THE YEAR IN HATE AND EXTREMISM A REPORT FROM THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER 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 REPORT FROM THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER ABOUT THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW 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 For media inquiries, please contact our press team at
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[email protected] Get the latest news and join the conversation. @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.