1086 Results

Back

Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Backgrounder

UPDATE: After several years of decline, the Loyal White Knights became defunct in 2024.The group’s remaining members left the LWK and its leaders behind to form a new group called the Sacred White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (SWK). Once one of the most active Klan groups in the United States, LWK has declined in both membership and activity in recent years due to leadership issues. SWK has had limited activity since its founding. Key Points Loyal White Knights (LWK) is one of the largest…

December 07, 2018

Shield Wall Network (SWN)

Backgrounder

Shield Wall Network (SWN) is a small white supremacist group based in Mountain View, Arkansas, with chapters in Tennessee and West Virginia. SWN promotes racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Members organize white supremacist rallies and conferences, and attend events organized by other white supremacist groups. SWN’s primary goal is to build a white ethno-state. Overview The Shield Wall Network (SWN) is a white supremacist group, led by Billy Roper, whose goal is to build a…

September 17, 2018

How Hate Groups Form

Backgrounder

There are hundreds of white supremacist groups in the United States, from Ku Klux Klan organizations to racist skinhead gangs. Most white supremacists don’t actually belong to organized groups, but hate groups provide white supremacists with most of the propaganda, ideology and motivation to act for the whole movement, and are highly visible examples of America’s white supremacy problem. So how do these hate groups form? The answer to that question isn’t as…

May 31, 2018

Daily Stormer Book Clubs (SBC)

Backgrounder

Update: The small, local crews of young white men who followed and supported Andrew Anglin and his neo-Nazi website, were responsible for 82 propaganda distributions in 2019 and 80 in 2018 but are currently inactive. Daily Stormer contributor Robert Warren Ray, aka Azzmador, remains on the lam from felony charges related to his alleged use of pepper spray on counter protesters during the tiki torch-lit march through the University of Virginia campus the night before UTR. In September…

April 24, 2018

League of the South (LoS)

Backgrounder

Key Points: The League of the South (LoS) is a white supremacist group that advocates for southern secession and an independent, white-dominated South. The LoS espouses racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. It organizes white supremacist rallies, conferences and flash demonstrations, and attends events organized by other white supremacist groups. Founded in 1994, the LoS has been stagnant until recently, but is raising its public profile, holding multiple public events and quickly…

April 19, 2018

National Socialist Movement

Backgrounder

National Socialist Movement logo Key Points: The National Socialist Movement is a neo-Nazi group. Burt Colucci has led the NSM since March 2019. In decline for several years, the NSM’s core membership has fallen to one or two dozen. The NSM is known for holding public rallies and protests dressed in Nazi-styled uniforms. Overview: The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a neo-Nazi group with membership scattered around the country. Once the largest and most…

April 19, 2018

Republic of Florida (ROF)

Backgrounder

Key points ROF is a Florida-based white supremacist group whose goal is to form a white ethno-state in Florida. ROF borrows paramilitary concepts from the militia movement and engages in paramilitary training. ROF attends events organized by other white supremacist groups and spreads its hateful and anti-Semitic propaganda online. The Republic of Florida Militia (ROF) is a small, Tallahassee-based, white supremacist group that borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti…

February 15, 2018

Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP)

Backgrounder

Update: TWP remained active through early 2018, when the group dissolved into chaos after co-founder and leader Matthew Heimbach was arrested for domestic battery for allegedly assaulting his wife and father-in-law. In February 2021, Heimbach supposedly renounced his white supremacist beliefs, but reversed course in July 2021, returning as a “white socialist” and host of “National Bolshevik Public Radio.” Key Points: • TWP is a neo-Nazi…

February 02, 2018

Rise Above Movement (R.A.M.)

Backgrounder

UPDATE: Following the arrest of several key members in 2018, the Rise Above Movement (R.A.M.) remains largely defunct today. The group’s former co-founder, Robert Rundo, has also dealt with legal issues over the years: After being extradited from Romania, Rundo was charged in August 2023 in connection with a series of physical altercations at political rallies throughout California in 2018. Rundo pled guilty in September 2024 to conspiracy to riot and was subsequently released in…

January 22, 2018

Patriot Front

Backgrounder

An explainer on Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist group led by Thomas Ryan Rousseau. The group splintered from the neo-Nazi Vanguard America in 2017.

