The NSM is described by the Anti-Defamation League as "one of the more explicitly neo-Nazi groups in the United States." It seeks the transformation of the United States into a white ethnostate from which Jews, non-Whites, and members of the LGBTQ community would be expelled and barred from citizenship.[4][15]
History
The National Socialist Movement was founded in 1974 in St. Paul, Minnesota, by Robert Brannen and Cliff Herrington. Originally known as the "National Socialist American Workers Freedom Movement", it was one of several groups that split off from the American Nazi Party after the assassination of George Lincoln Rockwell.
Brannen originally served as the group's leader, but in 1983, Herrington succeeded him after Brannen had suffered multiple strokes. The group was tiny and largely unknown until 1993 when Herrington and another member wore Nazi uniforms to a Minnesota legislative committee hearing to protest a proposed gay rights bill.[16]
Jeff Schoep
In 1994, Jeff Schoep became the group's chairman,[17] a position which he held until January 2019.[18] Herrington remained co-chairman of the NSM until 2006. That year, he and his family left the NSM after conflict within the NSM between various religious factions following the discovery that his wife, Andrea Herrington, was the "high-priestess" of the theistic Satanist organization and website Joy of Satan Ministries. At the time, Joy of Satan Ministries shared a P.O. box address with an Oklahoma chapter of the NSM.[19][20][21]
The National Socialist Movement was responsible for leading the demonstration which sparked the 2005 Toledo riot.[22] In April 2006, they held a rally on the State Capitol steps in Lansing, Michigan, which was met by a larger counter-rally and ended in scuffles.[23]
In January 2007, Gordon Creal Young, a former Ku Klux Klan leader in Maryland who had disbanded his chapter to join the NSM was arrested for statutory rape. He was accused of forcing an underaged girl to perform fellatio on him on two separate occasions.[24]
In December 2007, the organization's headquarters was moved to Detroit, Michigan.[16]
NSM rally on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol building, Washington, D.C., 2008
In January 2008, Mariusz Wdziekonski, a 21-year old NSM member was charged after vandalizing 57 graves at the Westlawn Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Illinois. He was a Polish immigrant who had been in the United States since 2004. On December 17, 2010, he was convicted on two counts of felony vandalism and sentenced to 7 years in prison, the maximum sentence.[25][26]
In January 2009, the National Socialist Movement sponsored a half-mile section of U.S. Highway 160 outside of Springfield, Missouri, as part of the Adopt-A-Highway Trash Cleanup program.[27] The highway was later renamed the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway" by the state legislature.[28]
In 2009, the National Socialist Movement had 61 chapters in 35 states, making it the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.[29]
On April 17, 2010, 70 members of the National Socialist Movement demonstrated in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, drawing a counter protest of hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators.[8]
On May 1, 2011, Jeff Hall, a leader of the California branch of the National Socialist Movement, was killed by his 10-year-old emotionally troubled son, who claimed he was tired of Hall beating him and his stepmother.[30] Hall had run in 2010 for a seat on the board of directors of a Riverside County water board, a race in which he earned approximately 30% of the vote.[31] Around this time, the National Socialist Movement was described by The New York Times as being "the largest supremacist group, with about 400 members in 32 states, though much of its prominence followed the decay of Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi groups".[3]
The National Socialist Movement held a rally on September 3, 2011, in West Allis, Wisconsin, to protest incidents at the Wisconsin State Fair on August 5, 2011, when a large crowd of young African-Americans allegedly targeted and beat white people as they left the fair around 11 p.m. Police claimed that the incident began as a fight among African-American youths that was not racially motivated.[32][33] Dan Devine, the mayor of West Allis, stated on September 2, 2011, "I believe I speak for the citizens when I say they [the National Socialist Movement] are not welcome here."[34]
On September 22, 2013, the NSM held a meeting in Leith, North Dakota in support of Craig Cobb's attempt to turn the town into a neo-Nazi stronghold. The meeting was met by a counterprotest drawing hundreds of participants, most of whom were Native Americans from the Standing Rock Reservation and other nearby reservations.[35]
In November 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, the organization replaced the swastika in its logo and flag with the othala rune in an attempt to enter mainstream politics.[38][39]
In January 2017, the pilot of the television series Hate Thy Neighbor featured the National Socialist Movement and prominent member Daniel Burnside.
