SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY Former white supremacist to discuss hate groups

Martinez was once an official knight in the KKK.
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Tom Martinez, an FBI undercover informant who helped bring down the radical white supremacist movement known as The Order, will lecture at Slippery Rock University on Wednesday.
Martinez will tell his story and warn others of the dangers such groups offer in a visit sponsored by the University Program Board.
The free lecture, called "The Brotherhood of Hate," is open to the public and will be at 8 p.m. in the University Union.
A book signing of Martinez's "Brotherhood of Murder," which has been turned into a Showtime film with William Baldwin, Peter Gallagher and Kelly Lynch, will follow the talk.
Background
Martinez grew up in segregated Philadelphia in the 1960s and was influenced in junior high by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that basically ended segregation of the nation's public schools.
The lecturer says he was drawn to hate groups and the idea of white supremacy because of a sense of disenfranchisement that affected many of his contemporaries during the turbulent 1960's.
He says in junior high, race became an explosive and defining issue in his life.
By 21, Martinez was disillusioned and became seduced by the eloquence of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. He says he was attracted to the rhetoric of hate that denounced school busing, affirmative action and the civil rights movement.
Changing his ways
He said he found a mission and purpose in the battle, and became an official knight in the KKK. By his late 20s, however, his interest began to wane in such hate groups.
In 1984, seeking to right his wrongs, Martinez became an FBI informant and ally against white supremacists and neo-Nazi and anti-government groups.
He infiltrated an organization known as The Order, then one of the most violent racist organizations in this country. The group committed crimes in counterfeiting, armed robbery, bombings and murder, Martinez explained.
The information he provided the FBI helped bring down the group.
He believes his life remains in jeopardy, but he is willing to forgo cover of the federal witness protection program in favor of having his story told as a warning to the dangers of such extremist groups.