Jesse Peterson

Jesse Lee Peterson (born May 22, 1949) is an American conservative radio host, pastor, and broadcaster.

He is the founder of Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), a Christian ministry, and hosts the programs The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show and The Fallen State TV.

Peterson has gained notoriety for his political views, which have been described by some as misogynistic, homophobic, and of a white nationalist nature.

Peterson was born on May 22, 1949, in Midway, Alabama, and raised in Corner Hill by his grandparents, who worked on the Comer family plantation where his great-grandparents had worked as slaves a century earlier.

His mother and father moved to Gary, Indiana, and East Chicago, Indiana, respectively, where they separately started new families of their own.

He was born with a cleft palate that was not repaired until his teens.

Peterson lived with his mother and stepfather in Gary as a teenager, briefly attending Edison High School.

He then returned to Alabama and graduated from high school before moving to Los Angeles.

He attended Los Angeles City College for one year.

He says that he started his own janitorial service in 1989.

In 1990, Peterson founded BOND (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny), later registered as a religious non-profit.

BOND has close ties to the Tea Party movement.

Advisory board members include Sean Hannity and Dennis Prager.

Peterson has participated in activism against illegal immigration, abortion, and gun control, and for traditional family values.

He has protested against the NAACP and feminist lawyer Gloria Allred.

He has participated in discussions at the annual political convention Politicon.

From 1999 to 2004, Peterson chose Martin Luther King Jr. Day to hold a "National Day of Repudiation of Jesse Jackson" to highlight his opposition to Jackson, who was near King when he was assassinated.

In 2001, while meeting with Toyota executives in Los Angeles, Peterson accused Jackson of threatening him and his son Jonathan Jackson of assaulting him.

In 2002, Peterson debated Michael Eric Dyson on "The Case For/Against Reparations for African Americans," hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Conservative talk radio host Dennis Prager wrote the forewords to two of Peterson's books.

In 2005, he stated that most African Americans stranded in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were relying on the government to save them.

In 2006, a jury cleared Jesse Jackson of the threat allegation, but was split on his son's assault allegation.

Conservative activist organization Judicial Watch provided attorneys for Peterson in the lawsuit.

In 2012, Peterson said about black unemployment, "One of the things that I would do is take all black people back to the South and put them on the plantation.... They need a good hard education on what it is to work."

He has called Nelson Mandela an "evil man" and said that South Africa was better off under apartheid.

In 2013, Peterson called Trayvon Martin a "thug".

CNN host Piers Morgan called Peterson's comments "quite offensive".

In 2015 on political commentator Sean Hannity's show, Peterson defended Michael Slager, a former North Charleston, South Carolina police officer who killed Walter Lamar Scott, an unarmed black man by shooting him in the back.

Peterson criticized "angry black folks in this country" who disobey instructions of police, while Hannity pushed back against Peterson and called the killing "cold-blooded".

Upset, fellow panelist Leo Terrell abruptly walked out of the interview prematurely.

Peterson's radio show was simulcast on Newsmax TV in 2017–2018.

In June 2019, video-sharing platform YouTube demonetized Peterson's channel, amongst many others, under an updated hate speech policy.

Peterson appears in the 2020 political documentary Uncle Tom, produced by radio host Larry Elder.

Peterson has stated that he used to be a Democrat but became a Republican in his late 30s.

He attributed the change to his Christian beliefs.

Peterson opposes allowing Muslims to serve in Western governments, and says that racism does not exist.

Instead, he believes that every conflict is a spiritual "battle between good and evil".

He has spoken out against Kwanzaa and Black History Month.

Peterson's views have been described by some authors as being consistent with white supremacy, and it has been suggested that white nationalists are encouraged by his rhetoric and compelled to promote him, because Peterson's blackness reduces the shock value of opinions that would be considered outrageous if a white person had expressed them.

In 2020, he called then-U.S. President Donald Trump "the Great White Hope".