Murder of Mulugeta Seraw

Mulugeta Seraw was an Ethiopian student attending Portland Community College in Oregon. On the night of November 12, 1988, Kenneth Murray "Death" Mieske, Kyle Brewster, and Steve Strasser—members of groups known as East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR)—were driving around Portland with their girlfriends. They confronted three Black men, including Seraw, who had just been dropped off in front of his apartment. As Seraw tried to break up the resulting fight, he was beaten with a baseball bat by Mieske on Southeast 31st Avenue. The three men and their girlfriends left him in a pool of blood, and he died the next day, November 13, 1988, at age 28.

Mieske later said the group killed Seraw "because of his race." Tom Metzger, head of WAR, described the killing as a "civic duty." In response to the murder, hundreds of people attended rallies against racism in Portland.

Following a one-week investigation, Mieske, Brewster, and Strasser were arrested. Brewster and Strasser were convicted of manslaughter and assault. Brewster was released from prison in November 2002, was returned to custody in 2006 after a parole violation, and was later released again; he has since been documented at Proud Boys rallies. In 1990, Mieske pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison on July 26, 2011, at age 45, still referred to as a "Prisoner of War" by white power groups at the time of his death.

In October 1990, Seraw's father and his six-year-old son, represented at no cost by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, won a civil lawsuit against WAR's operator Tom Metzger and his son John Metzger, totaling $12.5 million in damages. The trial costs, running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, were covered by the SPLC and ADL. Because Metzger could not pay the judgment, the family's lawyer moved to seize his Fallbrook, California home and other assets; the house was ultimately transferred to Seraw's estate at a value of $121,500, with Metzger permitted to retain $45,000 under California's Homestead Act. The Metzgers subsequently declared bankruptcy, though WAR continued to operate, and Metzger was reported to still be making payments to Seraw's family as of 2007.

About 18 months after the murder, roughly 1,500 people attended a rally in Portland's South Park Blocks, drawing a large police presence amid expectations that skinhead counter-demonstrators would appear; the rally proceeded without major incident. Also in 1990, members of the Oregon chapter of the American Leadership Forum founded an anti-discrimination youth camp, Camp Odyssey, in response to Seraw's death, which operated from 1990 to 2002 and was later revived from 2011 to 2015. <parameter name="timeline">[ {"date": "1960-10-21", "event": "Mulugeta Seraw is born in Ethiopia."}, {"date": "1988-11-12", "event": "Seraw is beaten with a baseball bat by Kenneth Mieske in Portland, Oregon, after he tries to break up a confrontation involving Mieske, Kyle Brewster, and Steve Strasser."}, {"date": "1988-11-13", "event": "Seraw dies from his injuries at age 28."}, {"date": "1990", "event": "Mieske pleads guilty to murder and is sentenced to life in prison; Brewster and Strasser are convicted of manslaughter and assault."}, {"date": "1990-10", "event": "Seraw's father and son win a $12.5 million civil judgment against White Aryan Resistance operators Tom Metzger and John Metzger."}, {"date": "2002-11", "event": "Kyle Brewster is released from prison."}, {"date": "2006", "event": "Brewster violates parole and is returned to prison."}, {"date": "2011-07-26", "event": "Kenneth Mieske dies in prison at age 45."} ]