Indianapolis News and Headlines

Actions

These are the hate groups operating in Indiana

Posted at 4:30 PM, Nov 18, 2016
and last updated 2018-07-30 18:13:03-04

Editor's Note: This is an update to a story first published in November 2016.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are now as many as 31 hate groups operating in Indiana

The non-profit group monitors "hate groups and other extremists" in the U.S. The organization also maintains a national map of where hate groups are operating, including in Indiana.

Of the 31 groups the SPLC says are operating in Indiana, most it identifies as either neo-Nazi or racist skinhead, although it also says black separatist and "radical traditionalist" Catholic groups can be found in Indiana as well.

RELATED | Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map

In response to the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, hundreds of Hoosiers attended an impromptu counter-protest downtown at Monument Circle.

ALSO READ | How the Ku Klux Klan took over the state of Indiana

Below, find the organizations the SPLC has classified at hate groups in Indiana:

NEO-NAZI

Name: Gallows Tree Wotansvolk Alliance
Location: Statewide
Description: Wotanism is a form of modern paganism with white, ethnocentric beliefs imitating those found in 19th and 20th century Germany. Wotanists espouse white nationalism, white separatism and often oppose the U.S. and Judeo-Christianity.

Group: National Socialist Movement
Location: Statewide
Description: The National Socialist Movement bills itself as "America's premier white civil rights organization." The group promotes white European cultural heritage and white separation. Members must be non-Semitic heterosexuals of European descent.

Name: White Aryan Resistance
Location: Warsaw, Indiana
Description: According to the SPLC, "Neo-Nazi groups share a hatred for Jews and a love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. While they also hate other minorities, gays and lesbians and even sometimes Christians, they perceive 'the Jew' as their cardinal enemy."

Name: Daily Stormer
Location: Statewide
Description: Founded by Andrew Anglin, the Daily Stormer is a openly neo-Nazi website that bills itself as the “most genocidal Republican website.” The site draws its name from the Nazi propaganda sheet Der Stürmer.

NEO-VOLKISCH

Name: Hoosier Headhunters Fight Club
Location: Statewide
Description: According to the SPLC, he Neo-Volkisch movement veils its “ethnocentric beliefs in arguments for the necessity of separate societies, or tribes, to preserve all ethnicities.” The SPLC says the Neo-Volkisch movement promotes “hyper-masculine” imagery and the degradation and disrespect of women.

WHITE NATIONALIST

Name: American Freedom Party
Location: Statewide
Description: The American Freedom Party describes itself as a "nationalist party that shares the customs and heritage of the European-American people." The group's website describes itself as an alt-right party that represents the interests and issues of White Americans.

Name: Sons & Daughters of Liberty / American Guard
Location: Statewide
Description: The Sons & Daughters of Liberty is the political action wing of a group of “American constitutional nationalists” now operating in Indiana under the name of The American Guard. The group was formerly known as the Soldiers of Odin.

FULL STORY | Who are the American Guard? Constitutional nationalists, or skinheads in disguise?

Name: WTM Enterprises
Location: Roanoke, Indiana
Description: The SPLC defines white nationalist groups as those that "espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites."

Name: Traditionalist Worker Party
Location: Columbus, Indiana
Description: The SPLC says the Traditionalist Worker Party is a white nationalist group that advocates for racially pure nations and communities and blames Jews for many of the world’s problems. The Traditionalist Worker Party also reportedly operates the alt-right crowdfunding site GoyFundMe.

Name: Traditionalist Youth Network
Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Description: Founded in part by Indiana white supremacist Matthew Heimbach, the Traditionalist Youth Network has its origins in the Youth for West Civilization and White Student Union white nationalist groups. Heimbach has railed against blacks, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, and anyone else he perceives as a threat to white superiority.

RACIST SKINHEAD

Name: Aryan Strikeforce
Location: Statewide
Description: The Aryan Strikforce is a radical anti-Semitic organization that criticizes what it calls the "failed state of a Zionist-eroded governemnt" in the U.S.

Name: Blood & Honour Social Club Indiana
Location: Statewide
Description: The Blood & Honour Social Club is a U.K.-based international coalition of racist skinhead gangs.

Name: Vinlanders Indiana
Location: Knightstown, Indiana
Description: The SPLC says the Vinlanders Social Club was formed in 2003 by members of a "rogue racist skinhead group." They follow a racist version of paganism that reveres the Norse god Odin. The group is headquartered in Indiana.

Name: Firm 22
Location: Statewide
Description: Firm 22 is the name the racist skinhead Vinlanders Social Club uses to refer to supporters and associates who are not actually members, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The number 22 stands for the letter “V.”

Name: American Viking Clothing Co.
Location: Knightstown, Indiana
Description: The SPLC categorizes the American Viking Clothing Co. as a racist skinhead organization. The organization itself purports to be "Havamalist," which it describes as stemming from ancient Nordic heathen beliefs.

KU KLUX KLAN

Name: Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Location: Three chapters: Muncie, Kokomo & Indianapolis
Description: The Ku Klos Knights call themselves "white Christian patriots." They advocate for a "pure Christian America" and against race integration. They are part of the larger Ku Klux Klan organizational structure which has a long history of violence against blacks, Jews, immigrants, gays and Catholics.

Name: Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Location: Kokomo
Description: The Loyal White Knights recruit native born, white, American citizens of non-Jewish descent to propogate their message of white nationalism and white supremacy. They are part of the larger Ku Klux Klan organizational structure which has a long history of violence against blacks, Jews, immigrants, gays and Catholics.

Name: United Dixie White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Location: Statewide
Description: The United Dixie White Knights were a nationwide branch of the KKK. According to the group’s website, the group disbanded in June 2017.

Name: Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Location: Two chapters: Madison & Auburn
Description: The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are considered one of the most militant and violent chapters of the Klan in American history. The group originated in Mississippi in the early 1960s and has since spread to other states.

ANTI-MUSLIM

Name: Soldiers of Odin
Location: Statewide
Description: The Soldiers of Odin began in Europe as an anti-immigrant group that conducted vigilante patrols. It has since spread to the United States. Earlier this year, the Indiana chapter of the Soldiers of Odin rebranded itself as the American Guard.

BLACK SEPARATIST

Name: Israelite School of Universal & Practical Knowledge
Location: Indianapolis
Description: The SPLC characterizes the Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge as a black separatist organization. Such organizations, according to the SPLC, typically oppose integration and racial intermarriage and want separate institutions, or a separate nation, for black people in America.

Name: Nation of Islam
Location: Indianapolis
Description: The SPLC defines the Nation of Islam as a black separatist organization promoting a theology of innate black superiority over whites that is "deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay."

RADICAL TRADITIONALIST CATHOLICISM

Name: Culture Wars/Fidelity Press
Location: South Bend, Indiana
Description: According to the SPLC, "radical traditionalist" Catholics promote an anti-Semitic message that paints Jews as the "perpetual enemy of Christ."

Name: Campus Ministry USA
Location: Terre Haute, Indiana
Description: The SPLC describes anti-LGBT groups thusly: "Opposition to equal rights for LGBT people has been a central theme of Christian Right organizing and fundraising for the past three decades – a period that parallels the fundamentalist movement's rise to political power."

MORE TOP STORIES | 26-year-old from California charged in 'Brian Kil' Plainfield, Danville school threats case | Jason Brown, man accused of shooting Lt. Aaron Allan, arrives in court with head down, silent | Large pipeline collapses at Rolls-Royce plant on Indy's southwest side | In her words: Wife of Southport police Lt. Aaron Allan writes touching eulogy | Best public high schools in Indiana for 2018