Currently-serving military members, elected officials, and a national security expert claiming to have Department of Defense security clearance are among the members of the neo-Confederate group Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), leaked data shows.
The Guardian, which broke the news of the leak, says the membership data was provided to it by a “hacktivist” whose identity the outlet is shielding, and the information includes the names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of almost 59,000 past and present members of the organization. The anonymous hacker said they noticed the website was misconfigured in a way that made membership lists, recruiting data and other information public.
The data includes 91 individuals who listed addresses associated with government agencies as their contact email and 74 people who used addresses associated with different branches of the U.S. military.
According to The Guardian, active members of the group were included in those who listed addresses associated with government agencies and members of the military. Atlanta Antifa, previously reported on the data and said Georgia lawmakers were listed as current members of the group.
SCV, a group for male bloodline descendants of Confederate veterans, is headquartered in Tennessee. According to the website, the organization is “strictly patriotic, historical, educational, fraternal, benevolent, non-political, non-racial and non-sectarian,” and “neither embraces, nor espouses acts or ideologies of racial and religious bigotry.” Members of the group have advocated to keep Confederate monuments from being taken down.
Among the high-profile members of the group include Scott Wyatt, who from the 97th district in Virginia’s House of Delegates, which represents counties north of the former Confederate capitol of Richmond.
Duane AJ Probst, coroner of a Missouri County and former lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, is also a member of the group. He told The Guardian he joined the organization four of five years ago after finding out a relative had fought in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier and that the group is “a friendly organization that doesn’t advocate white supremacy.”
Texas A&M University professor and training consultant to the U.S. army reserve Danny Davis is also a member of the group. In a public CV, Davis touted his “Department of Defense Secret Security Clearance” and referenced his 20-year military career.
He told The Guardian he has “three great-grandfathers” who were Confederate soldiers, and expressed disapproval over the removal of Confederate statues. Davis said the men in the war were fighting for what they believed in, which he noted included slavery but said the outcome of the Civil War was correct.
“I am not a white supremacist,” Davis said, adding that be believes most of the individuals in the group are just people who like history.
Some members of the group are also associated with other more explicitly racist organizations. For example, active member and North Carolina lawyer Harold Crews marched with the League of the South (LoS) at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. At least one other man from North Carolina and another Virginian are also active members who marched at the rally with the LoS.
Inactive member Chester Doles is a former Klansman and member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance who marched at the rally with a white power gang.
Probst said about the potential for extremists in the group, “It doesn’t surprise me. There are militant members of every organization.”
