Leith Residents Want White Supremacist Out
Residents “want him out,” but a white supremacist says he plans to stay in this tiny North Dakota town where he bought up property with the vision of creating a white nationalist community.
In an interview Friday, Craig Paul Cobb said he was fired from his road construction job but doesn’t plan to leave Leith, about 70 miles southwest of Bismarck.
“I plan on staying and that (losing his job) freed me up to get more propaganda and bring more people to Leith,” he said. “I would love to see the White Nationalists flag flying in town.”
Leith Mayor Ryan Schock and many residents became aware of Cobb’s plans Aug. 15, after a reporter from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization, came to town to look into Cobb’s alleged secret attempt to turn the town into a Pioneer Little Europe, an enclave of white supremacists. Cobb had bought a dozen properties since 2011 and was trying to subtly advertise them on the Internet and draw in like-minded people.
“Everybody has the right to live anywhere they want in the U.S., but when people come together to live together in a community, they should be working for the common good instead of the hate,” said Sherrill Harper, the wife of Bobby Harper, the only African-American in Leith. “If we are going to do something about it, then we will have to work together.”