At first glance, Matt Heimbach looks like a friendly neighbor, an always-smiling, 20-something college graduate who goes to church, and loves country music and drinking beer with his buddies.
But Heimbach is a white separatist who believes that the United States would be a better place if it were divided and went back to segregation. He has been called the future of organized hate in this country.
"Loving one's people is natural," he said. "Every other group is allowed to love their race for the best interest of their race. There's no reason why whites shouldn't."
When asked if he considered himself a racist, Heimbach said, "Sure. So what? I call it natural."
In 2012, Heimbach launched a nationwide college recruitment campaign to spread his beliefs and has been on a cross-country trip to form all-white student unions on college campuses. His recruitment efforts started at his alma mater Towson University, and has plans to visit George Mason University in Virginia, Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind., and American University in Washington, D.C. this spring.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Matthew Warren Heimbach has been called a white supremacist, a racist, a neo-Nazi and the future of organized hate in America.
Heimbach said he loved history and the Bible, and in his reading both, he found a place of superiority. In high school, he played a Confederate soldier in Civil War battle reenactments. It's those days of slavery that Heimbach calls the good old days.
"We would be a lot better off if the South would have won," he said.
He fears white heterosexual Christians have fallen prey, as he puts it. Many white separatists note that U.S. Census trends show whites being a minority by 2043. Heimbach attributed the issues white people face today to the slaughter of Native Americans centuries ago.
The Indiana Department of Child Services hired Heimbach to be a family case manager in Dubois County, which is close to Paoli, where he lives with his wife and infant son.
He started with DCS as a family case manager trainee on January 11, 2016.
The nationally known pro-white activist was one of 950 family case managers hired by DCS in the last year, records show.
The state agency has battled turnover and overwhelming caseloads for some workers.