“Nobody cares for it. We went through this once. And they are a minority,” Ulysses Public Library librarian Sheri Graves said on Tuesday.

Graves is referring to a nightmare that many in Potter County hoped would never crop up again –– a movement of white supremacy.

But that’s now the case as the Aryan Strikeforce and Nationalist Socialist Movement are planning a “White Solidarity Meeting” at 4 p.m. Saturday at an undisclosed location in the county, and then both groups will continue to meet and/or hold events in Potter County over the coming months.

Graves said she remembers former Aryan Nations member August Kreis,and she considers this situation pretty much the same.

Kreis, who owned land in Potter County and advocated the mass murder of Jews, non-whites and race traitors, was jailed for 50 years in 2015 after being found guilty of one count of criminal sexual conduct involving a child and two counts of committing lewd acts on a child. In the early 2000s, he helped spread white supremacy in Potter County.

Also, Ulysses had been the site of the Aryan World Congress, which included skinheads, Klansmen, neo-Nazis and white power bands.
Graves called the white supremacists “a bunch of skinheads.”

She was not the only one who had strong opinions on the subject.

“I am disgusted by this, and would love to protest their event,” said Joe Leschner, who hosted a protest against a National Socialist Movement meeting earlier this month in the county. “But if it’s anything like their last event, they can expect 6-8 people to show up.”

Someone can’t hold a white solidarity meeting and call it peaceful, he said. Hate is hate, Leschner said.

But Saturday’s meeting won’t be it. Many more events are in the offing, organization officials said.

The Aryan Strikeforce, a white nationalist organization that is reputable as a defense league, wants to meet each month in Potter County and in other locations around the country, while the Nationalist Socialist Movement, touted as the largest and most active National Socialist party in America, has plans to meet every 60 days or so in Potter County.

Paul Runyan indicated via The Era’s Facebook that he doesn’t care that the Aryan Strikeforce and the Nationalist Socialist Movement are meeting in Potter County.

“I see ten times as much hate coming from the other side in music, television shows and even politics! So who cares. I’m not racist but a small hick community of white supremacy isn’t the problem,” he said.

Sheri Lynn Tanner said via Facebook that Potter County being infiltrated by white supremacists is “sick.”

“We all bleed the same color. And there is trash in every race. Being a mother of a biracial child this really just sickens me,” she said.

“As someone who grew up in Potter County, this (the situation) doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Shelby L. Gangloff, via The Era’s Facebook page. “Anyone who was different there was treated with suspicion, treated like garbage, like there was something wrong with them for being different.”

The skin tone hadn’t been the only issue, though the mentality remains the same, she said.

“I remember one very sad incident where our school was getting a new student who was in foster care, and the guidance counselor and principal had to come to our class and announce that a black student was going to be joining us,” Gangloff said  “Nobody said a word for the longest time. She didn’t stay long, don’t know if they moved her because of the way she was treated or because her home situation changed. I can’t imagine how I escaped that environment without some sort of issues …”

Meanwhile, Sean Huntington said he would bet the individuals involved in the white supremacy effort have never mingled with other races before.

“The head of the group had lived in Potter County for years. Not really a story. Most of you are right they don’t leave their own little world,” Todd Cannon said via The Era’s Facebook said. The National Socialist Movement Pennsylvania director is Daniel Burnside.

Potter County Commissioner Paul Heimel did not immediately return messages seeking comment for this story, and neither did the Potter County Visitors Association.