Meet the League 2018

Prior to last year’s League of the South (LOS) National Conference, Hatewatch profiled leaders of the neo-Confederate LOS, including president Michael Hill, chief of staff Michael Tubbs and various other affiliates and supporters of the organization, including chief of security/intel John Mark “Tiny” Malone.

This is an update to that post to reflect shifting leadership in LOS, which has slid further into overt white nationalism as a result of high-profile departures from the group, particularly after its role in the violence at the deadly August 12, 2017 “Unite the Right” rally.

Presenting itself as the premier “Southern Nationalist” organization, the League purports to stand for “the southern people,” which it defines as “white, Christians of Anglo-Celtic stock” who live in a geographic area variously described as “the states of the Old Confederacy,” “the Bible belt” and “white man’s land.”

The following is a rundown of several LOS state chairmen and leaders across the Southeast. Several of the individuals profiled have joined LOS relatively recently. Of those late additions, some only attained their positions after seats were left vacant following coverage of the League’s role in violence at Jason Kessler’s Unite the Right rally.

Michael Hill has called Robert “Bob” Isaacs of McKee, Kentucky, “Commander of the Kentucky Southern Defense Force (SDF).” In April, Hatewatch identified Isaacs as the man behind the online pseudonym “Ike Baker.” A Facebook profile apparently belonging to “Isaac Baker,” 57, describes him as a United States Marine Corps veteran and past employee of CSX Transportation from Harlan, Kentucky. Another account under Isaacs’ real name had corroborating photographs and information.

Isaacs says he has been involved with LOS since 2015, and he has been photographed at various LOS rallies in his local area over the past few years. But he appears to have become more deeply embroiled in the League’s brand of racist organizing and demonstrating after attending an April 2017 rally in Pikeville, Kentucky, organized by Matthew Heimbach and the now-defunct Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP).

After the LOS annual rally in June, Isaacs posted a note to Facebook titled “A Band of Brothers,” that Michael Hill later shared on the LOS website. In the post, Isaacs described the shift in his view of himself as a “modern day Cincinnatus, living the rest of my allotted time on this earthly plane as a man of the land,” and praised Hill’s “moving call to fight for the survival of our people.”

Isaacs’ “Ike Baker” Facebook profile indicates an affinity for Nazi SS propaganda, including encouraging older LOS members to adopt a specific patch used by German Nazis to show affiliation with the early National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

“Gentlemen, this is the Alte Kämpfer chevron. I'll be affixing this to the upper right sleeve of my SDF uniform. Other Old Fighters interested, contact me at your convenience.”

As the right organized around the 2017 Unite the Right rally in earnest, Hill posted in the LOS Facebook group that he wanted “no fewer than 150 League warriors, dressed and ready for action, in Charlottesville, Virginia, on 12 August.”

Isaacs responded by issuing directives on the LOS uniform dress code. He actively encouraged membership to attend the event and advised them on tactics and equipment in expectation of conflict.

Isaacs was visible with the League barking orders during the first Unite the Right rally, and at events in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and Newnan, Georgia.

Identified on the Kentucky League of the South’s website as the chairman of the Kentucky LOS, Spencer Borum outranks Isaacs despite being only 31 years old.

Membership in the Kentucky LOS is low according to Borum, who claims the chapter has just 11 dues-paying members. Borum recently attempted to expand his outreach by partnering with hosts at The Right Stuff Confederates’ spinoff website Identity Dixie to host a podcast titled “Radio Free Dixie.” (He was seemingly unaware of the similarly titled radio show hosted by North Carolina NAACP president Robert F. Williams while exiled in Cuba during the Civil Rights Movement.)

The show’s host called himself “Barnwell Rhett,” — a reference to the Southern Fire-Eater — but several guests on the show addressed him as “Spencer.” “Barnwell Rhett” also said he was a Florida native living in Kentucky, biographical details that match available records for Spencer Borum.

Borum appears to have stopped hosting the show after Hatewatch contacted the representatives of various musicians whose work Borum featured on the show without permission.

In one episode of “Radio Free Dixie,” cohosting with the pseudonymous Charlie Stewart —who hosts another Identity Dixie podcast, “Thistle and Briar” — Borum and Stewart identify themselves as veterans and outline the equipment (such as firearms, camouflage, armor) and training alt-right activists will need in the event of a civil conflict in the United States.

Borum was filmed singling out a woman and repeatedly striking her in the head during the Unite the Right rally.

A former reality TV star, Vincent Buckles apparently became involved with the League after his time on the History Channel’s “Sons of Guns.” Buckles, originally a Detroit, Michigan native, lives in Gonzales, Louisiana and runs Mesa Kinetics Research, LLC, a high-end firearms manufacturing company.

Buckles seems to have taken over the role of handling intelligence and logistics for LOS from John Mark “Tiny” Malone, who appears to have left the organization after Hatewatch documented his participation in the group’s 2017 national conference.

