Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS / LENNY IGNELZI
Above: The main gate of Camp Pendleton Marine Base is shown in this undated photo.
In the 1970s, one of America’s oldest hate groups was operating openly on Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego’s North County.
A new podcast, “Free the Pendleton 14” independently produced by KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh, revisits what unfolded one night in 1976 when a group of black Marines nearly clashed with white Marine Klansmen. The black Marines were attempting to break into a Klan meeting. But they ended up in the wrong room. The KKK was actually meeting one door away.
Since then, the military has adopted rules against the participation in white supremacist or extremist organizations. But there are still ongoing concerns about the involvement of current or former service members in white supremacist groups.
Walsh shares more about this little-known part of local military…
