebook banner features the emblem of the Ukrainian Azov Battalion, which is comprised of symbols often used by fascists, a wolfsangle and a sonnenrad.



In case there was any question, Howard– who spent years lying about his own military service– makes a post celebrating the fascist paramilitary group, the Azov Battalion.

As always, if you have any information about far-right and fascist organizing, please email us at [email protected].

We'll see you on February 8th!