Blood and Politics: The History of White Nationalism

The Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library is hosting a panel discussion on Monday, October 19, in the Truman Forum Auditorium, marking the re-release of Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream. The event commemorates the life and work of Leonard Zeskind, a human rights activist and author who died in April 2025 at 75.

Zeskind first published Blood and Politics in 2009. It chronicled the rise of the white nationalist movement and warned of its growing influence in American politics, a subject that has only become more central to the national conversation since. The MacArthur Foundation named Zeskind a fellow in 1998 and helped fund the book. The re-release brings it back into print, and the panel is a way of looking at Zeskind's work and the movement he spent so much of his life tracking.

The panel brings together four people who knew him well. Mary Sanchez was his colleague and friend at The Kansas City Star. Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, tracked the movement alongside Zeskind. Bishop Donna Simon serves Missouri and Kansas for the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. And Carol Smith was Zeskind's friend and life partner of 46 years. Between them, they cover the professional, the political, and the personal sides of his life.

There's a recent postscript to the book's history, too. In 2025, shortly before Zeskind died, the Naval Academy purged 380 books from its library that were classified as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; Blood and Politics was one of them. The panel will be from 6 to 7 PM, with a reception starting at 5:30 PM, so you can arrive early and settle in before the discussion begins.