Southern Poverty Law Center Identifies 54 Hate Groups In Texas

AUSTIN, TX — The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 54 hate groups in Texas — including seven in the capital city — in its annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report released Monday.

According to the report, the total number of active hate groups in the U.S. has declined for the second year in a row, with 838 groups identified in 2020 — an 11 percent drop from the previous year. But researchers caution "...we are still recording historic highs," with the number of groups jumping from 784 to 892 in 2015 while remaining "...well above 800 for the duration of the Trump presidency," according to the report.

Moreover, the study's authors noted, the number of hate groups is just one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in the U.S. and the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate.

"The SPLC has begun conducting polling as an additional tool to measure extremist sentiment," researchers wrote. "Our August 2020 polling, for example, revealed that 29 percent of Americans personally know someone who believes that white people are the superior race."

The study's authors explained they define a hate group as "...an organization or collection of individuals that — based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities — has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate group. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations."

The upshot: "The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity — prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines."

Texas is not immune to harboring such hate in some quarters. According to the hate map, there are 54 such groups across the state from Austin to Waxahachie.

• 14 FIRST: Neo-Nazi, statewide.
• Act for America (2 chapters): Anti-Muslim, Austin and Houston.
• Ambassadors of Christ: General hate, Houston.
• American Freedom Party: White Nationalist, Granbury.
• Asatru Folk Assembly: Neo-völkisch, statwide.
• Atomwaffen Division: Neo-Nazi, statewide.
• Bureau on American Islamic Relations: anti-Muslim, Irving.
• Carolynyeager.net: General hate, Kerrville.
• Church of the Ku Klux Klan: Ku Klux Klan, Dekalb.
• Concerned Christian Citizens: Anti-LGBTQ, Temple.
• Cursus Honorum Foundation: White nationalist, Austin.
• Great Millstone (2 chapters): General hate, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio.
• Identity Dixie: Neo-Confederate, statewide.
• ISD Records/NS88 Video: Hate music, Denison.
• Israel United in Christ (6 chapters): General hate, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio.
• Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (3 chapters): General hate; Austin, Dallas, Houston.
• Last Frontier Evangelism-Repent Alaska: General hate, Amarillo.
• Mass Resistance (3 chapters): Anti-LGBTQ; Austin, Dallas, San Antonio.
• Mountain of Israel: General hate, Houston.
• Nation of Islam (5 chapters): General hate; Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio.
• National Reformation Party: White nationalist, statewide.
• Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131): Neo-Nazi, statewide.
• New Black Panther Party: General hate, Houston.
• Onebody in Yahawashi: General hate, Dallas.
• Patriot Front: White nationalist, statewide.
• Patriotic Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Ku Klux Klan, Gladewater.
• Power of Prophecy: General hate, Spicewood.
• Probe Ministries: Anti-LGBTQ, Plano.
• Proud Boys: General hate, Austin.
• Rural Nexion: Neo-Nazi, statewide.
• Sicarii 1715: General hate, Dallas.
• Stedfast Baptist Church: Anti-LGBTQ, Fort Worth.
• Texans For Immigration Reduction and Enforcement: Anti-immigrant, Houston.
• The Remembrance Project: Anti-immigrant, Houston.
• Tom Brown Ministries: Anti-LGBTQ, El Paso.
• Truth in Textbooks: Anti-Muslim, Boerne.
• Understanding the Threat: Anti-Muslim, Dallas.
• Woden's Folk Kindred: Neo-völkisch, Waxahachie.

For more information, read the full Year in Hate and Extremism report.