55 Hate Groups In Texas, Include KKK, Black Panthers, And Anti LGBT

HOUSTON, TX — Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is taking a stand against against hate groups and in a statement on Sunday named specific groups, such as the White Nationalists, White Lives Matter, Neo Nazis and the KKK as groups whose message of hate and division won’t be tolerated in Houston.

Turner's remarks came a day after a violent protest between White Nationalists and members of ANTIFA clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia, left a young woman dead and injured 19 others. (Want to get daily updates about traffic news and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Houston Patch morning newsletter.)

Turner, who since his election in 2015 has celebrated the diversity of Houston, called on leaders on the local level to resist the message of hate and division in their neighborhoods, KTRK reported.

"Now is the time more than ever, now is the time, especially as leaders at our level to draw a red line," Turner said. "When it comes to Nazi groups, when it comes to the KKK, when it comes to the white supremacists and white nationalism...we cannot be ambiguous."

While Turner’s comments specifically addressed White Supremacist groups, there are other groups in the Houston area that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, spread their own message of division.

Those groups in the Houston area include:

• Israel United In Christ: Black Separatists Group (Houston)
• Nation of Islam: Black Separatists Group (Houston)
• Conservative Republicans of Texas: Anti-LGBT (Houston)
• New Black Panther Party: Black Separatists Group (Tomball)
• League of the South: Neo Confederate (Conroe and La Porte)
• Yahushua Dual Seed Christian Identity: Anti-Semitic (Livingston)

While the KKK was not among the most prominent hate groups on the SPLC list in Houston, there seems to have been a push in recent months to recruit new members or incite fear.

RELATED: Texas City Residents Upset After Finding KKK Recruiting Literature In Front Yard

In May, residents in a racially diverse Texas City neighborhood were shocked to find recruiting literature from the KKK in bags of candy in their yards.

The small bags of candy were tossed on lawns and driveways along 27th Avenue sometime that night, officials said. Tucked inside the plastic bags of candy was a message written in bold black letters from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan that read: "Help save our race! Join the best or die like the rest” and “Say No To Cultural Genocide.”

Statewide there are 55 hate groups in Texas, with the highest concentration of groups near the metro areas such Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Austin.

However, some of those groups are not considered active by the SPLC.

Outside the Lone Star State, divisiveness and hate seem to have taken a foothold.

In fact, these groups, which have been growing since the mid 1990s, surged in 2008 when President Barack Obama was elected, and continued to surge through 2012.

However, with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, groups aligned with the Alt-Right movement, and those who follow a more anti-government slant in thir political leanings also increased in popularity.

In July, 24/7 Wall St. published an article outlining the top 10 states in the U.S with the most hate groups, based on the population.

Most of those states were not surprisingly located in the southern U.S., and while many of those groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood and the KKK espouse views of white supremacy, where were also fringe groups of black separatists in some of those same areas.

Those states include:

• Mississippi: With a population of 3 million and 22 active hate groups, Mississippi has the highest concentration of hate groups in the country.
• Arkansas: In the city of Harrison alone, there are four distinct Ku Klux Klan chapters.
• Idaho: Has one of the highest concentrations of hate groups in the country. It is one of the least populous states in the country yet it has 10 active hate groups.
• New Jersey: has 40 separate active hate groups, the fourth most in the country. Numerous hate groups may have increased the likelihood of hate crimes — 447 hate crimes were reported in New Jersey in 2013, the third most in the country.
• Tennessee: Tennessee is the 17th-most populous state, but it has 29 active hate groups, which is the seventh most in the country.
• South Carolina: White supremacy is a key component of the ideologies in 16 of the state’s 19 active hate groups, including the racist skinhead group out of Columbia, Confederate Hammerskins.
• Alabama: Alabama has one of the highest concentrations of hate groups in the country.
• Kentucky: Racist white supremacist organizations, including neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations, several Ku Klux Klan chapters, and the neo-Confederate Southern National Congress, make up a bulk of the state’s hate groups.
• Virginia: Unlike most states with the highest concentrations of active hate groups, Virginia residents are relatively well educated.
• Louisiana: There are 15 active hate groups in Louisiana, or 3.2 per 1 million state residents, the 10th highest proportion nationwide.

A majority of those states had hate groups in areas where the income and education levels were below average. The exceptions were New Jersey and Virginia, 24/7 Wall St. reported.

Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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