THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM - A REPORT FROM THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
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THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM A R E P O R T F R O M T H E S O U T H E R N P O V E R T Y L AW C E N T E R
ON THE COVER People gather at a makeshift memorial in El Paso, Texas, on August 7, 2019, four days after a gunman killed 22 people and injured two dozen others. An online manifesto linked to the 21-year-old suspect referred to an immigrant “invasion” of Texas. GETTY IMAGES/MARIO TAMA
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM A R E P O R T F R O M T H E S O U T H E R N P O V E R T Y L AW C E N T E R
ABOUT THE SOUTHERN P OVERTY L AW CENTER
The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Alabama, is a nonprofit
civil rights organization founded in 1971 and dedicated to fighting hate and
bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society.
For more information about the
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
visit splcenter.org
Explore what’s happening in your state at splcenter.org/hate-map
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@Hatewatch SPLCenter
© 2020 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 2019 6
A FLURRY OF FLYERING 15
NOTABLE EXTREMIST ATTACKS AND PLOTS 17
THE YEAR IN TECHNOLOGY 20
METHODOLOGY 22
HATE GROUP MAP AND LISTS 24
ANTIGOVERNMENT GROUPS IN 2019 38
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 45
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Inclusive democracy, America’s greatest challenge to a “national threat priority.” His remarks ampli-
and achievement, is currently in the crosshairs of fied his message from November, when he told the
racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia—and the Senate Homeland Security Committee that a major-
intersection of these toxic belief systems is fuel- ity of domestic terror attacks are “fueled by some
ing the rise of hate violence and white nationalism type of white supremacy.”
in the United States and around the world. Having Wray is right to be alarmed. White nationalism
moved from the fringes of society to the main- poses a serious threat to national security and plu-
stream, these ideologies now frame national nar- ralistic democracy. It’s a virulent and profoundly
ratives and influence electoral outcomes. undemocratic ideology that infects our political sys-
In 2019, the third year of the Trump presidency, tem with hate, fear and resentment. And, as we’ve
data gathered by the Intelligence Project of the seen in recent years, the threat of violence is very
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) doc- real. In fact, there’s a growing sector of white
uments a continued and rising threat to supremacists, calling themselves “acceler-
inclusive democracy: a surging white ationists,” who believe mass violence is
nationalist movement that has been necessary to bring about the collapse of
linked to a series of racist and anti- our pluralistic society.
semitic terror attacks and has coin- With heightened attention to
cided with an increase in hate crime. the movement since the deadly
The number of white nationalist groups 2017 “Unite the Right ” rally in
rose for the second straight year, a 55 Charlottesville, Virginia, internal
percent increase since 2017, when struggles have surfaced. Some leaders
Trump’s campaign energized white have been kicked off their social media
nationalists who saw in him an ava- We elevated to the platforms and other internet services
tar of their grievances and their anx- top-level priority they relied on to raise money, recruit
iety over the country’s demographic racially motivated new members, and spread racist pro-
changes. The numbers are a barome- paganda. The organization of one of
violent extremism
ter, though an imperfect one, of the size the country’s most recognizable white
and growth of the movement. so it’s on the same nationalists, Richard Spencer, appears
A series of terror attacks in the footing in terms of to have gone dormant.
United States and abroad—including our national threat Despite these developments, the
the mass killings in El Paso, Texas, and white nationalist movement remains
banding as ISIS
New Zealand—have led federal author- the most mobilized threat from the
ities to put more focus on combating and homegrown American radical right. It is not, how-
terrorism that stems from the move- violent extremism. ever, the only one tearing the social fab-
ment. FBI Director Christopher Wray —CHRIS TOPHER WR AY ric of inclusive democracy. Hundreds of
AP IMAGES/ALEX BRANDON
told the House Judiciary Committee hate groups are operating in America,
in early February that the agency had targeting immigrants and refugees,
upgraded its assessment of the threat LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Blacks
posed by racially motivated extremists and other people of color.
4 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
It is time to move beyond the illusion that hate violence and
extremism is merely a criminal crisis in America. It is also a political
crisis. It has to be engaged politically. Just as there was a national
movement against racial segregation in the 1960s, there now needs
to be a national movement against hate violence in America.
The alarming rise of hate violence in our com- residents. More than 8,000 educators, represent-
munities and bigoted rhetoric within mainstream ing every state and a number of other countries,
political discourse has thus far failed to prompt a have begun using a toolkit to help them counter
proportionate response from community leaders white nationalist recruitment in middle and high
and political officials. We are no more prepared for schools. Dozens of congregations, civic groups and
a backlash of hate violence that could surround the local leaders have come together to form their own
coming 2020 election than we were in 2016. community-based responses to organized bigotry.
It is time to move beyond the illusion that hate As detailed in this report’s review of the Year in
violence and extremism is merely a criminal cri- Technology, there is also progress—though far too
sis in America. It is also a political crisis. It has to slow—in response to the proliferation of hate on
be engaged politically. Just as there was a national the internet. Increased pressure has to be brought
movement against racial segregation in the 1960s, to bear on social media platforms to stop prioritiz-
there now needs to be a national movement against ing profit over the safety of our communities and
hate violence in America. inclusive democracy. Prioritizing profit at all costs
What would such a movement against organized continues to have real and tragic results, not only
bigotry look like? in the United States but internationally.
It should include appropriate action on the fed- Through community pressure on elected lead-
eral level, of course, as has now begun with the FBI ers, media organizations and corporate interests, a
and Department of Homeland Security. broad-based response can be mobilized. Together,
A full defense of inclusive democracy also we can demand and construct better data collec-
requires local responses by city, county and state tion, improved law enforcement training, stron-
governments; litigation strategies that hold hate ger prosecutorial and civil litigation strategies,
groups accountable for the harm they cause; internet laws that keep guns away from those with violent
companies that enforce their own policies restrict- intent, and upstream interventions that teach tol-
ing the ability of hate groups to operate online; and erance and rebuild community trust.
support for individuals and organizations willing By educating, training and assisting civil soci-
to courageously reach out, neighbor to neighbor, ety to effectively respond to social movements that
to stand up for each other’s civil and human rights. exploit bigotry and intolerance, we can limit the
Promising steps are already taking place across impact of white nationalism, hate violence and
the country. In the Pacific Northwest, city councils authoritarian practices on inclusive democracy.
and county commissions in five municipalities have The data on hate groups and extremism provided
passed resolutions condemning white nationalist by the SPLC’s Intelligence Project is an essential
activity and pledging support for all vulnerable tool in that effort.
