“The goal of the task force is to create a community where we’re ‘hate proof.’ Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to do away with the Aryan Nations and the Richard Butlers and the people who send out anti-Semitic literature but it does mean creating a community that is so community-oriented, so compassionate that when these people do speak out, as they have a right to do, it becomes discordant.”
Gretchen Hellar, President of the Task Force, interviewed by Katrine Barber in 1999.
The most notorious Californian to move to Sandpoint in the last few years has been former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, made famous by his testimony in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson. While Fuhrman’s arrival brought the intense gaze of the national media to town, Sandpoint had been struggling with a growing reputation as a haven for racists prior to Fuhrman’s arrival. Richard Butler’s Aryan Nation just 35 miles south of town and the siege of Ruby Ridge 25 miles north of town seemed to confirm that minorities were not welcome in north Idaho.
The overt racism that surround them prompted many residents to actively work toward a community that embraced diversity. In 1992 Sandpoint residents founded the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force to help in this effort. Based in a predominantly white county, the task force has invited speakers and artists to the area’s schools, sponsored public forums on such issues as community compassion, instituted a hotline for people who witness or are victims of harassment, and designed contests, such as the one that generated the greeting card above.
Clergy response to anti-Semitic literature
Oral History of Brenda Hammond, former president of the task force
