James Hart Stern: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

James Hart Stern is a California black activist who appears to be the new leader of one of the biggest neo-Nazi groups in the United States. Stern has vowed to use his position to dismantle the group, The Associated Press reported.

Records obtained by The AP show that Stern replaced Jeff Schoep as the president of the National Socialist Movement in January. It is unclear how or why.

The National Socialist Movement was one of the extremist groups sued over the violent white nationalist rally in Charlotteville in 2017. Stern is asking a court to issue a judgment against the group before one of the cases heads to trial.

“I have personally targeted eradicating the (Ku Klux Klan) and the National Socialist Movement, which are two organizations here in this country which have all too long been given privileges they don’t deserve,” Stern said in a video posted to his website.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Michigan Records Show James Hart Stern Took Over National Socialist Movement

Michigan corporate records obtained by The Associated Press show that Stern replaced Jeff Schoep as the leader of the National Socialist Movement in January of this year.

It is unclear how or why he became the group’s leader.

Schoep took over the group in 1994 when he was just 21 and renamed it to the National Socialist Movement, The AP reported.

Matthew Heimbach, a white nationalist leader who was the group’s community outreach director, said that Schoep had been in conflict with other members over its direction.

Heimbach told The AP that some members “essentially want it to remain a politically impotent white supremacist gang” and were opposed to the ideological changes that Schoep wanted.

The AP reported that the group’s members paraded in full Nazi uniforms at rallies, including a 2005 march in Toledo, Ohio that led to a riot. Since then, Schoep has tried to “rebrand the group and appeal to a new generation of racists and anti-Semites by getting rid of such overt displays of Nazi symbols,” the outlet reported.

2. Stern Met With Former National Socialist Leader in 2017

Stern appears to have been target the group for years.

In 2017, he wrote that he met with Schoep to “sign a proclamation acknowledging the NSM denouncing being a white supremacist group.”

“This is a start in the right direction and any one that stands in the way of this is really the Racist, don’t say you want change and you don’t give the racist a chance to change. He was thought to be a racist he can learn not to be one,” Stern wrote on his website.

3. Stern Is Trying to Take The Group Down From Within

While it’s entirely unclear how or why Stern gained control of the group, The AP reported that court documents suggest that he is using his new position to dismantle the group.

Stern has asked a federal court to issue a judgment against the group over its involvement in the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

“It is the decision of the National Socialist Movement to plead liable to all causes of actions listed in the complaint against it,” he wrote.

4. Stern Previously Served Prison Time With Former KKK Leader

Stern previously served a prison sentence at the same facility as former KKK leader Edgar Ray Killen after Stern was convicted of mail fraud.

Killen was convicted in the “Mississippi Burning” murders of three civil rights workers and has since died.

In 2012, Stern claimed that Killen had given him power of attorney and transferred to him the ownership of 40 acres of land while they were in prison. Killen died in January of last year.

“I have personally targeted eradicating the (Ku Klux Klan) and the National Socialist Movement, which are two organizations here in this country which have all too long been given privileges they don’t deserve,” Stern said in a video on his website.

5. Stern Has Filed Multiple Lawsuits Against States Over Prison Conditions

In 2012, The Jackson Free Press reported that Stern had engaged in numerous legal battles against Mississippi and California after he was released from prison.

Stern’s lawsuits claimed that his eye was injured by second-hand smoke exposure in prison, alleged that a county clerk had perjured herself in his case, alleged that unsanitary prison conditions exposed him to HIV/AIVDs and hepatitis, and sued California to require prisons to sterilize their hair cutting equipment.

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