Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Richard Spencer Draws Income From Louisiana Cotton Plantations

Richard Spencer, who popularized the term “alt-right” as a label for contemporary white nationalists and is starting a Virginia think tank to promote his ideas, draws part of his income from cotton plantations in Louisiana, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The Center, based in Emeryville, California, found that the Spencer family is absentee landlord for about 5,300 acres in six different farming companies in Louisiana.

The Spencer family also received more than $2 million in U.S. farm subsidy payments from 2008-2015.

Asked on the Reveal podcast whether he uses income from the farms to support his “alt-right” advocacy, Spencer would not specify, but claimed donations had increased to his institute tenfold in the last six months, significantly growing what was a $100,000 budget.

Reveal host Al Letson, who is black, remarked to Spencer that his grandfather built his estate at a time when Jim Crow laws preserved racial discrimination in the South. “I know that my grandfather was on the other side of those transactions,” Letson said.

Spencer told Letson, “I am proud of my grandfather. I am proud of what he built.”

He added that “We’ve all benefited from white privilege,” and “I want my children to have white privilege.”

Spencer grew up in Dallas but his family has deep roots in the south; according to the Center for Investigative reporting, Spencer’s mother Sherry inherited the family land from her late father, and today she is business partners with Spencer and his sister.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.