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 5
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 2019
EXTREMIST HATE THREATENS PLURALISTIC DEMOCRACY
In 2019, the third year of the Trump hate crimes added to the death toll and
presidency, data gathered by the reinforced the climate of violence that
Intelligence Project of the SPLC docu- threatens lives as well as the function-
940
ments a continued and rising threat to ing of inclusive democracy.
inclusive democracy: a surging white Social media and the internet more
nationalist movement that has been generally have helped extremists extend
linked to a series of racist and antise- hate groups in the reach of racist ideologies and con-
mitic terror attacks and has coincided the U.S in 2019 spiracy theories. White supremacists,
with an increase in hate crime. The in fact, are increasingly congregating
number of white nationalist groups online, often not formally joining hate
55%
identified by the SPLC rose for the sec- groups but networking, raising funds,
ond straight year, a 55 percent increase recruiting and spreading propaganda
since 2017, when Donald Trump’s cam- that radicalizes young people and stokes
paign energized white nationalists who violence against nonwhite immigrants,
saw him as an avatar of their grievances increase in Jews, Muslims, Black people and others
and their anxiety over the country’s white nationalist who belong to minority groups.
demographic changes. hate groups The man charged with the New
White nationalism poses a serious Zealand massacre livestreamed part of
since 2017
threat to national security and plural- the assault on Facebook. The El Paso
istic democracy. It’s a virulent and pro- 148 155 suspect is believed to be the author of
foundly authoritarian ideology that a “manifesto” that appeared online just
infects our political system with hate, minutes before the shooting began; in
fear and resentment. As this report 100 it, he praised “the Christchurch shooter
demonstrates, the threat of increased and his manifesto.”
violence is very real. A growing sector The year was also marked by a sharp
2017 2018 2019
of white supremacists, who call them- expansion of anti-LGBTQ hate groups,
selves “accelerationists,” believe mass which rose by nearly 43 percent. The
violence is necessary to bring about the Trump administration has demon-
43%
collapse of our pluralistic society. strated a clear willingness to embrace
Like the year before, domestic ter- their leaders and their policy agenda.
ror attacks by white nationalists and Alongside the increase in white
other extremists, at home and abroad, nationalist and anti-LGBTQ hate groups,
increase in
delivered blow after blow in 2019. A 2019 saw the collapse of two neo-Nazi
synagogue in Poway, California. A anti-LGBTQ hate factions riven by leadership turmoil and
rabbi’s home in a New York City sub- groups in 2019 community pressure. This contributed to
urb. A Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Two a marginal decline in the overall number
mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. of hate groups operating across America
Beneath those headlines, underreported after a 30 percent rise since 2015.
6 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
In 2019, the total number of hate groups tracked
by SPLC dipped by about 8 percent—940 compared
to the record high of 1,020 in 2018. This decline
does not reflect a significant diminishment of the
radical right or a fundamental shift in the general
trend of the last several years, given the increased
activity among white nationalist hate groups.
As the country continues to experience white
nationalist terror, extremist ideas long believed out-
side of the realm of legitimate politics are penetrat-
ing deeply into the mainstream, spawning public
policies that target immigrants, LGBTQ people and
Muslims. The Trump administration has installed
members of hate groups into government—par- In California, authorities started a terrorism investigation after a
ticularly those with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim man opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the Gilroy Garlic
Festival (top), killing three people, on July 28, 2019. Earlier, on
GETTY IMAGES/MEDIANEWS GROUP/THE MERCURY NEWS/NHAT V. MEYER (GILROY); AP IMAGES/DENIS POROY (POWAY)
or anti-LGBTQ animus—and put in place highly April 27, a man fired on participants in a Passover service at the
punitive policies that seemed unthinkable just a Chabad of Poway synagogue (above) outside of San Diego. A
few short years ago. These political moves will far woman was killed and three people injured, including the rabbi.
outlast this administration, as Trump and his allies
in the U.S. Senate have pushed through hundreds
of new federal judges, many of whom are hostile
to civil rights concerns and will serve for decades. A full defense of inclusive democracy will
Fortunately, some are hearing the alarm bells that require not only appropriate federal action, but
the data in this report should be setting off across local responses by city, county and state govern-
the country. The FBI upgraded its assessment of ments; litigation strategies that hold hate groups
the threat posed by racially motivated extrem- accountable for the harm they cause; technology
ists to a “national threat priority” after Director companies enforcing their own policies that restrict
Christopher Wray acknowledged that a majority of the ability of hate groups to operate online; and sup-
domestic terror attacks are “fueled by some type of port for individuals and organizations willing to
white supremacy,” and the Department of Homeland courageously reach out, neighbor to neighbor, to
Security (DHS) announced a strategic shift toward stand up for each other’s civil and human rights.
countering racial hatred. Key arrests may have This is what must constitute a national movement
averted several white nationalist terror attacks. against organized hate and extremism in America.
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 7
Domestic Terror Attacks and Hate Crime in 2019
Like the year before, 2019 saw a spate of domestic
terror attacks, both at home and abroad. In Poway,
California, a gunman attacked a synagogue, killing a
60-year-old woman and wounding a rabbi and two
other people. Also in that state, a man wielding a
semi-automatic rifle killed three at the Gilroy Garlic
Festival. And three days before the end of the year,
in a New York City suburb, a man burst into a rabbi’s
home and began slashing people with a machete,
wounding five, during a Hanukkah celebration.
