Chalmette Car Crash Exposes Hate Literature

Books Sold Behind Facade Of Former Home Improvement Store

Associated Press/July 31, 2003

Chalmette, La. -- A man who lost control of his car slammed into a Chalmette building owned by a white supremacist group that apparently distributes hate literature behind the facade of a former home improvement store.

Anti-Jewish and anti-black paperback books were strewn about the floor of the building after the car crashed into the structure. Francis Dardis, the car's driver, suffered minor abrasions and was treated at Chalmette Medical Center. No one inside the building was hurt.

The property is owned by the New Christian Crusade Church and is the headquarters of the Christian Defense League, two white-supremacist groups operated by James Warner, of Chalmette.

Although the building bears a sign saying Southern Home Improvement Center, Warner said it's used as an administrative building where New Christian Crusade Church meetings are held.

When asked about the literature, Warner told a reporter from The Times-Picayune to "Go back to Israel where you belong. What we sell is our business."

Warner has been a leading figure in underground hate circles since making a name for himself in the early 1960s as a founding member of the American Nazi Party. The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League said Warner served as an officer in the Ku Klux Klan with longtime ally David Duke.