Neo-Nazi Turned Activist To Speak In Holocaust Museum Series

DALLAS, TX – A white supremacist-turned-advocate will speak at the Dallas Holocaust Museum and Center for Education and Tolerance's Upstanding Speaker Series event on Thursday, May 3.

Christian Picciolini joined a Chicago-area white supremacist gang at 14-years-old. By 16, he had become the group’s leader and had joined a hate rock band.

Renouncing his ties to the American neo-Nazi movement at age 22, Picciolini has devoted his life to rescuing those still entrapped by it.

Picciolini tells his story as a cautionary tale for youth who might otherwise get involved with racist organizations. In 2010, he co-founded "Life After Hate," a peace advocacy and counter-extremism group that studies the pathways into and out of extremism, visits schools, community groups, and NGOs to counter extremism; and reaches out to radicalized individuals to help them disengage from extremist movements.

While he is no longer affiliated with Life After Hate, Picciolini's work toward ending racism continues on.

“We are so grateful to have an Upstander like Christian Picciolini tell his powerful story of redemption at our next Upstander Speaker Event,” said Mary Pat Higgins, president and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust Museum. “Oftentimes we only get the story from the outside looking in, but Christian’s presentation will give us the opportunity to explore the depths of racism from the lens of someone who spent years within the movement and as one of its most ardent supporters. Our hope is that Christian’s testimony will inform and touch the community in a lasting, impactful way so that future generations do not make the same mistakes that generations before them have made.”

Picciolini will share his personal story in the white supremacist movement, and will speak on extremism and his experiences of racism in America, including the growth of the alt-right movement and the neo-Nazi rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, 2017.

He will speak to the causes and consequences of these movements and how everyday Americans can work to counter hate in the United States and abroad.

In 2017, Picciolini released a memoir titled "White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement and How I Got Out" (Hachette Books), and in 2016, he won a Regional Emmy Award for Exit USA’s “There is life after hate” campaign, for which he served as director and executive producer. Picciolini has been featured as a contributor on numerous media programs, including CNN and CBS Evening News.

The event will be hosted at Communities Foundation of Texas on Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 7 p.m. RSVP is required through Eventbrite. Following the event, Picciolini will be available to sign copies of his book White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out.

The Dallas Morning News is the Presenting Sponsor. The event will be hosted at Communities Foundation of Texas at 5500 Caruth Haven Lane in Dallas.

The event is sponsored by Northern Trust, Liz and Tom Halsey, and Condon Tobin Sladek Thorton, PLLC.

Image via Dallas Holocaust Museum and Center for Education and Tolerance, used with permission