December 15, 2017

Milo Yiannopoulos: Five Things to Know

Backgrounder

1. Milo Yiannopoulos is a controversial right-wing media personality and provocateur. While he refers to himself as "the world's most fabulous supervillain,” and claims to be a conservative and a fearless bulwark against the encroaching forces of “political correctness,” Yiannopoulos is in actuality a provocateur who specializes in attacking groups he dislikes. He particularly despises the left and promotes what he calls “a new cultural libertarianism.” …

April 11, 2018

Vanguard America

Backgrounder

Update: Vanguard America (VA) splintered shortly after UTR and has shown very few signs of life in the years that followed. Meanwhile, Patriot Front, the VA splinter group formed by UTR participant Thomas Rousseau, is one of the country’s most visible white supremacist groups. In an effort to move away from VA’s neo-Nazi roots, Patriot Front avoids traditional white supremacist language and symbols, presenting their blend of white supremacist and neo-fascist ideology as &ldquo…

July 18, 2017

From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate

Backgrounder

Richard Spencer at the Free Speech Rally in Washington, DC

In just one year, the alt right has gone from relative obscurity to being one of the United States' most visible extremist movements. This stratospheric rise is due in large part to the rhetoric employed during the 2016 presidential campaign, which granted implicit approval to the once-taboo hallmarks of the far right – overt racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, and anti-Muslim bigotry. The alt right capitalized on the moment by amplifying those messages while…

July 12, 2017

Alex Jones: Five Things to Know

Backgrounder

1. Alex Jones is a right-wing American radio host and prolific anti-government conspiracy theorist. Jones rose from public-access television obscurity to national prominence by promoting paranoid allegations against the U.S. government and an alleged shadowy, power-hungry New World Order. Because of a range of legal and political issues, many consider Jones to be one of the most influential right-wing conspiracy theorists in the United States today. Online and on the air, Jones…

May 10, 2017

Tax Protest Movement

Backgrounder

For Law Enforcement This document is an archived copy of an older ADL report and may not reflect the most current facts or developments related to its subject matter. The tax protest movement is a relatively long-lived anti-government movement rising out of opposition to federal income taxes. Tax protesters generally believe that either the income tax laws are in some way invalid or that they do not apply to most citizens; therefore, they believe they have a legal and moral right not to pay…

June 26, 2017

Christian Identity movement

Backgrounder

Christian Identity is a religious ideology popular in extreme right-wing circles. Adherents believe that whites of European descent can be traced back to the "Lost Tribes of Israel." Many consider Jews to be the Satanic offspring of Eve and the Serpent, while non-whites are "mud peoples" created before Adam and Eve. Its virulent racist and anti-Semitic beliefs are usually accompanied by extreme anti-government sentiments. Despite its small size, Christian Identity influences virtually all…

April 05, 2017

Farrakhan: In His Own Words

Backgrounder

For more than 30 years, Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), has been a notable extremist figure, railing against Jews, white people and the LGBT community. In recent years, Farrakhan has embarked on a wide-ranging campaign specifically targeting the Jewish community, a campaign that has featured some of the most hateful speeches of his tenure as head of NOI. Farrakhan has alleged that the Jewish people were responsible for the slave trade and that they conspire to control…

January 17, 2019

The Turner Diaries

Backgrounder

For Law Enforcement Quick Profile Author: William Pierce (as Andrew Macdonald), leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance Published: 1978 Publisher: Previously, the book was only available through the National Alliance's National Vanguard Press, but Barricade Books, a small independent publisher, began publishing it in 1996. Premise: The diaries of Earl Turner, member of an underground white supremacist army, provide an inside account of an Aryan revolution that overturns the United…

February 05, 2017

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)

Backgrounder

Demonstrators organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow rally to demand a ceasefire in Gaza on October 18, 2023 near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

Key PointsJewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the eradication of Zionism and the boycott of Israel.JVP does not represent the mainstream Jewish community, which it views as bigoted for its association with Israel.JVP promotes messaging that descends into the antisemitic vilification of “Zionists,” and can include classic antisemitic tropes and support for terrorists.JVP blamed Israel for the Hamas October 7,…

June 04, 2018

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Backgrounder

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization with 28 independent chapters around the country

August 21, 2015