The attacker was not an NSM member, although he had been photographed holding a shield that was handed out by Vanguard America, which was part of the Nationalist Front. Vanguard America condemned the attack and said the attacker was not a member but rather the shields had been handed out to anyone interested. [41]
Nonetheless, the legal consequences stemming from their participation in Charlottesville lead to the collapse of the Nationalist Front and the decline of the NSM. Their last significant rally would be held in October 2017, a "White Lives Matter" rally in Shelbyville, Tennessee which drew around 100 white supremacists and around 200 counter-protestors. An additional rally was planned in nearby Murfreesboro but was cancelled, although the accompanying counter-protest and anti-racist march was not cancelled and drew nearly 1,000 participants.[42] Schoep's Twitter account was suspended on December 18, 2017.[43][44] By February 2018, the Nationalist Front had crumbled.[4][15]
In April 2018, the NSM's annual rally to celebrate Hitler's birthday drew only around two dozen participants and around 100 counter-protestors.[15] In November 2018, the National Socialist movement held a rally at the Arkansas State Capitol, which would be their last under the leadership of Schoep. Twenty people participated, and one member was seen carrying the flag of the AWB as well as the flag of apartheid-era South Africa.[45]
On February 28, 2019, the Associated Press reported that, according to Michigan corporate records, Schoep had been replaced as director and president of the National Socialist Movement in January by James Hart Stern, a Blackcivil rights activist.
In 2014, Stern and Schoep became friends when Schoep called Stern to ask about his connection to Edgar Ray Killen, the head of the Klan chapter that Stern dissolved [fn 3]. When Stern learned that Schoep was a white supremacist, he arranged for a meeting between the two men. They engaged in debates about the Holocaust, the swastika, White nationalism, and the fate of the National Socialist Movement, with Stern attempting to change Schoep's mind. He could not do that, but in 2019, Schoep came to him and asked for his advice concerning the group's legal problems. Schoep had wanted to leave the NSM because he feared the legal repercussions of their involvement in the Unite the Right rally. Stern then encouraged Schoep to turn control of the NSM over to him, and Schoep agreed. [18]
Stern did not plan to dissolve the movement, in order to prevent any of its former members from reincorporating it, but he planned to use his position to undermine the group and he also planned to turn the group's website into a website which would contain lessons about the Holocaust. [18]
Stern filed documents with a Federal court in Virginia, asking that it issue a judgment against the group before one of the pending Charlottesville-related lawsuits went to trial, but because the law does not allow a corporation to be its own attorney, Stern looked for outside counsel to re-file the papers. [18]
In a blog post, Stern took credit for Schoep's decision to replace the swastika with the othala rune as the group's symbol, and he also said that he would be meeting with Schoep to sign a proclamation in which the movement would disavow white supremacy.[47][46]
The group's former community outreach director, Matthew Heimbach, commented that Schoep had been in conflict with its membership, which resisted the ideological changes that Schoep wished to make, because they believed that the group should continue to exist as "a politically impotent white supremacist gang". Heimbach estimated that the group had 40 dues-paying members as of 2018. In a video posted on his blog, Stern took credit for "eradicating" the National Socialist Movement.[47][46]
Burt Colucci
In March 2019, Schoep announced that he was leaving the NSM and he was giving his position to Burt Colucci. He declared that Stern was not the legitimate leader of the organization.[48][49] Since then, Schoep has renounced his racist past and he has also renounced his involvement in all racist groups.[50]
The dispute over the leadership of the NSM led to a legal battle between Stern and Colucci, and as a result, each of them filed corporation registrations in their respective home states: Stern filed his corporation registration in California and Colucci filed his corporation registration in Florida. The original incorporation in Michigan was dissolved in June 2019. Stern died of cancer in October 2019, leaving Colucci as the de facto leader of the NSM, and resulting in the cancellation of a final hearing to settle the dispute.[51][52]
After Colucci took control of the NSM, he reversed Schoep's decision to use the othala rune as the group's symbol, and as a result, the group resumed its use of the swastika. The NSM's website states that Schoep's decision was reversed because the othala rune "has no power."[4][53]
The NSM does not keep an official count of its membership, but according to the Anti-Defamation League, since Colucci took control of the NSM, its membership has fallen to one or two dozen and it has continued to fail to attract a significant amount of participation at its events, leading the ADL to comment that the dispute between Stern and Colucci negatively impacted the group's reputation.[4]
