MSNBC - A Racist On the Rise After a post-9/11 slump, hate groups see a surge May 10 issue - September 11 wasn't kind to the white-power movement. After the terrorist attacks, several of the nation's largest hate groups lost members and money, and some all but collapsed after bitter internal power struggles. At the same time, many of the movement's high-profile leaders left the scene: Former Klansman David Duke went to prison for tax evasion and mail fraud. William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, the country's largest white nationalist organization, died of cancer. World Church of the Creator head Matthew Hale was arrested in 2002 for plotting to kill a federal judge; he was convicted last week and now faces up to 50 years behind bars. But in recent months a new leader has given the movement a burst of momentum. Billy Roper, a 32-year-old former schoolteacher from Arkansas, has spent months quietly reaching out to disenfranchised racists and neo-Nazis across the country, uniting them under his new group, White Revolution. "Billy Roper is clearly a rising star among hard-core racists," says Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League.