R.G. Miller, 26, is the chairman of the Arkansas LOS, a role he took on in 2015. Since then, Miller has been active in promoting LOS both in Harrison, (sometimes called the “most racist town in America” because of its high number of white supremacist groups), and at League functions in other states.

Miller was part of a small cohort of younger LOS members who broke from the 2016 LOS conference in Wetumpka, Alabama, to attend a nearby Montgomery, Alabama gay pride rally, where they hurled epithets like “God hates f---.”

More recently, Miller and the Arkansas LOS hosted a state conference that resulted in a verbal confrontation with a black library employee. Miller has been a frequent speaker at several LOS functions, including the 2017 National Conference, and attended the “Battle of New Orleans” along with other LOS members in May of that year. Miller was filmed striking protesters with a flag pole at the Unite the Right rally.

Mike Whorton, chairman of the Alabama LOS, has been involved with the group nearly since its inception. Hailing from Wetumpka, Alabama, Whorton runs a successful real estate business and is responsible for brokering the sale of the property for the League’s “Cultural Center,” off of Highway 231.

Tax records indicate Whorton controls the property where the LOS building resides, a topic that has generated some friction in the group, which still hosts fundraisers to pay off the property.

Harold Ray Crews, 48, runs a family law practice out of Kernersville, North Carolina, and lives in nearby Walkertown, where the North Carolina LOS lists its P.O. box. Chairman of the North Carolina LOS, Crews also operates the League’s Facebook, website and a podcast titled “Southern Nationalist Radio,” where he frequently interviews Michael Hill, Mark Thomey of the Alabama LOS and Brad Griffin, an LOS member who operates the blog Occidental Dissent.

Crews also runs a YouTube channel where he lists affiliation with both LOS and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that has lately been maligned by LOS members as a “’weak sister’ who cannot stand to be called a racist, antisemite, xenophobe, white supremacist.”

Crews’ videos make it apparent that he is responsible for filming the League’s national conference, including the 2017 event where Michael Hill shared the stage with notorious ex-Klansman David Duke.

Crews was present with the League during the Unite the Right rally and was involved in a scuffle with Corey Long that preceded the beating of DeAndre Harris. Harris struck Crews in the head with a flashlight, and after the incident Crews was called out by other members of the racist right and encouraged to press charges against Harris. Harris was ultimately acquitted.

Dennis Durham, 40, lists himself as the chairman of the Virginia LOS. Although that state chapter has not been very active since cohosting a 2015 party with the Maryland state chapter to celebrate the sesquicentennial of John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of President Lincoln, Durham has been seen lately with Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Unite the Right rally. Kessler and Durham, along with other LOS affiliates, campaigned with Corey Stewart, a former Virginia gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate who staked a hard stance in favor of the preservation of Virginia’s Confederate monuments.

A retired military nurse and resident of Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, Pat Hines appears to have stepped into the role of South Carolina LOS chairman after Michael Cushman abandoned the role in 2015 over fears LOS was becoming too radical in its defense of the Confederate battle flag after Dylann Roof’s massacre in Charleston.

Hines, on the other hand, was more than willing to defend the symbol, telling CNN, “without slavery, all the black people in the United States wouldn’t be here,” and referring to the removal of Confederate monuments as “cultural genocide on the Southern people.”

The South Carolina LOS has been notably inactive under Hines’ leadership. In spite of the recent furor in the state over then-Governor Nikki Haley’s decision to remove the flag from the Capitol grounds, Hines seems to have had very little interest in rallying to save the banner beyond his televised appearances in 2015.

Hines was not present with other LOS members at Richard Spencer’s speech in Auburn, Alabama, or in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the Battle of New Orleans, nor was he present at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. Hines is still active on blogs and forums frequented by group members.

Brian McCoy took over the role of chairman of the Georgia LOS after former chairman Tommy Davis departed the League when Hatewatch reported on his involvement with the movement. Davis attended the Unite the Right rally and was filmed wearing a PASGT helmet and red tinted ski goggles to hide his identity. He was present with the contingent of LOS members who beat DeAndre Harris in a Charlottesville municipal parking garage during the event and is visible on footage macing Harris just prior to the attack. Davis took the reins of the Georgia LOS in 2015 after William Flowers defected from the LOS to join Matthew Heimbach’s TWP.

McCoy, who lives in Powder Springs, Georgia, runs McCoy Woodworking.

McCoy does not appear to have taken a lead in organizing the League’s role in the National Socialist Movement’s rally in Newnan, Georgia, earlier this year.

Chairman of the Texas LOS, 22-year-old Luke Daggett lives in Pointblank, Texas. Daggett was appointed to his position by Hill in 2017. He does not appear to have attended many LOS events, although he was present with William Fears at a Richard Spencer speech at Texas A&M’s campus in December 2016. Fears was arrested in October 2017 after he and his brother and a friend were involved in a shooting at another Richard Spencer event in Gainesville at the University of Florida.

Editor's note: This article has been updated for accuracy.