By far, the worst carnage wrought by domestic Mourners created a makeshift memorial (top) to the vic-
extremists came on Aug. 3 at a Walmart in the bor- tims of the Aug. 3, 2019, massacre that left 22 people dead
der city of El Paso, Texas, a city that is nearly 80 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. A manifesto linked to the sus-
pect said the attack was “a response to the Hispanic invasion of
percent Hispanic, when a man opened fire with
Texas.” Orthodox Jews gather (above) near the site of a home in
GETTY IMAGES/AFP/MARK RALSTON (EL PASO); AP IMAGES/ALLYSE PULLIAM (HANUKKAH STABBING)
an AK-47 just as parents and children were taking New York where a man rushed into a Hanukkah celebration and
advantage of a tax-free shopping day before the stabbed five people on Dec.28, 2019.
beginning of the school year. Twenty-two people
were killed and another 26 injured.
Hate crimes added further to the toll, though the In a shocking and gruesome demonstration
numbers of the dead and wounded are impossible of the transnational nature of the white national-
to determine because of vast deficiencies in the way ist movement, on March 15 in Christchurch, New
hate crime statistics are gathered and reported by Zealand, a man immersed in white supremacist
the government. The victims in 2019 included two ideology killed 51 people at two mosques—and
gay men and a transgender woman killed in a sin- livestreamed part of the assault on Facebook.
gle shooting in Detroit, where prosecutors said they The alleged attackers in El Paso and Christchurch,
were targeted because of their sexual orientation as in other places, clearly shared a racist ideol-
and gender identity. GLAAD, the LGBTQ advocacy ogy and were linked by a central theme that ani-
organization, also reported the names of 20 Black mates the white nationalist movement—the false
transgender women who were murdered in 2019. notion of “white genocide,” also called the “great
8 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTERreplacement” conspiracy theory, the idea that white antisemitic threats on social media was arrested
people of European descent are being systematically for plotting to attack a Walmart just days after the
displaced in the Western world. Authorities believe mass killing in El Paso. Other white supremacists
the suspect in El Paso, a 21-year-old white man from were arrested for bombing plots that targeted reli-
Allen, Texas, was the author of a 2,300-word “mani- gious institutions, dams and other infrastructure,
festo” that appeared online just minutes before the and law enforcement.
shooting began. In it, he warned that foreigners are
replacing white people and outlined a plan to divide Fear of Demographic Change Driving Surge in
America by race. Tellingly, he nodded to the alleged White Supremacist Activity
mosque shooter in New Zealand, writing, “In gen- The most powerful force animating today’s radical
eral, I support the Christchurch shooter and his right—and stoking the violent backlash—is a deep
manifesto. This attack is a response to the Hispanic fear of demographic change. This fear is encapsulated
invasion of Texas.” While Trump blamed the inter- in the conspiratorial notion that a purposeful “white
net and social media for the “racist hate” that led to genocide” is underway and that it’s driving “the great
the attack, The Guardian newspaper pointed out that replacement” of white people in their “home” coun-
Trump’s re-election campaign had used the word tries by foreign, non-white populations. Antisemitism
“invasion” to describe immigration in more than adds fuel to this fire; some white supremacists claim
2,000 Facebook ads in 2019. that Jews—as well as progressive politicians—are
In Poway, the attacker referred to a “meticulously helping to facilitate this demographic change.
planned genocide of the European race” and praised Since the turn of the millennium, when the
other shooters, including the one in Christchurch. Census Bureau first pointed out that white people
The number of people killed in white national- in the United States would lose their majority sta-
ist terror attacks might have been higher if not for tus in the 2040s, American racists have fretted over
several key arrests. In February, a Coast Guard lieu- what they fear will be the loss of their place of dom-
tenant—based at the Coast Guard headquarters in inance in society. Now, those fears are shared across
Washington, D.C.—was arrested with a stockpile of borders. The New Zealand mass murderer titled his
weapons and a hit list of Democratic politicians and manifesto “The Great Replacement.”
media figures. The FBI said he was a self-identified
white nationalist and an admirer of the Norwegian
The Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, was one of
terrorist who killed 77 people during an anti-Mus- two mosques attacked by a white supremacist on March 15,
lim rampage in 2011. In addition, a Winter Park, 2019. Fifty-one people were killed in the attacks, parts of which
Florida, man with a history of posting racist and were livestreamed on Facebook.
AP IMAGES/VINCENT YU
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 9These extremists are not reluctant to voice their threat as both a national and a transnational prob-
desire for mass violence to counter the demo- lem. One agency head remarked that it had been
graphic changes. “Random violence is not detri- much easier, psychologically, to accept terrorism
mental to the cause, because we need to convince coming from the Middle East than to accept that
Americans that violence against nonwhites is the United States might soon become a net exporter
desirable or at least not something worth oppos- of terrorism motivated by white supremacy.
ing,” wrote Andrew “Weev” Aurenheimer, a leading Though the experts appear to understand the
voice on the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, last threat, they remain hamstrung by the Trump
August. “There’s no way to remove a hundred mil- administration, which has hired members of hate
lion people without a massive element of violence.” groups into high-level positions and has on its staff
Such talk might seem absurd. But a growing num- people like Stephen Miller, the senior policy adviser
ber of white supremacists are embracing the ideology in the White House who has long been allied with
of “accelerationism.” In their view, political activity anti-immigrant hate groups. In November, the
is pointless, and escalating violence, on a broad scale, SPLC exposed hundreds of emails that Miller sent
is the only way to bring down the pluralistic, dem- to editors at the far-right Breitbart News during
ocratic society they want to destroy. The suspect in 2015 and 2016—including the time he worked on
New Zealand devoted a section of his manifesto to the Trump campaign—that revealed he was steeped
the concept, with the heading “Destabilization and in white nationalist literature and ideas. Among
Accelerationism: Tactics for Victory.” other things, he promoted the racist novel The
We are acutely aware of the growing threat from enemies, both foreign and
domestic, who seek to incite violence in our nation’s youth, disenfranchised and
disaffected, in order to attack their fellow citizens and fray at the seams of our
diverse social fabric. This awareness, coupled with the history of recent tragedies,
has galvanized the Department of Homeland Security to expand its counterterrorism
mission focus beyond terrorists operating abroad, to include those radicalized to
violence within our borders by violent extremists of any ideology.
