American Blackshirts meetup in Florida, October 2024. (Source: Telegram)
Related content
Key Points
- The American Blackshirts Movement is a white supremacist group primarily active in Texas, Florida and Georgia, with a self-reported propaganda reach well beyond those states.
- Named after the paramilitary wings of the Italian and British fascist parties of the 20th century, ABM advocates for Christian-based “American fascism.” Like the group’s namesake, the American Blackshirts Movement is also intensely anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+.
- Since officially forming in October 2023, the group has held numerous demonstrations and white supremacist propaganda distribution campaigns, which have mostly targeted the immigrant community.
- ABM members have also engaged in “combative training drills” and committed acts of vandalism, spray painting white supremacist phrases and symbols onto buildings.
Overview and Ideology
The American Blackshirts Movement (ABM) is a white supremacist group formed in October 2023. The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) has identified, with a high degree of confidence, Sean Salas of Allen, Texas, as a member of the group and likely its leader. ABM is primarily active in Texas, Florida and Georgia, and has alleged a propaganda reach far beyond those states.
Fascism is a central part of the group’s ideology, with ABM drawing inspiration from the 20th century fascist Blackshirts of Italy and Great Britain. ABM is also explicitly anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+.
ABM advocates for a modern, Christian “American fascism” across the United States. The group’s logo, a fasces embedded in a stump, is meant to symbolize chopping “the tree of liberty back to its roots” to restore “order” and “unity” through fascism.
American Blackshirts Movement logos.
In an anonymous August 2024 interview hosted by an antisemitic influencer, an individual using the moniker “Blackshirt Sean” and identifying himself as the leader of ABM (likely Salas), argued that fascism in service of white supremacy is the only solution to combatting the perceived problems of multiculturalism, Judaism/Zionism, immigration and “cultural degeneracy” in America.
The group idolizes Benito Mussolini and routinely recommends the Italian dictator’s 1932 essay The Doctrine of Fascism to new recruits. In ABM spaces online, the group also regularly promotes the work of British fascist Oswald Mosely, the infamous antisemitic founder of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). A YouTube channel that appears to belong to Salas has posted six videos promoting fascist ideologies and movements, particularly in Chile (Salas’ father is of Chilean origin). COE linked the channel to Salas based on ABM’s website domain registration and associated usernames.
ABM calls for the dismantling of democracy and claims that Republicans, along with Democrats, are too liberal. In a November 2023 Telegram post, Salas wrote, “If you vote for democracy, you are supporting the liberal institutions. This liberal institution is connected with big business (capitalism) and foreign interests (zionism) [sic].” In another post to Telegram, the American Blackshirts shared a quote credited to an Italian protofascist who proclaimed that a “state built on the basis of popular suffrage and equality in voting is not only ignoble, but precarious.”
Anti-Immigration
Anti-immigration rhetoric is also central to ABM’s propaganda and demonstrations. Framing immigration as an “invasion,” the American Blackshirts claim that there is an ongoing “genocide” of white Americans through immigration, espousing a version of the Great Replacement theory. In a March 2025 recruitment post on Telegram, the group wrote, “If you have any courage to stand up against White Replacement [sic], join the ABM.”
On its website, ABM calls for a complete end to immigration and the “militarization” of border security under fascist control using a border wall with “machine gun nests.” In a March 2025 post to Telegram, ABM claimed that “plenty of people in the ‘broader [white supremacist] movement’ like to talk and rant against immigration to America, but even fewer groups have tackled the immigration problem like the ABM has.” The post asserted that ABM does not “want ANY immigration,” and that people from India are “aliens who worship demons of rape and savagery and wish to replace us in every sector of life.”
Since the group’s foundation, a majority of ABM’s demonstrations have been primarily anti-immigrant. For example, in September 2024, individuals associated with the group hung a banner from overpasses in Dallas and Melissa, Texas, that read: “One nation for deportation,” with a link to the group’s Telegram channel. That same month, individuals associated with the group distributed anti-immigrant propaganda across Jacksonville, Florida, and demonstrated on an overpass with banners that read: “No borders = weak nations,” with a link to the group’s Telegram channel, and “White lives matter.” In July 2024, the group hung a banner from an overpass in Houston, Texas, that read: “America for Americans.”
Left: American Blackshirts graffiti reading, 'Deport them all,' with the Celtic Cross, December 2024. Right: ABM “Deport them all” banner, unknown location in Kansas, March 2025. (Source: Telegram)
Antisemitism
ABM espouses hardline antisemitic views and directs much of its vitriol at Jewish people and perceived “Zionist” control of American policy. Salas has claimed that he became a fascist and national socialist (Nazi) after “learning” via 4chan that “the Zionists, the Jews were running everything.” ABM regularly publishes posts decrying perceived Zionist influence on American politics, arguing that democracy is an “illness” innately tied to Zionism and supposedly under Jewish control. In a quote attributed to Mussolini, the group posted on Telegram in November 2023: “Anti-Semitism is inevitable wherever Semitism becomes too powerful, too intrusive and too arrogant. The Jew himself is the cause of anti-Jewish sentiment.” ABM has also burned copies of the Diary of Anne Frank.
