Racial tensions intensified Wednesday as an undetermined number of NIU students received a racially derogatory invitation to join a white supremacist group denouncing blacks, Jews and homosexuals.

Flyers from the Marietta, Ga._based Crusade Against Corruption encourage recipients to join the organization to preserve the white race, work toward racial separation and repeal the Martin Luther King holiday.

“We are the herald of good news and of God’s great racial justice,” said J.B. Stoner, the group’s founder, Wednesday in a telephone interview from Georgia. Stoner claims AIDS is a racial disease incubated to rescue the white race from blacks, Jews and homosexuals.

Reports indicate the one-page flyer addressed to “resident” in white envelopes with a rubbed-out postmark and without a zip code indicate the mail was sent primarily to students in the residence halls.

Residents of Grant and Stevenson Towers received flyers, but residence hall coordinators at Douglas, Lincoln, Neptune and Gilbert halls could not confirm receipt of the flyers.

The mailing comes 72 hours before Saturday’s one-day racial discrimination conference at NIU which will focus on college campuses. Attendance is expected to exceed 500 participants.

Charles Sharp, postal operations superintendent for the DeKalb Post Office, said the envelope’s appearance does not indicate where the mail originated. Similar DeKalb mail was sent last week to the postal inspector in River Grove, Ill., who has the authority to initiate an investigation at their discretion, he said.

Stoner said the Crusade Against Corruption is a political group. He said he plans to run for Georgia lieutenant governor in the next election.

Tracy Deis, Student Association senator and former Black Student Union president, refused to comment immediately after answering a telephone call from The Northern Star.