David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is a former Louisiana State Representative, a candidate in presidential primaries for the Democratic and Republican parties, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Duke has been criticised as an Anti-Semite for his works on the subject of Jewish plots for world domination, and as a white supremacist, while Duke claims he is a white nationalist. Duke denies being a racist and says he is a racial realist asserting "all people have a basic human right to preserve their own heritage." He speaks in favor of racial segregation and white separatism.

David Duke has taught a course in History and International Relations at the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP). Duke has also unsuccessfully run for the Louisiana Senate, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Governor of Louisiana and twice for President of the United States.

Youth and early adulthood

David Duke was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to David H. and Maxine Duke. As the son of an engineer for Shell Oil, Duke frequently moved with his family around the world. Before settling in Louisiana, they lived a short time in the Netherlands. In the late 1960s, Duke met the leader of the white separatist National Alliance, William Pierce, who who remain a life-long influence. Duke joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1967.

Duke studied at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and in 1970 formed a White student group called the White Youth Alliance; it was affiliated with the National Socialist White People's Party. The same year, to protest William Kunstler's appearance at Tulane University in New Orleans, Duke appeared at a demonstration in Nazi uniform. Picketing and holding parties on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, he became famous on campus for wearing a Nazi uniform.

Reforming the KKK

Duke went to Laos for ten weeks in 1971 to teach English to Laotian military officers and to serve on cargo flights for Air America.

He graduated from LSU in 1974 and formed the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He gained attention for trying to modernize the Klan. A follower of Duke, Thom Robb, changed the title of Grand Wizard to National Director and replaced the Klan's white robes with business suits.

In 1976 Duke published a women's self-help book titled Finders-Keepers to raise money. He used the pseudonym Dorothy Vanderbilt. The book includes advice on vaginal exercises, fellatio, and anal sex. The book is out of print and difficult to find; however, a New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune, managed to obtain a copy and traced its proceeds to Duke. He compiled the information from women's self-help magazines.