—K E V IN M c A L EEN A N , FOR MER AC T ING SECR E TA RY OF HOMEL A ND SECURI T Y
The DHS, which for years has underplayed the Camp of the Saints and explicitly white nationalist
threat of terrorism from far-right domestic extrem- websites like American Renaissance and VDARE.
ists, in September announced a strategic shift toward Trump himself has made light of America’s white
countering racial hatred. Kevin McAleenan, then its nationalist problem—equivocating, at best. After
acting head, said recent mass shootings had “gal- the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville,
vanized the Department of Homeland Security to Virginia, in 2017, the president declared there were
expand its counterterrorism mission focus beyond “some very fine people on both sides,” apparently
terrorists operating abroad, to include those radical- including the racists who were marching and shout-
ized to violence within our borders by violent extrem- ing Nazi slogans at night and clashing with anti-
ists of any ideology.” Under the revised strategy, DHS racist activists in the daylight hours. After the New
would seek to better analyze the nature and extent Zealand massacre in 2019, Trump said of white
of the domestic terror threat and share information nationalists, “I think it’s a small group of people
with local law enforcement to help prevent attacks. that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”
At an invitation-only meeting attended by the Trump’s allies in the media also stoke fear of
SPLC in September at the National Counterterrorism demographic and cultural change among Trump’s
Center, leaders of federal law enforcement and intel- base of mostly white supporters. Fox News host
ligence agencies emphasized the white supremacist Tucker Carlson, who has a cable news audience
10 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTERin the millions, spent considerable more than 1 million monthly readers.
time in 2019 bashing immigrants and And Gab, the social media network
warning of demographic change. established in 2017 after mainstream
He has told his viewers that “the social media sites began to remove
world’s poor”—meaning immigrants— some bigots from their platforms in the
make this country “dirtier and more wake of the Charlottesville riots, has
divided” and that “litter is left almost reached nearly 1 million users.
exclusively by immigrants.” Carlson Certain sectors of the white suprem-
said that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of There’s no way to acist movement did grow in 2019. The
Minnesota—one of the first two number of white nationalist groups was
remove a hundred
Muslim women to serve in Congress— up slightly to 155 from 148 in 2018. Most
“hates” the United States and is “living million people notably, some are advocating violence
proof that the way we practice immi- without a massive and encouraging their foot soldiers to
gration has become dangerous to this element of violence. prepare for (and precipitate) a race war
country.” Other Fox hosts engaged in —A NDR E W “ WEE V ”
or mass civil conflict.
similar reactionary rhetoric. Jeanine AUR ENHEIMER The movement’s followers are
Pirro was briefly suspended after breaking into two major strategic
saying Omar’s religious beliefs were camps: so-called accelerationists who
“antithetical” to the U.S. Constitution. The net- wholeheartedly embrace violence as a political tool
work’s hosts repeatedly used the words “invaders” and “mainstreamers” (or the “dissident right,” as
and “invasion” when speaking of immigration. they often call themselves) who are attempting,
This type of rhetoric is not without consequence. with a degree of success, to bend the mainstream
After the Walmart massacre, a New York Times political right toward white nationalist ideas.
review of popular right-wing media platforms iden- Much of the movement’s energy lies in the grow-
tified what it described as “hundreds of examples ing accelerationist wing, which, for the most part,
of language, ideas and ideologies that overlapped is organized in informal online communities rather
with the mass killer’s written statement—a shared than formal groups.
vocabulary of intolerance that stokes fears centered The number of neo-Nazi groups declined from
on immigrants of color.” 112 to 59, and activism moved online. Two of the
biggest factions (comprising multiple chapters)
Hate By The Numbers fell apart in 2019. The Traditionalist Worker Party,
The overall number of hate groups active in 2019 which had 12 chapters in 2018, shrank to zero
dropped from the previous year, from 1,020 to last year, after its leader, Matthew Heimbach,
940—a decrease explained by the loss of two major was arrested in a domestic violence incident the
groups, and their individual chapters, rather than year before. And the National Socialist Movement
from a reduction in overall white supremacist (NSM), long the biggest Nazi formation of all, col-
activity. Meanwhile, organizing continues to move lapsed after its leader, Jeff Schoep, renounced
online. Major hate sites like the Daily Stormer have the movement and reportedly signed papers
HATE GROUPS 1999–2019
1018 1007 1020
1002
932 939 954 940
926 917
888 892
844
803 784
751 762
708
676
AP IMAGES/JULIO CORTEZ
602
457
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 11transferring its assets to James Stern, a Black The same can be said, to some extent, of racist
preacher in California who said he would shut skinheads, who are known for their shaved heads,
down the group. Stern’s death in October threw red suspenders and Doc Martens boots, and whose
the NSM further into chaos. Now, longtime mem- ranks also continue to fall. There were 63 such
ber Burt Colucci, the group’s former chief of staff, groups in 2018 and 48 in 2019.
claims that he has control. Other parts of the white supremacist movement
Groups that openly advocate violence, includ- have been stagnant or in decline. 2019 had about the
ing Feuerkrieg Division and the Base, grew in same number of Holocaust-denial groups and hate
2019. Perhaps more importantly, neo-Nazi activ- music sellers. Christian Identity churches dropped
ity is growing fastest in online forums. Fascist from 17 in 2018 to 11 in 2019.
