The State - News from March 12, 1989

Saying that “The White Man’s Bible” is racist, but not violently inflammatory, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered San Quentin authorities to return the book to the inmate from whom it was seized in 1986. Afraid that the book might provoke racial violence, a guard at San Quentin State Prison confiscated the book from the maximum-security cell of Norman Willhoite, an inmate serving a sentence for second-degree murder. Prison authorities describe Willhoite as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. U.S. District Judge Fern Smith said the state failed to prove that the book presented an imminent danger. “Although the book clearly advocates racial purity, it does not advocate direct acts of violence or any illegal activity,” Smith said in a ruling.