mainstream. the southern law center disagrees. he s on record for race mixing. we ll stop calling him a white supremacist when he stops being one. reporter: that s a charge he denies. if the sons of confederate veterans isn t a hate group, what is it? we re a veterans organization like other veterans. with the difference being veterans of foreign wars, there s always going to be a new generation of veterans coming along to take care of the older veterans. there would never again be any confederate veterans, so the n confederate veterans turned over their sons. reporter: by helping stir racial controversy in virginia, the group has crossed the line from caretaker of the confederate legacy to cultural warrior. interesting. join the live chat at ac360. com. the effort to find victims in rubble in the devastating
extremists. he was a member of the group but left because it got too political. i don t believe it s a hate group. i believe there are people who qualify as member of hate group. i meet fine people and met some scum. unfortunately, the scum tends to be more active in the group. reporter: among the groups more prominent members is this man, kirk lyons, a lawyer who got married in the compound and defended racists and white supremacists. he told us he no longer defends extremists, his work for the last 15 years has been thoroughly conventional and mainstream. the southern poverty law center disagrees. he s on record being against things like race mixing. we ll stop calling him a white supremacist when he stops being one. reporter: that s a charge he denies. if the sons of confederate veterans isn t a hate group, what is it? we re a veterans organization much like any other veterans organization, with the difference being
south. these are white supremicist groups. reporter: gilbert can attest to that. he was a member of sons of confederate veterans, but left because it got too political. i don t believe it s a hate group. i believe there are members who qualify as member of hate group. i ve met some fine fell with the group and i ve met some scum. unfortunately, the scum tends to be more active in the group. reporter: among the groups more prominent members is this man, kirk lyons who got married in the ariane nations compound and defended racists and white supremacists. he told us he no longer defends extremists, his work for the last 15 years has been thoroughly conventional and mainstream. the southern law center disagrees. he s on record being against things such as race mixing.
what are you saying? about what? are you saying that, what you are saying, i disagree with. you are saying that, you can apply the term life to anything? saying there can be life forms that we can t conceive of. that don t need. exactly. exactly. there could be living kevinup kevinup ketchup. i want to be alive. the creature is fun, adorable. tastes really good. it creates a conflict you. have to decide do. you ve make love off to it. do you eat it. or do you adopt it. what do you do? why can t you make love off to it and eat it. it is a brave new world. that s what i do with donuts. most of our viewers. and pizza. and pizza. it doesn t have to have the hole is what you are saying. bagels. i don t believe in race