Colucci and nine other members of the NSM protested against a Detroit pride festival in June 2019, in a rally that garnered international attention, during which NSM members destroyed (and pretended to urinate on) an Israeli flag.[10]
In April 2021, Colucci was arrested after he committed aggravated assault against a Black man in Phoenix, Arizona. Witnesses said he pulled a gun and aimed it at the man, and he also made threatening remarks. The incident began with a dispute over trash pickup. His bail was set at $7,500. Two days before his arrest, he led a group of 15 members of the National Socialist Movement in a rally, but they expected that 100 people would attend the rally.[54]
On November 23, 2021, a federal court in Virginia found the National Socialist Movement and its former leader, Jeff Schoep, liable on charges of civil conspiracy in the Sines v. Kessler case against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally.[15]
In January 2022, Colucci was arrested again along with two other members of the NSM after they attacked David Newstat, a Jewish man who confronted them during a rally. Colucci and one other member were both charged with assault, and the other member was charged with grand theft.[55] Colucci was not convicted until April 2024. He was found guilty of misdemeanor battery, although he had originally been charged with assault and battery with hate crime enhancements. He was scheduled to be sentenced on May 2, 2024.[needs update][56]
In June 2023, Colucci led 4 other members in a rally in Lakeland, Florida, but he also expected that 100 people would attend this rally.[57][58]
In 2024, long-time member Daniel Burnside,[who?] who had previously received international media attention, left the NSM, denounced the far-right, and asked for forgiveness for his past.[59][relevant?]
↑ Ownership of the organization is disputed between Colucci and the estate of James Hart Stern, although Colucci is the de facto leader and controls the NSM website.
↑ NSM88 is sometimes used to distinguish the group from other entities using the NSM abbreviation, and NSM88 is used in the URL of the group's website. It combines the group's initials and the number 88, which is an abbreviation for "Heil Hitler" used by neo-Nazis.
↑ Stern met Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in prison while Stern was serving a 5-year sentence for wire fraud and the two shared a cell. Before he died, Killen gave Stern power of attorney and land rights, which Stern utilized to dissolve the Klan chapter.[46]
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↑ "What is National Socialism? FAQ"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on October 25, 2020. Multiculturalism, globalism, communism, and capitalism cause conflict within nations, but also between different racial groups and communities.
↑ •Zaitchik, Alexander (October 19, 2006). "The National Socialist Movement Implodes". SPLCenter.org. Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2020. The party's problems began last June, when Citizens Against Hate discovered that NSM's Tulsa post office box was shared by The Joy of Satan Ministry, in which the wife of NSM chairman emeritus Clifford Herrington is High Priestess. [...] Within NSM ranks, meanwhile, a bitter debate was sparked over the propriety of Herrington's Joy of Satan connections. [...] Schoep moved ahead with damage-control operations by nudging chairman emeritus Herrington from his position under the cover of "attending to personal matters." But it was too late to stop NSM Minister of Radio and Information Michael Blevins, aka Vonbluvens, from following White out of the party, citing disgust with Herrington's Joy of Satan ties. "Satanism," declared Blevins in his resignation letter, "affects the whole prime directive guiding the [NSM] – SURVIVAL OF THE WHITE RACE." [...] NSM was now a Noticeably Smaller Movement, one trailed in extremist circles by a strong whiff of Satanism and related charges of sexual impropriety associated with Joy of Satan initiation rites and curiously strong teen recruitment efforts. •"National Socialist Movement". SPLCenter.org. Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center. 2020. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2020. The NSM has had its share of movement scandal. In July 2006, it was rocked by revelations that co-founder and chairman emeritus Cliff Herrington's wife was the "High Priestess" of the Joy of Satan Ministry, and that her satanic church shared an address with the Tulsa, Okla., NSM chapter. The exposure of Herrington's wife's Satanist connections caused quite a stir, particularly among those NSM members who adhered to a racist (and heretical) variant of Christianity, Christian Identity. Before the dust settled, both Herringtons were forced out of NSM. Bill White, the neo-Nazi group's energetic spokesman, also quit, taking several NSM officials with him to create a new group, the American National Socialist Workers Party.
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