Editing Don Black (section)

===Early years===
Black was born in Athens, Alabama, and became a white supremacy advocate at an early age when he began passing out racist newspapers ''White Power'' and the ''Thunderbolt'' at his high school, Madison Academy. This led to a decision by the local school board to ban the distribution of political literature. Black countered by mailing literature to student addresses obtained from school handbooks.<ref name = SPLC>[https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/don-black Don Black], Southern Poverty Law Center</ref>

In the summer of 1970, after his junior year at Athens High School, Black traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to work on the gubernatorial campaign of [[J.B Stoner]], a notorious Klansman and leader of the [[National States' Rights Party]] (NSRP). It was in this election that Jimmy Carter won the Georgia governorship. Black was asked to obtain a copy of the NSRP membership list by Robert Lloyd, a leader of the National Socialist White People's Party, formerly known as the American Nazi Party. At the time, Black was a member of the Party's youth branch, the National Socialist Youth Movement.<ref name = SPLC></ref>

Also working on the Stoner campaign was Jerry Ray, brother of Martin Luther King's assassin [[James Earl Ray]]. On July 25, 1970, Jerry Ray shot Black (who was 16 at the time) in the chest with a .38-caliber hollow-point bullet to stop him from taking files from Stoner's campaign office. Ray was acquitted of all charges, saying he shot in self-defense after Black reached for what appeared to be a weapon.<ref name = SPLC></ref>

Black finished his senior year at Madison Academy (Alabama), a private school in Huntsville. Then after high school, Black graduated from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1975