(New York, N.Y.) – In his testimony at last week’s hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the January 6 Capitol riot, FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators domestic extremists pose a threat to national security. Wray explained that the attack on the Capitol was “the latest incarnation of violent white supremacist movements that have terrorized fellow Americans on the basis of their race, religion and national origin for more than 150 years,” and that since June 2019 the FBI has prioritized violent acts of extremism motivated by racial or ethnic hatred to the same degree it has prioritized combating ISIS and homegrown terrorists.

CEP’s White Supremacy Groups in the United States resource provides an overview of the history, propaganda, violent activities, and notable rhetoric of the most active and virulent white supremacist groups in the United States.

Since the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) first formed in 1865, white supremacist groups in the United States have propagated racism, hatred, and violence. Individuals belonging to these groups have been charged with a range of crimes, including civil rights violations, racketeering, solicitation to commit crimes of violence, firearms and explosives violations, and witness tampering. Nonetheless, white supremacist groups––and their extremist ideologies––persist in the United States today. In an October 2020 assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf declared that white supremacist violent extremists “have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years.”

To read CEP’s White Supremacy Groups in the United States, please click here.