Former white supremacist Frank Meeink to speak against hate Tuesday in Palm Beach
A former neo-Nazi gang member who was arrested as a teenager for kidnapping one man and severely beating another will speak at The Colony Hotel on Tuesday as part of the Palm Beach Torah Institute's lecture series.
Frank Meeink, who was one of the most well-known skinhead gang members in the country in the early 1990s before leaving the movement, will speak about his experiences as a white supremacist and how he is tirelessly working to counter hate.
"I want to cover our own little biases and racism that we all have," said Meeink, 48, who was born and raised in Philadelphia and now lives in Southern California. "We all have them in a way. The second part is change. I'll talk about my change. I get really deep about things."
Meeink, whose book, "Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead," details his descent into white supremacy and his transformation into a spokesperson against hatred, was introduced to skinhead gangs when he was in middle school.
Until then, Meeink said, he was a timid kid who feared his drug-addicted mother, abusive stepfather, violent neighborhood and rough classmates. But after hanging out with a group of neo-Nazis during a summer in Lancaster, Pa., he realized he wanted to be the one people feared. He shaved his head, got a swastika tattoo on his neck, and participated in indiscriminate beatings of people he didn't like.
"When I would go out with these guys and go to these concerts and things the guys would do, everyone feared them," he said. "I loved that. I saw people look at us with fear in their eyes. I thought that was pretty awesome. Deep down inside, even though I was a 14-year-old athletic kid, a tough kid, I feared everything. When these guys started talking to me and asked me if I would shave my head, I shaved my head. I was in. I just grabbed on to it."
While still in his teens, Meeink hosted his own public access talk show called "The Reich" in Springfield, Ill., appeared on TV shows and other media programs as a spokesman for neo-Nazi topics, and recruited members in his South Philadelphia hometown to join his skinhead gang.
At 18, he was arrested and convicted of kidnapping an anti-racist activist and beating a member of a rival skinhead gang. "I was a huge troublemaker in the town of Springfield, Illinois, which was the home of Abraham Lincoln," Meeink said. "It's one of the founding spots of the NAACP, and here's this neo-Nazi group with me, and we had the kidnapping case."
During his more than two years in prison, however, he befriended men of other races and he slowly began questioning his capacity to hate. Still, he didn't pull away from the neo-Nazi movement after he was released.
"I was still fully affiliated with these people when I went back to Philly," he said. "I had a ton of clout. I had a ton of pull. It was my life. I was all wrapped up in it, but I was starting to have some different feelings. I realized that Black people spent longer in prison for minor crimes, and I spent far less time for kidnapping."
While Meeink was moving away from racism, however, he was embracing antisemitism. "I gave up railing against Blacks, and I was railing against Jews," he said. "I was really good at it."
It wasn't until he began working for a Jewish man who owned a New Jersey-based furniture business that he realized how hateful and hurtful his behavior was. The man, Meeink said, treated him with respect and kindness and looked beyond his difficult past.
"He was just an amazing man, a gem of a human being," Meeink said. "We would just drive around and talk."
During those conversations, Meeink said he realized the color of his skin made him no better than anyone else. "I felt like I was banging my head against the wall continuing to believe my beliefs," he said. "What was I doing?"
After years of espousing hate, Meeink began speaking out against it. Today, the father of four travels around the country lecturing about the dangers of racism and hatred and the importance of seeking change.
He also remains devoted to Judaism. Meeink, who is sober after years of substance abuse, discovered he was Jewish seven years ago, and he now practices his faith daily.
"I want to serve God and practice my Judaism," he said. "It's my cornerstone, and it's part of my recovery. I'm very active, and I'm very much practicing. I keep kosher. I keep Shabbat. I do my mitzvahs to keep God at the forefront of my mind every day. My life has changed so dramatically. I'm relying on God to run my world and let me show up to be of service."
Meeink's lecture Tuesday at The Colony, 155 Hammon Ave., begins at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $40 per person or $180 for sponsorship-level admission. Registration is open at palmbeachjewish.com/lecture. For information, contact Rabbi Mendy Schochet of the Palm Beach Torah Institute at 561-290-2329 or mendy@palmbeachjewish.com.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Former white supremacist to speak against hatred Tuesday in Palm Beach
