Jesse Lee Peterson is an American political figure, commentator, religious minister and author, having hosted a number of political radio and TV shows, including "The Jesse Lee Peterson Show" and "The Fallen State TV". He is also the President of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny since 1991. Politically, he has described himself as far-right, despite the often-negative connotations of the term. Prior to entering political commentary, he was a small business owner after moving to California from his native Alabama.
Early life
Peterson was born on May 22, 1949 in Midway, Alabama, and raised in Comer Hill, Alabama by his grandparents, who worked on the Comer family plantation where his great-grandparents had been 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. Peterson has stated he attended Los Angeles City College for one year.
Political involvement
Peterson started his own janitorial service in 1989. In 1991, he founded BOND, a non-profit religious group geared towards young black men. Peterson is a member of Choose Black America, an organization of African Americans who oppose illegal immigration to the United States. He is a member of the advisory board of Project 21, a conservative African American organization. He serves on the national advisory board of right-wing group Accuracy in Media, and is a former board member of the California Christian Coalition. Peterson also established an annual "National Day of Repudiation of Jesse Jackson" event, which lasted from 1999 to 2004, and which was held outside Jackson's offices in Los Angeles. Peterson's radio show, broadcast from WTSB, was simulcast on Newsmax TV until the end of 2018.
Political views
Peterson on numerous occasions described what he claimed were positive aspects of the Atlantic slave trade. On September 21, 2005, Peterson penned a column for WorldNetDaily, in which he suggested the majority of the African-American people stranded in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were relying on the government to save them. Peterson once called for the resignation of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, saying he was not conservative enough but that Republicans were afraid of firing a black man. He revealed in a video, released on March 5, 2012, his belief that "I think that one of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote." Peterson also believes that "children's souls yearn for the souls of their natural mother and natural father, especially the father". Peterson described Nelson Mandela as an “evil man” and said that South Africa was better off under apartheid. On July 2, 2018, Peterson announced he would celebrate "White History Month" each year in July in honor of patriotic white Americans. He calls the Black Lives Matter movement a "hate group," and warns that "hatred and suspicion" toward white Americans would cause the United States to become "like South Africa."
