He used to teach hate. Now he preaches peace.
Frank Meeink was a notoriously violent white supremacist recruiter from Philadelphia, a leader in neo-Nazi skinhead groups, until he went to prison at age 17 for a kidnapping and beating in the early 1990s.
In prison, he played football and formed friendships with Hispanic and African-American men. Afterward, Meeink became friends with a Jewish antiques dealer who employed him and a Jewish dermatologist who removed a swastika tattoo from Meeink's neck.
Meeink resolved to give up the hate. For more than a decade, he has spoken to student groups across the country with the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism, bigotry and discrimination.
Meeink, now 35 and a resident of the Des Moines area, is scheduled to make four appearances in Omaha this week.
He is to speak, answer questions and sign copies of his new book, “Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Bookworm bookstore, 8702 Pacific St.
He also will speak at two high schools and to another audience of youths. Alan Potash, regional director in Omaha of the ADL, asked that those locations not be made public beforehand out of concern that white supremacists might try to disrupt them.
In a telephone interview Monday, Meeink said he is thinking about moving his family because his residence has become known and he has received death threats. Also, he lost his day job, at least temporarily, when the American Hockey League suspended the operations of the Iowa Chops hockey team. Meeink was the club's fan development director.
Meeink's book recounts, in what reviewers have described as moving detail, his descent into a life of hate, violent crime and addiction, and his struggle to recover and make amends.
At age 13, in the midst of a horrible childhood, Meeink was recruited into a neo-Nazi skinhead gang by a cousin. He participated in numerous beatings of gays, people of color and whites whom he considered opponents of the white supremacist movement.
Meeink served a year in prison for aggravated unlawful restraint. He was part of a gang that kidnapped a young man and beat him severely on Christmas Day 1992, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In the interview Monday, Meeink said he studied the Bible with an African-American man named Abel who knew Meeink was a white supremacist but didn't let that get in the way.
After prison, Meeink said, he found that the hate had faded. A Jewish man hired him to sell antiques at a weeklong antiques show.
“At the end of the week, he was supposed to pay me $300,” Meeink said. “He paid me the $300 and gave me $100 extra. He said he had a good week, and I had done a good job. ... I thought ‘You son of a gun. You're ruining the last of my stereotypes.'”
The man gave Meeink a full-time job. They became friends.
Meeink went on to partner with the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers to start a race relations program called Harmony Through Hockey, in which children of different races play hockey together. Meeink ran a similar program in Des Moines.
Meeink said he tells young audiences this: What goes around, comes around.
“When I was putting out negative thoughts and violence, it always came back to me,” he said. “Now that I'm putting out positive thoughts and peace, that's coming back to me.”
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