Forge, built in the mold of the forum Iron March Black separatist hate groups declined to 255
(which spawned the group Atomwaffen), saw a chapters in 2019, from 264 the prior year. These
large influx of registered users in the past year. The groups lag far behind the hate groups fueled by var-
forum gained more than 1,000 registered users from ious forms of white supremacy. Typically holding
October 2018 to October 2019. Despite disappear- views that are antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ and anti-
ing from the web for a short period and changing white, they had been expanding in recent years,
domains, Fascist Forge had nearly 1,500 members at perhaps in reaction to rising white supremacy and
year’s end. The activity online is much larger than Trump’s abandonment of police reform and civil
this, and often hidden. The accelerationist groups rights. Even though they have little to no impact
have moved much of their private communications on mainstream politics and no high-level defend-
and recruitment to encrypted web chats and apps. ers in the media, the two antisemitic terror attacks
The Ku Klux Klan, already largely rejected as in the New York City area in 2019 demonstrate that
outmoded by most white supremacists, continued this ideology can influence individuals’ behavior.
to decline in numbers, though more slowly, with
47 chapters in 2019, down from 51 the year prior. The Anti-LGBTQ Movement Expands
With the exception of the American Christian Dixie Anti-LGBTQ groups have become intertwined with
Knights, most Klan groups stayed about the same the Trump administration, and—after years of civil
size and held few, poorly attended public events. For rights progress and growing acceptance among the
example, the Honorable Sacred Knights of Madison, broader American public—anti-LGBTQ sentiment
Indiana, held a Memorial Day Weekend rally in within the Republican Party is rising.
Dayton, Ohio, where only nine Klansmen showed Groups that vilify the LGBTQ community, in
up. They were confronted by approximately 1,000 fact, represented the fastest-growing sector among
peaceful protesters, and the city held a concurrent hate groups in 2019—expanding from 49 in 2018 to
peace rally several miles away to divert attention 70 in 2019, a nearly 43% increase.
from the Klan event. Such rallies demonstrate the Much of this growth has taken place among
groups’ relative inability to break with their rigid groups at the grassroots level, a surge possi-
traditions, thus limiting the Klan’s appeal to younger bly fueled by continued anti-LGBTQ sentiment
generations of tech-savvy white nationalists. and policy emanating from government officials.
They include a network of churches led by Steven
Anderson, who once called for President Obama’s
assassination and is pastor and head of the Faithful
Word Baptist Church—a hate group in Tempe,
Arizona—as well as several new chapters of Mass
Resistance, based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Though Trump promised during his campaign
to be a “real friend” to the LGBTQ community,
President Trump addressed the Values Voter Summit, hosted by
REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS
the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, in October
2019. FRC President Tony Perkins (left) boasted to attendees
that, with Trump in the White House, “We’re not on the outside
looking in; we’re on the inside working out.”
12 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTERhe has fully embraced anti-LGBTQ hate groups Stephen Miller, the senior White House adviser who oversees
and their agenda of dismantling federal protec- immigration policy, has longstanding ties to anti-immigrant
hate groups.
tions and resources for LGBTQ people, while his
Department of Justice has filed amicus briefs with
the Supreme Court in support of anti-LGBTQ law- Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Muslim Hostility Reigns
suits, some of which were brought by the anti- Anti-immigrant hate groups notched a small increase
LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. in their numbers in 2019—from 17 groups in 2018 to
In October 2019, Trump once again spoke in 20 in 2019. But their numbers, relative to other catego-
person to the Values Voter Summit, a gathering ries of hate groups, belie their vast influence and suc-
of religious-right organizations hosted by the cess in bringing what is essentially a white nationalist
hate group Family Research Council. In May, he ideology into the mainstream of politics and policy.
announced his opposition to the Federal Equality Though Michigan ophthalmologist John Tanton,
Amendment, which would add sexual orienta- a white nationalist and the architect of the modern
tion and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act as anti-immigrant movement, died in 2019, his ideas
protected categories regarding employment and are now deeply entrenched in the Trump adminis-
housing discrimination. tration, which has installed numerous people from
Staffers from organizations that vilify the the network he fathered in key government posi-
LGBTQ community have been hired by the Trump tions and adopted myriad harsh policies that seek
administration and have influenced and written its to carry out Tanton’s goal of dramatically curtail-
policies. Numerous protections for LGBTQ peo- ing the influx of nonwhite immigrants.
ple have been removed through executive action, In the third year of the Trump presidency, the
as when the Interior Department stripped “sexual movement enjoyed unprecedented access to the cor-
orientation” from its anti-discrimination guidelines ridors of power in Washington, D.C. Nowhere was
this year. In addition, the administration has consis- that more evident than in the White House itself,
tently claimed that laws and regulations that pro- where senior policy adviser Stephen Miller reigns
hibit discrimination on the basis of sex do not apply as the de facto czar of immigration policy. Previously
to LGBTQ people and has worked to install reli- a Senate aide to Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first attorney
gious exemptions to civil rights laws. general, Miller has long been known as a key bridge
GETTY IMAGES/CHIP SOMODEVILLA
According to a report by Lambda Legal, a third connecting policy-oriented, anti-immigrant hate
of the more than 50 U.S. circuit court judges nom- groups like the Federation for American Immigration
inated by Trump have a “demonstrated history of Reform (FAIR) and the Center for Immigration
anti-LGBTQ bias.” Lambda argues that the justice Studies (CIS) to their allies in Congress. But 2019
system is “now indisputably in a state of crisis.” brought new revelations. The SPLC exposed
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 13hundreds of emails he wrote to editors at the far-right Immigration Services (USCIS) to acting chief of
website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016—including policy and acting chief of staff, respectively. Former
some while he worked for the Trump campaign— FAIR lobbyist Elizabeth Jacobs is also at USCIS,
that revealed he was steeped in the language, litera- working as a senior adviser.
ture and ideology of the white nationalist movement. In November, FAIR President Dan Stein told
As Miller attempted, with great success, to influ- CBS News, “It certainly is delightful to see folks
ence Breitbart’s coverage of immigration issues, he that we’ve worked with in the past advance and
frequently forwarded materials from white nation- contribute to the various efforts of the administra-
alist websites. He blamed immigrants for bringing tion, most of which we support.”
