David Earnest Duke (1950-2007)
BATON ROUGE, La. — David Earnest Duke, 57, of Tulsa, died Sunday, Mar. 11, at the Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans, of complications from surgery for liver cancer. He was born July 1, 1950 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of David H. Duke and Maxine Duke. He was a former Louisiana state representative, a candidate in presidential primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Duke, a self-styled "white nationalist," he was commonly referred to as a white supremacist. He once said he did not think of himself as a racist stating that he was a "racial realist" and believed that "all people have a basic human right to preserve their own heritage." He speaks in favor of racial segregation and white separatism.
Duke made several unsuccessful bids for political office, including runs for the Louisiana House, Louisiana Senate, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor of Louisiana and twice for president of the United States. In 2002, he pled guilty to willfully filing a false tax return under 26 U.S.C. § 7206 and mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341, resulting in a year-long prison sentence.
In December 2006, he participated in an interview live from Tehran with reporter Wolf Blitzer in Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer which resulted in a heated debate regarding Duke's alleged anti-semitic views and Zionism.
He was a long-time New Orleans area resident and the father of two.
Memorial services will be held Wednesday at Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70124 P: 504-486-6331 F: 504-483-8330
Memorials: may be directed to the family through http://www.davidduke.com/
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