David Ernest Duke born July 1 1950 is a former Louisiana State Representative and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan He has made a number of unsuccessful political bids for higher office including run for the Louisiana State House Louisiana State Senate United States Senate United States House governor of Louisiana and twice for president of the United States In 2002 he pled guilty to tax evasion and fraud charges He is a long time New Orleans resident and the proud father of Erika and Kristin Duke Youth Early Adulthood the Klan and first campaigns David Duke was born in Tulsa Oklahoma to David H Maxine Duke As a Shell Oil engineer his fathers frequently moved his wife David and his sister Dotti to numerious locations around the world The Duke s spent a short period of living in the Netherlands before they settled in Louisiana Young David became interested in the white nationalist movement at an early age and joined the Klan in 1967 Duke went on to study at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and in 1970 he formed a caucasian campus group known as the White Youth Alliance That same year he made himself known even more by demonstrating in swastika regalia to protest William Kunstler s appearance at Tulane University LA He was involved in the campus ROTC until he was kicked out due to his radical beliefs In 1971 he went to Laos to teach English to Laotian military officers and serve on cargo flights for Air America over the course of ten weeks Duke returned to LSU graduating in 1974 He became notorious on campus for wearing a Nazi uniform Ku Klux Klan apparel and swastika paraphernalia while picketing and holding parties on the anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler The year of his graduation he was elected Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan He attracted attention for trying to modernize the Klan and turn it into a modern nationalist political force For example he changed the title of Grand Wizard to National Director and sported a conservative suit as opposed to the traditional white robe In 1976 Duke sought a seat in the Louisiana State Senate as a Democrat In 1978 he left the Klan and two years later formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People NAAWP In 1987 he conducted a direct mail appeal using the identity and mailing list of the Forsyth County Defense League in Georgia without permission which League officials described as a fund raising scam detailed in The Rise of David Duke by Tyler Bridges In 1988 he ran in the Democratic Party primary for President of the United States After a dismal showing in the Democratic primaries he appeared on many state ballots as the nominee of the Populist Party and received approximately 25 000 votes in the 1988 general election Using the pseudonym Dorothy Vanderbilt Dr Duke published a self help book for women titled Finders Keepers in 1976 The publication gives advice to women regarding vaginal exercises fellatio anal sex and anilingus The manual is no longer in print and hard to find however The Picayune a local Mississippi newspaper managed to find a copy and trace the trail of it s proceeds to the original author via the publisher In the 1980s he was heavily involved in gambling and stock market investments which were covered by the Times Picayune as well as by others Columbia Journalism Review THE PICAYUNE CATCHES UP WITH DAVID DUKE Attitudes of Mississippi college students toward David Duke before and after seeing the film Who Is David Duke The Nation Republicanizing the Race Card In the latter years of the 1980s Duke sought to revamp his appearance by undergoing plastic surgery and also shaved off his moustache following his election to the Louisiana House of Representatives In 1984 David Duke and wife Chloe Hardin were divorced Hardin then moved to West Palm Beach Florida to be closer to her family There she became involved with Duke s childhood friend Don Black whom she married several years later