Montana Human Rights Network
September 2019. Montana Human Rights Network staff and volunteers attend the Western States Center Activists Mobilizing for Power.
July 2019. Immigration Light for Liberty Vigil Helena. Over 100 people in Helena gathered in solidarity with those across the state and national calling for an end to the inhuman immigration detention and deportation machine.
Photo by Bozeman Daily Chronicle: May 2017. More than 100 people gathered in Downtown Bozeman to condemn antisemitic material that had been circulated in the community and show support for the local Jewish community.
Throughout the 1970s - 1990s, the northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States was a target for white nationalists who were looking to base an Aryan homeland in the area. Before the turn of the century, Montana was around 93% white.
By the early 1990s, white nationalism was disturbing numerous Montana communities. For example, members of the Aryan Nations were crossing the Idaho border and settling in small northwestern Montana towns. Neo-Nazi skinheads were terrorizing the Jewish community in Billings. A national group supporting the Pace Amendment to the U.S Constitution (which would have restricted rights to only White people) announced it would potentially relocate its headquarters to Helena.
In 1990, representatives from local groups that had organized to push back against white nationalism came together to review which efforts were working, which weren’t, what resources existed, and what was missing. They decided there needed to be a group at the state level with professional staff to help communities understand and counter white nationalism and other Far Right threats. Thus, the Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN) was formed.
The 1990s and early 2000s was an era when a chapter of the Church of the Creator (now known as The Creativity Movement) was very active in western Montana and was even considering moving their headquarters to Helena. Two high-ranking “Creators” lived in the area – Reverend Dan Hassett of Missoula and Slim Deardorff of Superior. Dan Hassett was notorious for leaving the group’s racist and antisemitic materials on people’s lawns and driveways throughout western Montana (a tactic called “lit drops”), while Deardorff’s residence in rural Superior served as a prime meeting location for the group.
A community turning point took place in the summer of 1999. In July of that year, Creator Benjamin Smith went on a shooting spree in the Midwest, killing two people and injuring nine others. Knowing that the Creator’s annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was set for September in Superior, MT, residents knew they needed to respond.
The Superior Ministerial Association contacted MHRN to help them plan a community response. Counter protests had been done before; however, the Creators were often armed. After the Benjamin Smith shootings earlier in the summer, locals didn’t want to be in that situation again. The collaboration decided to coordinate an event preceding the Rendezvous: a timeframe that would provide members of the Superior community a way to make a statement against The Creativity Movement’s beliefs and use of their town without counter protesting during the Rendezvous itself.
This event, called “The Day of Harmony,” drew about 60 people from the small rural town and featured workshops facilitated by MHRN staff. One of the workshops discussed The Creativity Movement and its activists in Montana, while another advised participants on how to organize community responses to Far-Right activity. Happy Watkins, a Baptist preacher from Spokane, WA, wrapped up The Day of Harmony with a recitation of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and a performance by his choir.
A few weeks after The Day of Harmony, Missoula, MT held its own event to denounce The Creativity Movement. On the eve of the Rendezvous, MHRN and its local affiliate, the Missoula Advocates for Social Justice, held a block party on the street where Dan Hassett lived. It was advertised as a proactive and positive celebration of what the community truly represented, while also denouncing The Creativity Movement and holding Dan Hassett specifically accountable for his actions against the community.
These two events allowed Superior and Missoula to show that the Creators didn’t represent their community values. The Day of Harmony and the block party were distinct in tone and tactic; they demonstrated that efforts to counter white nationalism need to fit the needs of individual communities.
Recognizing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Montana
In 1991, the primary objective for MHRN’s first state legislative agenda was getting Montana to make the Martin Luther King Holiday a state holiday. MHRN helped coordinate support for the proposed bill during legislative committee hearings, coordinating testimony from labor, education, civic organizations, and Indigenous groups.
To raise the profile of the bill with the public, MHRN held a rally at the state Capitol featuring a gospel choir from Great Falls and Native American singers from Browning. MHRN made it clear there was broad-based public support for declaring the Holiday, and the bill was passed into law with overwhelming bipartisan support. According to MHRN staff, Montana was the second to last state in the country to recognize Doctor King Day as a holiday over 30 years ago.
Community Partnerships and Additional Resources
MHRN partnered with Holter Museum of Art to create the Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate art exhibit. Artists used the books of The Creativity Movement to create pieces that warned of the dangers posed by white nationalism, antisemitism, and other forms of hate and bigotry. You can read more about the art project’s story, and partners mentioned above, in an MHRN’s report found here.
In 2016-2017, MHRN, its local affiliate Love Lives Here, and various partners in the Whitefish community rallied to support people targeted by a national Neo-Nazi and his supporters. The response has since been labeled as a gold standard approach to pushing back against, and ultimately defeating, white nationalist attacks.
Not In Our Town is a movement based on a model started in Billings, MT, which is dedicated to disrupting hate, addressing bullying, and building safe and inclusive communities for all.
To connect with the Montana Human Rights Network, follow them on Facebook, or email them at network@mhrn.org
References:
About. The Holter. (2022, March 30). Retrieved April 2022, from https://holtermuseum.org/about
About Us. Not in Our Town. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.niot.org/about-us
Beckett, L. (2017, February 5). How Richard Spencer's hometown weathered a neo-Nazi ‘troll storm.’ The Guardian. Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/05/richard-spencer-whitefish-neo-nazi-march
KRTV. (2020, January 19). Face the state: Martin Luther King Day in Montana. KRTV. Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.krtv.com/news/state/montana-and-regional-news/face-the-state-martin-luther-king-day-in-montana
Merriam, G. (1999, August 29). Block party in Missoula will make local statement. Missoulian. Retrieved April 2022, from https://missoulian.com/block-party-in-missoula-will-make-local-statement/article_11ee15cf-333c-5233-9918-2e0c59380a39.html
Merriam, G. (1999, August 29). Town comes together before World Church meeting. Missoulian. Retrieved April 2022, from https://missoulian.com/town-comes-together-before-world-church-meeting/article_9f31d1bc-0629-51c7-87fd-e6aea95c908e.html
Miller, E. (2019, February 6). Lobbying 101: MLK Lobby Day at the Capitol. Forward Montana. Retrieved April 2022, from https://forwardmontana.org/1177-2/
Montana Human Rights Network. (2003, March 10). Ben Klassen’s Church of the Creator.
Peterson, A. H. (2017, February 12). Love lives in Whitefish, Montana, but so do Neo-Nazis. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved April 2022, from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/love-lives-in-whitefish-but-so-do-neo-nazis
Smith, B.N. (1999, July 5). Midwest shooting spree ends with apparent suicide of suspect. CNN. Retrieved April 2022, from http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/05/illinois.shootings.02/
Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate. Montana Human Rights Network. (2021). Retrieved April 2022, from https://mhresearchnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MHRN-2021-Annual-Report.pdf
Supremacist group weighs move to Montana. Missoulian. (2000, August 21). Retrieved April 2022, from https://missoulian.com/supremacist-group-weighs-move-to-montana/article_36c9174f-8238-5728-b448-82b6d487b1c2.html
Table 41. Montana - Race and Hispanic origin: 1870 to 1990. Montana Historical Society. (2002, September 13). Retrieved April 2022, from https://mhs.mt.gov/Shpo/AfricanAmericans/AfAm_docs/CensusData/MontanaRace_HispanicOrigin1870_1990.pdf