Last year, Virginia saw more than 400 incidents of extremism — including more than 300 incidents involving a white nationalist group Patriot Front. That's according to the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.
Jeff Tischauser at the Southern Poverty Law Center says this is a group that likes to see itself as offering a patriotic message. "You'll notice at their marches, they'll waive the 13 stars flag, the Betsy Ross flag, which was a flag that was waived before 1783. So in their mind this is the more authentic flag to waive," Tischauer says. "So they have this kind of Americana schtick where they are trying their best to try to pull people in from a more mainstream movement."
The propaganda messages on lamp posts and stop signs include things like “America First," "strong families make strong nations," "no foreign wars," and "defend American labor."
Peter Simi at Chapman University says their messages are crafted for recruitment. "By defend labor what they really mean is that they are strongly opposed to immigration, in particular what they would call non-white immigration. They claim we have an open border and we are being overtaken by non-white immigrants," Simi says. "So when they say defend labor, they mean defend white labor."
Virginia ranks number four out of the states for the documented incidents of hate and extremism, according to the database compiled by the Anti-Defamation League.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
