The Southern Poverty Law Center works to dismantle white supremacy in public forums and online, exposes hate and anti-democracy extremism, and counters disinformation and conspiracy theories with research and community resources. The Intelligence Project monitors and exposes white supremacy and its impact on communities.
Anti-democracy efforts
- A leaked Signal chat revealed Kristin Noble, a New Hampshire state representative and vice chair of the state’s House Education Policy and Administration Committee, expressing support for segregated schools. She wrote: “When we have segregated schools we can add all the fun stuff lol. … Imagine the scores if we had schools for them and some for us.” Noble was recognized as one of the 2023-24 “Heroes of the Family” by Cornerstone Policy Research, the New Hampshire arm of the anti-LGBTQ+ Family Policy Alliance, the political arm of Focus on the Family.
Militia and antigovernment movement activity
- Anti-student inclusion group PragerU has announced a partnership with Southeastern University. The Lakeland, Florida, private school will offer a credited course, “American History Through Presidential Biographies,” which will combine professor-created curriculum, reading materials and PragerU’s five-minute videos.
- The Alabama Public Library Service denied funding to a public library in Baldwin County for refusing to move books flagged as being “sexually explicit” from the teen section to the adult section. Most of the books in question, including The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, have appeared on banned book lists circulated by anti-student inclusion groups like Moms for Liberty.
- The executive boards of four long-standing Florida Moms for Liberty chapters — Indian River, Pasco, Pinellas and Seminole counties — released a joint statement informing members that they have closed and ceased operations. The reason cited was: “Moms for Liberty National leadership ignored catastrophic issues within the Moms for Liberty Florida Legislative Committee that were repeatedly brought to their attention.” The statement expressed frustration with the national leadership choosing to suspend the Florida Legislative Committee for the 2026 legislative session instead of enforcing code-of-conduct violations.
- Press reports noted that a Jan. 17 anti-Somali protest in Minneapolis organized by Jake Lang was “vastly” outnumbered by counterprotesters who successfully blocked a planned Quran burning. Sharing the event on social media, Lang declared, “America is a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY.” A GiveSendGo by Lang was quickly created after the event, and it raked in over $12,000 in the first week. Lang announced plans to return to Minneapolis for a protest at the Minnesota Capitol building on Feb. 7, claiming, “ICE WILL BE ARRESTING VIOLENT LEFTIST RIOTERS THIS TIME!”
- A small but vocal minority of militia groups and members have been critical of statements from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Donald Trump that Alex Pretti’s death was justified because he was armed. Defending an absolutist interpretation of the Second Amendment gun rights is a historic pillar of the militia movement. Some accounts even denounced DHS, including a post which referred to ICE officers as “fascists.”
- On Jan. 20, exactly one year after having his seditious conspiracy conviction commuted, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes joined Ivan Raiklin, who describes himself as Trump’s “secretary of retribution,” for a press conference calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. They claimed Trump needed to invoke the act or Democrats would win and impeach him. “They’re going to go after everyone one by one,” Raiklin said.
- Edward Durfee, a former member of the Oath Keepers, won a seat on a New Jersey school board in November 2025. He was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but wasn’t charged with a crime. However, the New Jersey Department of Education denied him the seat, citing two felony robbery convictions that came up in his required background check to serve on the school board.
- Catholics for Catholics gave “border czar” Tom Homan its “Protector of America” award in January for supposedly rescuing thousands of children trafficked across the southern border. The group describes itself as a “militant organization” of “warriors who love Christ, our Lady, and the USA.” Homan was the architect of the “zero-tolerance” family separation policy during the first Trump administration. Conspiracy theorist and Trump-pardoned felon Michael Flynn was set to present Homan the award, but Homan was unable to attend in person. He called in and thanked the group for the award. Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Pope Francis removed from his position as head of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, gave the blessing at the ceremony.
Hate prevention
- Recently published research shows the pervasiveness of male supremacist narratives from August 2024 through the presidential election and inauguration to April 2025. Conducted by the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab and Over Zero, the study found that desires to punish women who eschew traditional gender roles became more widespread and specific following Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. Similarly, “grievance-based sentiments— frustrations, hate and violence, among others—spiked” after the inauguration. With the strong correlation between enacting violence and grievance-based rhetoric, it’s imperative that caregivers are equipped with the tools to intervene and confront these narratives when young people have become susceptible. The Building Networks and Not Just a Joke guides can help by providing all trusted adults with information about these manipulative ideologies and preparing them with the tools to intervene effectively.
Anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim activity
- Brian Lonergan of the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) published an op-ed on The Center Square on Jan. 19, claiming Trump’s potential deployment of the Insurrection Act in response to the resistance to ICE’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics in places like Minneapolis is “justified.” Some anti-immigrant groups like FAIR are providing legal and ideological cover to some of Trump’s harshest tactics when it comes to immigration enforcement.
- The recently launched U.S. House of Representatives “Sharia Free America Caucus,” cofounded by Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy of Texas, gained 24 additional members, according to a press release on Jan. 15. The caucus appears to build on anti-Sharia fearmongering that is based in Islamophobia crafted and peddled by some groups making up the organized anti-Muslim movement.
Anti-LGBTQ+ movement
- The anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Family Action Council of Tennessee advocated for policies recommended in the new Heritage Foundation report Saving America by Saving the Family, writing, “Incentivizing traditional marriage and big families is in the best interest of America as a whole. … But the federal government’s current policies grant more benefits to unmarried and homosexual couples than those who choose the traditional route.” Among its recommendations, the report promotes government-sponsored “bootcamps” for straight couples and limitations on in vitro fertilization. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups’ support for it demonstrates how anti-LGBTQ+ ideology reifies a definition of “family” that is based on cis-male-led, heterosexual couples with biologically related children birthed and nurtured by cisgender women.
Conspiracy propagandists
- While much of the country celebrated the impressive legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 19, the John Birch Society repeated its opposition to the civil rights leader from over 60 years ago. “For MLK Jr. Day,” the hard-right conspiracist group wrote on Facebook, “everyone should remember that Martin Luther King Jr. was a trained Communist agitator.” Founded in 1958, the society is notoriously known for claiming that President Dwight Eisenhower was a communist.
White nationalist and neo-Nazi movement activity
- Patriot Front, a white nationalist group led by Thomas Rousseau, participated in an anti-abortion rally on Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C. Approximately 100 Patriot Front members, wearing their trademark uniform — white face coverings, blue long-sleeve shirts, and brown pants — marched near the rally and listened to speeches, including one by Vice President JD Vance. Like their other rallies, Patriot Front members brandished metal shields, flagpoles and bigoted banners. A small group of counterprotesters followed Patriot Front around D.C. while playing circus music and banners that pointed out the Patriot Front’s neo-Nazi beliefs.
Confederate monuments
- After a year of activists and educators efforts, plans have moved forward for the opening of a memorial in Fort Worth, Texas, to the 1921 lynching of Fred Rouse — the only known lynching to take place in the north Texas city. In September 2025, the city of Fort Worth approved more than $200,000 for the memorial, and community members raised additional money. “We’re trying to turn a site that was meant for evil and tragic terror and racial violence that was here, and we’re trying to turn that site into a site for peace,” said Fred Rouse III, grandson of the lynching victim.
- In January, following orders from the Trump administration, Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia took down an exhibit on slavery. The exhibit memorialized nine people enslaved by George Washington at the site of Washington’s house in Philadelphia. The exhibit also gave larger context about the Atlantic slave trade and the role of slavery in the Early Republic. The removal of this exhibit follows Executive Order 3431, issued in March 2025, that directs national sites of public history to “remove content that is disparaging to Americans.” The city of Philadelphia is suing Trump’s Department of the Interior to restore the slavery exhibit at Independence Hall. Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said, “African American history is American history, and this is an intentional effort to erase history.”
- In January, Trump’s Department of the Interior announced that national parks would no longer offer free admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. Instead, national parks will now offer free admission on Trump’s birthday. Representatives from the NAACP and the National Park Service have decried the decision, labeling it “concerning,” “racist,” and base “self-promotion.” The move demonstrates that national parks are important sites of public history, as Trump’s attempt to erase honest American history from the parks has also shown.
Image at top: Ivan Raiklin (center), a far-right activist who calls himself ‘the secretary of retribution’ speaks alongside Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers and members of the Proud Boys outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