violent crime into this country and suggested that Another FAIR ally, former Virginia Attorney
Breitbart write an article comparing remarks the General Ken Cuccinelli, was named in June to head
Pope made about open borders to the virulently rac- USCIS after former director Lee Francis Cissna was
ist French novel The Camp of the Saints. The apoc- pushed out of the agency. In November, Cuccinelli
alyptic fantasy, beloved by white supremacists, was named as acting deputy secretary of Homeland
luridly illustrates the “great replacement” theory by Security. He attended FAIR’s annual “Hold Their
depicting a European continent overrun by hordes Feet to the Fire” media conference in September
of disease-ridden, feces-eating Indian migrants. It and did a number of interviews with right-wing
was published in English by the Tanton-founded radio hosts broadcasting from the event. That same
hate group Social Contract Press. week, he spoke at the “Immigration Newsmaker”
To close observers of Trump administration hosted by the CIS, another hate group founded
AP IMAGES/ANDREW HARNIK (POMPEO); AP IMAGES/EVAN VUCCI (CUCCINELLI); AP IMAGES/CHARLIE RIEDEL (KOBACH)
policy, Miller’s animus toward nonwhite people by Tanton. Other anti-immigrant hate groups
came as little surprise. But it was confirmation have gloated about their influence. ProEnglish
that Trump’s policies are rooted in white nation- announced in fundraising emails that it had met
alist ideology. More than two dozen senators, all with White House aides six times over the past
Democrats, demanded Miller’s removal in a letter to three years, most recently in July 2019. CIS staff
the White House. Among them was Senator Chris testified at multiple congressional hearings in 2019.
Coons of Delaware, who called Miller “a cancer at Also in July, nativist hardliner, Trump adviser and
the very heart of the values of this administration.” former FAIR lawyer Kris Kobach announced he
Miller is just one of many Trump officials who was running for U.S. Senate in Kansas. Earlier in the
have connections with anti-immigrant hate groups. year, Kobach joined the board of We Build the Wall,
Robert Law and John Zadrozny, two former FAIR the GoFundMe campaign to raise private donations
staffers, were promoted within U.S. Citizenship and for Trump’s border wall.
FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups contin-
Shake-ups left anti-Muslim groups with fewer allies in the ued to court local law enforcement. Nearly 200 sher-
Trump administration. One powerful friend remained: CIA iffs from across the country attended Hold Their
Director Mike Pompeo (left). Ken Cuccinelli (center), who
has close ties to anti-immigrant groups, was named deputy Feet to the Fire. In October, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins
secretary of Homeland Security. Nativist hardliner and Trump of Frederick County, Maryland, spoke at the Social
ally Kris Kobach (right) announced a Senate bid. Contract Press’s annual writers’ workshop event.
14 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTERSP OTLIGHT ON TACTICS: A FLURRY OF FLYERING IN 2019
The distribution of flyers remained a common tactic With the name change also came a change in the aes-
employed by groups on the radical right in 2019. The thetic of its flyers. The group moved away from bor-
SPLC recorded more than 1,500 flyering incidents dur- derline innocuous slogans superimposed over marble
ing the year. statues of Greek gods into red, white and blue flyers
These flyers are used to recruit new members; steeped in nostalgia for Cold War propaganda.
intimidate and target individuals; respond to and In addition, members of Patriot Front nearly dou-
advertise public events; or simply promote a group’s bled the group’s efforts to hang its banners in pub-
bigotry. The content runs the gamut from mildly offen- lic places, while the number of banners displayed by
sive to overtly racist. members of American Identity Movement was more
As in 2018, white nationalist groups posted and dis- than halved. Unlike posting flyers, hanging a banner
tributed more flyers than groups in other sectors of signals a coordinated effort among a small collection
the radical right. of group members, likely illustrating the existence of
However, while Identity Evropa led the way in fly- a chapter in that area.
ering efforts in 2018, the number of Patriot Front fly- The number of Ku Klux Klan flyers disseminated
ers distributed in 2019 far exceeded any other group. in 2019 was significantly lower than the previous
Members of Patriot Front participated in a cam- year. The Loyal White Knights, based in Pelham,
paign to spread their rhetoric in both the collegiate and North Carolina, had previously carried out the major-
public spheres. Most notably, the group’s members ity of flyering incidents. However, as the number of
posted flyers on college campuses at least 335 times, its chapters dipped, so did its flyering efforts in 2019.
a six-fold increase over the 53 times they posted fly- Most notably, the Honorable Sacred Knights, based in
ers at academic institutions last year. This jump was Madison, Indiana, distributed flyers several times in
augmented by significant flyering efforts in the begin- advance of a poorly attended public Klan event over
ning months of the 2019 fall semester. Overall, Patriot Labor Day Weekend.
Front flyer drops (including those beyond campuses) Flyers were also covertly distributed by members of
rose by roughly 260 percent, reflecting considerable several neo-Nazi groups. In particular, flyers from the
growth in the number of chapters in 2019. Daily Stormer were used to target specific locations,
On the other hand, Identity Evropa, which led fly- such as Jewish heritage museums, various religious
ering incidents in 2018, failed to sustain its efforts in buildings and Planned Parenthood offices. Members
2019. Following the release of its Discord chat logs by of Patriot Front posted flyers at LGBTQ centers, while
the nonprofit organization Unicorn Riot in March, the American Identity Movement members used these
group rebranded as the American Identity Movement. materials to spread anti-trans rhetoric.
AMERICAN IDENTITY MOVEMENT/
IDENTITY EVROPA
KU KLUX KLAN
NJ EUROPEAN HERITAGE ASSOC.
