Jewish Press of Tampa

Ex-skinhead to deliver message of tolerance





Frank Meeink

Frank Meeink

A former skinhead will speak out against hate during a program at Eckerd College on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.

The speech, by Frank Meeink, author of Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, is part of the Florida Holocaust Museum’s Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Movement. It had been scheduled earlier but postponed due to Hurricane Irma.

Meeink was a skinhead at age 13. By age 17 he had his own cable-access TV show, The Reich, and was roaming the country as a skinhead leader and Neo- Nazi recruiter, with gangs that would beat people indiscriminately. At age 18, he was arrested and convicted of kidnapping and beating a member of a rival skinhead gang.

While in prison he befriended men he used to think he hated – men of different races. After being released from prison, Meeink tried to rejoin his old skinhead pals but couldn’t bring himself to hate those whom he had come to know as friends.

Now a noted speaker, author, and founder of Harmony Through Hockey, Meeink’s life stands for tolerance, diversity, and mutual understanding in racial, political, and all other aspects of society.

His speech is free and open to the public. RSVP by calling the Florida Holocaust Museum at (727) 820-0100, ext. 301.

The Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Movement is an annual initiative of the museum. Its goal is to build public awareness about the current genocide in Darfur and past genocides including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide as well as other human rights violations.


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