Abbreviation | VA |
---|---|
Formation | 2015 |
Founder | Dillon Hopper (also known as Dillon Irizarry) |
Type | Neo-Nazism Neo-fascism White supremacism White nationalism |
Purpose | Promoting neo-Nazism/fascism and a white supremacist version of American nationalism |
Location |
|
Members | 200+ (2017) |
Affiliations |
|
Website | https://vanguardam.us/ |
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Vanguard America is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist organization. The organization is also a member of the Nationalist Front. [1] [2] The group gained significant attention after it was revealed that James Alex Fields had marched with them at the Unite the Right rally before being arrested on murder charges. [3] [4] The group has its roots in the alt-right movement. [5]
Vanguard America (VA) was founded in 2015, in California. The group was founded and is run by Dillon Hopper. In 2017, Hopper claimed membership of 200+ members. Hopper, a Marine Corps veteran who had served in Afghanistan, also claimed that "many" members were veterans but active duty service members were barred from affiliating with the group until their contract had ended for their "safety". [6] [note 1] Hopper also states that local branches exist in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. In July 2017, it also created a women's division. [1] [2]
In June of 2017 the group held a "Texas is Ours" rally in Austin, Texas and during the event the leader of the Texan branch, Thomas Rousseau, gave a lengthy speech and largely sidelined VA's leader Dillon Hopper. After the rally Hopper began to engage in a public feud with Rousseau, accusing him of attempting to portray himself as the leader of VA. [7]
The group had a presence in the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 led by Thomas Rousseau with Hopper entirely absent. James Alex Fields, who was later responsible for killing a counter protester and injuring 19 others in a vehicle-ramming attack, was seen marching with the group and carrying a shield displaying a symbol associated with Vanguard America. [8] The leadership later disavowed him, stating that he was not a member of the group. [1] [3] [4] The group took part in the "White Lives Matter" rally in October 2017. [9] On December 18, 2017, its account was suspended by Twitter. [10]
After the rally, as Hopper was largely dealing with the fallout of Fields' action, Rousseau and his Texas branch of the VA split in August to form Patriot Front. As Patriot Front siphoned off most of the VA's more moderate Neo-Fascists, the remaining Neo-Nazis within the VA again started a feud with Hopper, with the remains of the Texas, as well as the Tennessee branch, splitting in January 2018 to form the National Socialist Legion. Since then, the Anti-Defamation League has stated that VA "has shown very few signs of life." [7]
The group supports the Nazi concept of blood and soil. [11]
The group is best known for its racist and anti-Semitic flyers they put up in various towns. [12] This strategy would be carried over by Patriot Front.
The League of the South (LS) is an American white nationalist, neo-Confederate, white supremacist organization that says its goal is "a free and independent Southern republic".
The National Socialist Movement is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United States. Once considered to be the largest and most prominent Neo-Nazi organization in the United States, since the late 2010s its membership and prominence have plummeted. It was a part of the Nationalist Front and it is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
An illuminated procession is a procession held after dark so that lights carried by the participants form a spectacle. The lights will commonly be of the same type, so making a candlelight procession, lantern parade or torchlight march.
Matthew Warren Heimbach is an American white supremacist and National Bolshevik. He has attempted to form alliances between several far-right extremist groups.
Richard Bertrand Spencer is an American political commentator mostly known for his neo-Nazi, antisemitic and white supremacist views. Spencer claimed to have coined the term "alt-right" and was the most prominent advocate of the alt-right movement from its earliest days. He advocates for the reconstitution of the European Union into a white racial empire, which he believes will replace the diverse European ethnic identities with one homogeneous "White identity".
The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) was a neo-Nazi political party active in the United States between 2013 and 2018, affiliated with the broader "alt-right" movement that became active within the U.S. during the 2010s. It was considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center's list.
The Right Stuff is a neo-Nazi and white nationalist blog and discussion forum and the host of several podcasts, including The Daily Shoah. Founded by American neo-Nazi Mike Enoch, the website promotes Holocaust denial, and coined the use of "echoes", an antisemitic marker that uses triple parentheses around names to identify Jewish people.
Identity Evropa was an American far-right, neo-Nazi, neo-Fascist, and white supremacist organization established in March 2016. It was rebranded as the American Identity Movement in March 2019. In November 2020, the group disbanded. Leaders and members of Identity Evropa, such as former leader Elliot Kline, praised Nazi Germany and pushed for what they described as the "Nazification of America".
Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich, more commonly known as Mike Enoch, is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, blogger, and podcast host. He founded the alt-right media network The Right Stuff and podcast The Daily Shoah. Through his work, Enoch ridicules African Americans, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and white genocide.
The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and far-right militias. Some groups chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present antisemitic and anti-Islamic groups. The organizers' stated goals included the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park. The rally sparked a national debate over Confederate iconography, racial violence, and white supremacy. The event had hundreds of participants.
Jason Eric Kessler is an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11–12, 2017, and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12, 2018.
Christopher Charles Cantwell, also known as the Crying Nazi, is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist.
On August 12, 2017, DeAndre Harris, a Black man, was assaulted by six White men in an attack in a parking garage next to the police headquarters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Images and video of the assault captured by photojournalist Zach Roberts went viral and became a symbol of the enmity underlying the protest.
The Nationalist Front was a loose coalition of radical right and white supremacist organizations. The coalition was formed in 2016 by leaders of the neo-Nazi groups National Socialist Movement (NSM) and Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). Its aim was to unite white supremacist and white nationalist groups under a common umbrella. Originally the group was named the Aryan Nationalist Alliance and was composed of neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan and White power skinhead organizations.
Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.
Anti-Communist Action, also shortened to Anticom, is a right-wing to far-right political organization based in the United States and Canada. The group has described itself as "the right's response to antifa." Anticom has espoused neo-Nazi ideology and members have attended neo-Nazi events. The group has done security for various alt-right and white supremacist rallies. Anticom has overlapping membership with the neo-Nazi terrorist group Atomwaffen Division and has shared information on combat and bomb-making.
Thomas Ryan Rousseau is an American Neo-Fascist known for founding and leading the Patriot Front.
The Rise Above Movement (RAM) is a militant alt-right Southern California-based street fighting group which has variously been described as "a loose collective of violent neo-Nazis and fascists", white nationalists, white supremacists, and far-right persons. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), it "is inspired by identitarian movements in Europe and it is trying to bring their philosophies and violent tactics to the United States." Its members are primarily located in the areas of Orange County and San Diego, and as of 2018, have been variously numbered at 20 to 50.
Sines v. Kessler was a civil lawsuit against various organizers, promoters, and participants in the Unite the Right rally, a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. The trial began in October 2021, and on November 23, the jury reached a mixed verdict in which they found various defendants liable on claims of civil conspiracy and race-based harassment or violence. They also found James A. Fields Jr., the perpetrator of the car attack against counterprotesters at the rally, liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm. Altogether, the jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $25 million in punitive and compensatory damages, though this was later reduced by the judge to $2.35 million.
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