PATRIOT FRONT
OTHER
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 15While anti-Muslim sentiment remains strong on the Republican base. Two years after his election,
the radical right—as well as within the Trump admin- extremist fears were crystallized by the Democratic
istration—the number of anti-Muslim hate groups wave in the midterms, when women of color—
fell from 100 in 2018 to 84 in 2019, and shake-ups at including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar,
the White House left the movement with far fewer Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib—made historic
allies in the halls of power. In August, John Bolton, gains in the House of Representatives.
an ally to anti-Muslim groups, was ousted as national In the month surrounding the 2018 midterms,
security adviser. Charles M. Kupperman, a top aide there were four domestic terrorist attacks, includ-
to Bolton who previously served on the board of the ing a series of malfunctioning pipe bombs mailed
Center for Security Policy (CSP), was tapped to serve to Trump critics by a supporter of the president.
as acting national security adviser but was replaced Now, as the 2020 election approaches, many
just eight days later. CSP is known for its conspirato- white supremacists see Trump’s re-election as a
rial warnings that Muslims are trying to overthrow last stand to stop the impending erosion of a white
the U.S. government from within and that Shariah majority. And there is little doubt that Trump will
law is overriding U.S. law in the courts. ratchet up his rhetoric by not only demonizing
Katharine Gorka, the wife of former White House immigrants but portraying Democrats and pro-
aide Sebastian Gorka who is also known for her gressives as existential threats to America. In what
Islamophobic views, left the DHS to take a job as a may be a preview of what lies ahead, last July he
spokesperson at U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted that Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and
but stepped down from that role in August. Frank Tlaib should “go back” to where they came from
Wuco, a former radio host who has associated with (all but Omar were born in the U.S.).
anti-Muslim figures and peddled Islamophobic con- There is little to suggest that the violence that has
spiracy theories, left a short-lived post as a senior accompanied the surge in white nationalism in recent
adviser on arms issues at the State Department after years will abate. Last July, a Pew Research Center
previous stints at the White House and DHS. poll found that 78 percent of Americans believe that
The movement did retain one powerful friend aggressive language by politicians makes violence
in Washington: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, more likely. And in recent months, as the campaign
who the hate group ACT for America has called a has ramped up, news reports have been replete with
“steadfast ally.” references—if not outright threats—of violence by
nervous Trump supporters, who have been warned
The Rage Will Continue in 2020 repeatedly by the president of massive voter fraud.
Anxiety over the country’s changing demographics At Trumpstock in Golden Valley, Arizona, last
will continue to be the No. 1 factor animating far- October, an attendee told The New York Times he
right extremists in the year ahead. Trump didn’t had been stockpiling weapons just in case Trump
create the fear of nonwhite immigrants but rather loses. “Nothing less than a civil war would happen,”
harnessed it to win the White House in 2016 and he said, reaching for a handgun. “I don’t believe in
continues to nurture it by fanning the flames of violence, but I’ll do what I got to do.”
resentment within the most extreme elements of Others might, as well.
AP IMAGES/MARY ALTAFFER
President Trump’s campaign rallies are polarizing affairs. In Manchester, N.H., on February 10, 2020,
16 Trump
SOUTHERN POVERTY
supporters LAW CENTER
began chanting “lock her up” when Trump mocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.NOTABLE EXTREMIST ATTACKS AND PLOTS IN 2019
Extremists across the United States and the world continued to launch attacks during 2019. But the worst
carnage came in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, when a white nationalist gunman attacked
two mosques, killing 51 people and injuring 49.
ATTACKS
APRIL 27
Poway, California
A man armed with an assault rifle
attacks the Chabad of Poway syna-
gogue on the last day of the Passover
holiday, killing a woman and injuring
three other people, including the rabbi.
Police arrested a 19-year-old man who
said, according to a federal affidavit,
that “Jewish people are destroying
the white race.” An online document
under the man’s name is filled with
racist slurs and white nationalist con-
spiracy theories, and the author says
he was inspired by the white nation- POWAY, CALIF.
alist terrorist in New Zealand.
JULY 28
GETTY IMAGES/AFP/SANDY HUFFAKER (POWAY); AP IMAGES/SIPA USA/YICHUAN CAO (GILROY)
Gilroy, California
A man opens fire with a semi-auto-
matic rifle at the Gilroy Garlic
Festival, killing three people—includ-
ing a 6-year-old boy and a 13-year-old
girl—and wounding 17. The attacker, a
19-year-old man, is shot multiple times
by police before killing himself at the
scene. A social media post attributed
to him touted the text Might is Right,
widely popular among white nation-
alists. The FBI opened a domestic ter-
rorism investigation after finding a GILROY, CALIF.
potential list of targets in his car.
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 17EL PASO, TEXAS
AUGUST 3 nearby cemetery. Both attackers, a 47-year-old man
El Paso, Texas and a 50-year-old woman, are killed during a pro-
A man opens fire with an AK-47 style assault rifle longed gunfight with police. News reports link the
in a Walmart, killing 22 and injuring 26, as parents man to a Black separatist movement and to antise-
and children take advantage of a tax-free shopping mitic posts online.
day before the beginning of school. After surren-
dering to police, the 21-year-old from Allen, Texas, DECEMBER 28
is charged with capital murder. Authorities believe Monsey, New York
he was the author of a racist, anti-immigrant screed A man armed with a machete bursts into a rabbi’s
posted online minutes before the attack. The author home and begins slashing people, wounding at least
expresses white nationalist themes about “ethnic six, during a Hanukkah celebration. Police charge a
displacement,” expresses displeasure at “race- 37-year-old man with six counts of attempted mur-
mixing,” refers to the attack as a response to the der in what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls
GETTY IMAGES/AFP/JOEL ANGEL JUAREZ (EL PASO); AP IMAGES/SETH WENIG (JERSEY CITY, N.J.); AP IMAGES/ALLYSE PULLIAM MOTAL (MONSEY, N.Y.)