American Blackshirts book burning of the Diary of Anne Frank, North Carolina, April 2025. (Source: Telegram)
American Blackshirts' propaganda also features antisemitic and anti-Israel themes and tropes. An ABM sticker calls for a ban on pornography, with the “o” in “porn” replaced with a Star of David, which references a common antisemitic trope that Jews control the pornography industry as a means of spreading “degeneracy.” Another common ABM sticker reads: “No more American lives for Israeli lies,” likely referring to a number of antisemitic conspiracy theories that claim Israel duplicitously draws the U.S. into foreign wars to advance its own geopolitical goals.
Anti-LGBTQ+
Like many other contemporary white supremacist groups and the 20th century fascists they idolize, ABM points to the existence of LGBTQ+ communities as a sign of “cultural degeneracy” and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric permeates ABM’s propaganda and demonstrations. On December 13, 2024, ABM members protested outside a Christmas drag event in Dallas, Texas, calling the show an “event which degenerates including those from out of state bring [sic] children to be indoctrinated to the cult of LGBT.”
On November 20, 2024, individuals associated with ABM dropped a banner from a building in Dallas, Texas, that read: “Pedos [sic] get the rope,” to protest a drag show taking place across the street, a reference to the dangerous baseless conspiracy theory that claims that LGBTQ+ people are “grooming” children to abuse them.
Like the Nazi Party of 20th century Germany, ABM has held book burnings targeting “degenerate literature.” In March 2025, the group posted a series of videos showing members burning Pride flags with the caption: “No more tolerance.”
Tactics
Demonstrations and Banner Drops
In 2024, ABM held at least 17 demonstrations—typically in highly visible locations—and training events, as well as numerous smaller events, like white supremacist hikes, banner drops and propaganda distributions. These include a December 22, 2024, banner drop event on an overpass in Dallas, Texas, where individuals associated with ABM and the Texas Nationalist Network displayed banners with white supremacist and Catholic symbols that read: “Refugees today, terrorists tomorrow” and “Only traitors help invaders.”
Months earlier, on October 19, 2024, individuals associated with ABM—masked and dressed in black—marched through downtown Orlando, Florida, chanting “deportations now” and other slogans while targeting an LGBTQ+ pride event. During that same weekend, the group gathered at an unknown wooded location near Orlando for “combative training drills” and “sparring.”
Individuals affiliated with ABM similarly demonstrated on June 15, 2024, on Main Street in Grapevine, Texas, where they waved flags of the group’s logo, a Confederate flag and the American flag. They also held a banner that read: “No borders = weak nations,” with images of fasces and a link to the group’s Telegram channel, and distributed white supremacist propaganda.
Top: ABM overpass demonstration in Orlando, Florida, October 2024. Bottom: ABM overpass demonstration in Dallas, Texas, December 2024. (Source: Telegram)
Propaganda Distribution
The American Blackshirts Movement regularly distributes white supremacist propaganda—commonly in the form of large stickers—that contains anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ messaging. The group claims to have distributed propaganda in at least 26 states since forming.
In one notable incident, on February 1, 2025, ABM distributed propaganda in Stuart, Florida, claiming that “anyone facilitating the housing or employment of illegals in our area will be held responsible,” and that the Blackshirts “are watching.” The propaganda subsequently garnered additional attention on X and Reddit after being shared by concerned users in posts that received thousands of likes.
Examples of ABM propaganda targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and Israel. (Source: Telegram)
Networking
The group also regularly associates with other white supremacist groups and networks, largely through private training events. In the August 2024 interview with this antisemitic influencer, Salas claimed that ABM was “one of the more friendlier [sic] groups in the scene,” and that they work with other groups because “we believe that nationalism in general growing in America is a good thing.” In June 2024, ABM joined Patriot Front, Space City Active Club and Texas Nationalist Network associates for a “15-mile ruck march” in Houston, Texas.
Vinlanders Social Club and Florida American Blackshirts meetup, March 2025. (Source: Telegram)
In September 2024, individuals affiliated with ABM hosted a “BBQ Beatdown” event at an unknown location in Houston that included members of the Texas Nationalist Network and the Space City Active Club. The group allegedly “conducted several hours of physical training” in the “grueling heat,” followed by a barbeque cookout. In March 2025, ABM distributed propaganda in Sanford, Florida, with members of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a violent hardcore racist skinhead gang.