Harold Covington

Harold Armstead Covington (born 14 September 1953 in Burlington, North Carolina) is an American white supremacist, political activist and novelist. He advocates the creation of an "Aryan homeland" in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.^[1]

Political activities

Covington joined the National Socialist White People's Party while in the U.S. Army in 1972, then moved to South Africa, and was later in Rhodesia.^[2] Covington was a founding member of the Rhodesian White People's Party.^[2] He was deported from Rhodesia (later renamed Zimbabwe) in 1976, after sending threatening letters to a Jewish congregation.^[2]

Covington joined the National Socialist Party of America (NSPA) after returning from Rhodesia.^[2] In 1980, while leader of the American Nazi Party, he lost a primary election for the Republican nomination for candidates for attorney general of North Carolina.^[3] Covington resigned as president of the NSPA in 1981.^[4]

In 1981 Covington alleged a connection between the NSPA and would-be presidential assassin John W. Hinckley. Law enforcement authorities were never able to corroborate the alleged Hinckley-NSPA connection.^[5]

Covington later settled in the United Kingdom for several years, where he made contact with far-right groups and was involved in setting up the neo-nazi terror group Combat 18 (C18) in 1992 with his National Socialist White People's Party. C18 openly promotes violence and antisemitism, and has adopted some of the features of the US far right.^[6]

Upon his second return to the US, Covington started a new entity using the name National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), which he ran from various locations until settling in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He launched its website ^[7] in 1996 and for some time the NSWPP was one of the more active neo-nazi presences on the web. A dispute over use of the NSWPP's name arose when Matt Koehl, head of the New Order, the direct successor organization of the NSWPP, declared the name was copyrighted by the G.L. Rockwell Foundation, Inc.^[8] Subsequently, a notice appeared in place of Covington's primary Web site barring him from using the term NSWPP in "printed material, electronic messaging and Internet Domain Names." Covington's NSWPP website is now defunct.

Covington has sometimes used the alias "Winston Smith", particularly in his role as head of the faux NSWPP.^[8]

Internet presence

Harold Covington was one of the first neo-Nazis on the Web, establishing a site as early as 1996.^[9] Covington's original site defined National Socialism as "a world view for White People" and listed guiding principles such as "Racial Idealism" and "The Upward Development of the White Race." The site listed "Ten Basic Principles of National Socialism". Covington also lauded George Lincoln Rockwell at length.^[9]

Novels

Covington is the author of a number of novels.^[10] His book The March up Country published in 1987 was promoted on the forum of the Dutch political party Nationale Alliantie.

• The March Up Country
• The Stars in Their Path: A Novel of Reincarnation
• Dreaming the Iron Dream
• A Mighty Fortress
• A Distant Thunder
• The Hill of the Ravens
• The Brigade
• Fire and Rain
• A Slow Coming Dark
• Freedom's Sons

Most of Covington's novels present a fictionalised account of the rise of a future "Northwest Republic", which secedes from the United States, ejects all non-white inhabitants from its territory, and becomes a regional superpower, defeating US attempts to reconquer it.^{[citation needed]}

Online works

• The March Up Country
• Rose of Honor
• Vindictus
• The Book of the National Socialist Brotherhood
• A Distant Thunder
• A Mighty Fortress
• The Brigade

Interviews

• The Birth of a Nation, a review of the NW novels by The Occidental Quarterly, September 2, 2009
• Covington explains the Northwest Front, Radio Free Mississippi, November 20, 2009 (audio)

References

1. ^ Brennan Clarke, "Neo-Nazi sympathizer fatally shot by Nanaimo police didn’t fire flare gun, probe told", Toronto Globe and Mail, 25 June 2011
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "Codename Greenkil: The 1979 Greensboro Killings - p.46". Elizabeth Wheaton - via Google books. http://books.google.com/books?id=kbKJU3e59MsC&pg=PA45&dq=Covington++%22Rhodesian+Army%22&hl=en&ei=VRh0TP--DMKB8gbFyqj2CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Covington%20%20%22Rhodesian%20Army%22&f=false. Retrieved July 23, 2011. 
3. ^ "Nazi Loses in Republican Primary", Reading Eagle, 7 May 1980
4. ^ "N.C.Nazi cheif quits". The Sumter Daily - via Google News. March 27 1981. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VYgiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nqoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5063,4821415&dq=harold-covington+underground&hl=en. Retrieved July 23 2011. 
5. ^ "Doubts grow over Hinkley's nazi ties". Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina) via Google news. April 2 1981. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AD8aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SSQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4414,3778065&dq=hinckley+covington+law-enforcement-authorities&hl=en. Retrieved July 23 2011. 
6. ^ "antisem/archive". Institute for Jewish Policy Research - axt'org'uk. September 1998. http://www.axt.org.uk/antisem/archive/archive2/uk/uk.htm. Retrieved July 23 2011. 
7. ^ archive of nswpp.org website
8. ^ ^{a b} Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity, New York University Press 2001, p28. ISBN 0-8147-3124-4
9. ^ ^{a b} "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. http://web.archive.org/web/20080103132832/http://hatemonitor.csusb.edu/US_Senate/Howard_Berkowitz.html. Retrieved July 23 2011. 
10. ^ "Smelly Cheese". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2003. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=48. Retrieved July 23 2011. 

External links

• Northwest Front homepage- Harold Covington's movement

Persondata
Name	Covington, Harold
Alternative names	HAC
Short description	American author
Date of birth	14 September 1953
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death