“Hispanic invasion of Texas,” and mentions the an act of “domestic terrorism.” The man pleads
Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter. not guilty, and his family says he has a history of
mental illness and “no known history of antisemi-
DECEMBER 10 tism.” But authorities say they found hand-written
Jersey City, New Jersey journals with “several pages of antisemitic refer-
Three people are killed when two assailants open ences” at his residence. A criminal complaint says
fire at a kosher supermarket, and a police officer a journal appears to reference the Black Hebrew
is shot and killed moments earlier by the pair at a Israelite movement.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. MONSEY, N.Y.
18 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTERALLEGED PLOTS
Here are some of the most notable alleged extremist plots that led to arrests in 2019.
JANUARY 18 AUGUST 9
Greece, New York Winter Park, Florida
Police arrest four young men, some of them teens, Florida state police arrest Richard Dean Clayton,
who they say are plotting to detonate bombs at a 26, for allegedly threatening on Facebook to attack
200-member Muslim enclave in Delaware. They a Walmart a day after a gunman killed 22 people at
discussed the plot on a social media platform pop- a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Authorities say Clayton
ular among white supremacists. Police uncover a had a history of posting threats and racist and anti-
cache of 23 firearms and three explosive devices. semitic comments, including an image of a swastika
All four suspects plead guilty and are sentenced to and references to an ethnostate.
prison terms.
AUGUST 17
FEBRUARY 14 Youngstown, Ohio
Silver Spring, Maryland Police arrest self-described white nationalist James
The FBI arrests Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Patrick Reardon, 20, after searching his parents’
Hasson, 50, who was based at Coast Guard head- home and finding a cache of weapons, including
quarters in Washington, D.C., and confiscate a two assault rifles, a gas mask, bulletproof armor and
stockpile of weapons—including seven rifles, two a large amount of ammunition. Authorities say an
shotguns, four pistols, two revolvers and two silenc- Instagram post indicated he might be plotting an
ers—from his home. Prosecutors say he is a self- attack against a Jewish community center.
identified white nationalist and describe him in
court papers as a “domestic terrorist” who intended NOVEMBER 1
“to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen Pueblo, Colorado
in this country.” They say he had studied the mani- In a sting operation, the FBI arrests self-proclaimed
festo of the Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 peo- white supremacist Richard Holzer, 27, who they say
ple in 2011 and had been plotting to kill Democratic was plotting to blow up a historic synagogue and
politicians, professors, Supreme Court judges and poison congregants as part of a “racial holy war.”
“leftists in general.” Hasson pleads guilty to drug He was taken into custody when he picked up two
and weapons charges. pipe bombs and 14 sticks of dynamite from under-
cover agents and was wearing a Nazi armband and
AUGUST 8 carrying a copy of Mein Kampf.
Las Vegas
Following an investigation by
the FBI-led Joint Task Force on
Terrorism, agents seize bomb-making
materials and an AR-15 from the home
of Conor Climo, 23, who is charged
with a weapons violation. Prosecutors
say Climo communicated online with
white supremacists, including mem-
bers of two neo-Nazi groups, and
AP IMAGES/THE GAZETTE/CHRISTIAN MURDOCK
that he used encrypted messages to
discuss attacking a Las Vegas syna-
gogue and making improvised explo-
sive devices (IEDs). Investigators say
they found sketches portraying IEDs
and infantry squads attacking a gay PUEBLO, COLO.
bar in Las Vegas.
THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM 19YEAR IN TECHNOLOGY 2019
Even as research documented a link between online is always a matter of public interest, effectively pro-
speech and offline violence, internet companies strug- tects the speech of society’s most powerful figures,
gled in 2019 to prioritize public safety over the free- no matter whether it otherwise violates Twitter’s
dom of their users to post extremist content. At the rules against abusive language. The policy applies to
same time, they dove ever more deeply into ques- all government officials, politicians and similar pub-
tions about whether politicians should have greater lic figures who have more than 100,000 followers.
leeway than others to promote abusive—even racist— Twitter also said, however, that it would not use its
language and the same kind of demonizing falsehoods algorithm to promote such tweets.
and memes often disseminated by far-right extremists. It wasn’t long before a Trump tweet tested the
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google all new policy. In July, Twitter said that the president’s
announced new policies involving political content tweet telling U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
during a year that saw President Trump escalate his Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib—
attacks on the industry, accusing social media com- all women of color—to “go back” to their countries
panies of censoring conservative voices and threat- did not violate its rules against racism. The tweet
ening to regulate them in retaliation. did not, in fact, get a warning label.
Trump’s threats came as he began to It took a November tweet by Omar’s
ramp up a re-election campaign that will Republican challenger, Danielle Stella
undoubtedly feature a heavy dose of social —suggesting that Omar “should be
media messages that vilify his opponents hanged”—for Twitter to take meaning-
and rally a largely white base of sup- ful enforcement action against a polit-
port. And they came after several years ical candidate. Twitter said Stella’s
in which the industry has attempted to account was permanently disabled.
curtail the use of their services by white Like Twitter, YouTube struggled
nationalists and other extremists. to draw the line between public inter-
The strain that Trump’s own rheto- est and public harm. The video giant
ric put on the tech companies did not announced in September that politi-
stop executives like Facebook’s Mark We think people cians would be exempt from some of
Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey should be able to its content moderation rules.
from meeting privately with him. see for themselves Facebook took a similar tack. Nick
In June 2019, in response to mount- what politicians Clegg, its vice president of global affairs
ing criticism, Twitter announced that and communications, announced that it
politicians’ tweets containing threats or are saying. I don’t would exempt politicians from its third-
AP IMAGES/SIPA USA/OLIVER CONTRERAS/SIPA USA
abusive language could be slapped with think it’s right for party fact-checking program, which it
warning labels that would require users a private company uses to reduce the spread of false news
to click before seeing the content. But to censor politi- and other forms of viral misinforma-
the offensive tweets won’t be removed tion. In short, it means Facebook has
from the site under the policy, as might cians or the news decided to allow politicians to lie on its
those of a normal user. This policy shift, in a democracy. platform in their advertisements and
based on the idea that political speech —M A R K Z UCK ER BER G other forms of political speech.
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