What does hate look like?
A guide to symbols used by hate groups in PA.

The day after a group of six people allegedly shouted racial slurs at Avalon resident Paul Morris and attacked him in a bar, his friends scoured Facebook for profiles connected to his assailants.

They discovered an emblem that seemed to unite the six people: a keystone symbol surrounding an outline of a pitbull’s head. That symbol — which they recognized from shirts and vests worn by the group the night of the July attack — represents Keystone United, a white nationalist group formerly known as the Keystone State Skinheads. They realized then that this wasn’t merely six racist individuals who attacked Morris; it was an attack connected to an avowedly racist organization.

There are more than 30 hate groups operating in Pennsylvania, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC]. After the alleged hate-based attack in Avalon, PublicSource offers this list of symbols that represent hate groups in the state. We’re providing this information to bring awareness to the general public, so that you are aware of your surroundings, alert to symbols that may suggest you aren’t safe and to help ensure you are not caught off guard by tokens of hatred.

Here are some of the symbols that represent hate in Pennsylvania.

American Defense Records

Ideology: Hate
Founded: Late 2004
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh, Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Pittsburgher Travis David Condor runs this hate-fueled record label from his Sharpsburg apartment.

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American Family Association

Ideology: Anti-LGBT
Founded: 1977
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Franklin
Prominent figures: Founders Tim Wildmon and Bryan Fischer.

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American Freedom Union

Ideology: White Nationalist
Founded: Late 1985
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Hampton Township
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Don Wassall, an Allison Park resident, has run the American Nationalist Union and The Nationalist Times since 1985. He campaigned for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's 1988 presidential campaign, according to SPLC.

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American Guard

Ideology: White Supremacy
Founded: 2016
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Aryan Strikeforce

Ideology: Racist Skinhead
Founded: 2013
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Aryan Strikeforce chaplain Jacob “Boots” Robards and Aryan Strikeforce President Henry Baird, both of Pennsylvania, have been indicted in an FBI sting for racketeering and distributing guns and drugs across state lines. Members of the group also allegedly conceived a suicide bombing at a Harrisburg counter-protest in October 2016; federal authorities intervened before the attack could be carried out.

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Asatru Folk Assembly

Ideology: Neo-Völkisch (a group that worships the Norse or Germanic gods, “spirituality premised on the survival of white Europeans,” according to SPLC)
Founded: 1994
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Patricia Hall, the group’s statewide coordinator.

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Be Active Front USA

Ideology: Racist Skinhead
Founded: 2013
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Blood and Honour Social Club

Ideology: Racist Skinhead
Founded: 1987
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures: Kevin Kislingbury, Ohio property owner who brought together leaders of Ohio and Pennsylvania-based skinhead groups to found the Blood and Honour Social Club and who runs the skinhead record label, ISD Records.

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Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust

Ideology: Holocaust Denial
Founded: 1987
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: York
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Counter.Fund

Ideology: White Nationalist
Founded: 2017
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Huntington Mills
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Former Business Insider Chief Technology Officer Pax Dickinson.

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Crew 38 (Hammerskin Nation)

Ideology: Racist Skinhead
Founded: 1980s
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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The Daily Stormer

Ideology: Alt-Right Neo-Nazi
Founded: 2013
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures: Andrew Anglin, the website’s founder, an Ohioan who has taken an interest in Pennsylvania.

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H.L. Mencken Club

Ideology: White Nationalist
Founded: 2008
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Elizabethtown
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Founder Paul Gottfried is a professor emeritus of humanities at Elizabethtown College.

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Identity Evropa

Ideology: White Nationalist
Founded: 2016
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: From Reading, Elliott Kline (aka Eli Mosley) is Identity Evropa’s figurehead and leader, who helped to organize the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Identity Evropa is one of the most active hate groups on college campuses in Pennsylvania, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

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Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ

Ideology: Black Nationalist
Founded: 2000
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Allentown
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge

Ideology: Black Nationalist
Founded: 2004
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Israel United In Christ

Ideology: Black Nationalist
Founded: 2003
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Keystone United
(changed from “Keystone State Skinheads” in 2009)

Ideology: White Nationalist, Racist Skinhead
Founded: 2001
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Eastern Pennsylvania, Harrisburg area, Pittsburgh area
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Steve Smith, Republican committeeman in Luzerne County. Keystone United is alleged to have been linked to a July 7, 2018, assault of a black man in Avalon, Pa.

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Ku Klux Klan
(including the United Klans of America)

Ideology: General Hate
Founded: 1865
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide, Waynesboro and Eastern Pa.
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Unknown

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Nation of Islam

Ideology: Black Nationalist
Founded: 1930
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Wilkinsburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia

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National Socialist Liberation Front

Ideology: Neo-Nazi
Founded: 1969
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Group is likely inactive, according to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium.

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National Socialist Movement

Ideology: Neo-Nazi
Founded: 1974
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Founder Jeff Schoep has rallied with the group in Harrisburg.

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Poker Face

Ideology: Hate Music
Founded: 1990s
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Allentown
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Paul Topete, “Body Worker, Healer,” lead hate singer.

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Vatican Assassins

Ideology: General Hate
Founded: 2011
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Newmanstown
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: Talk hate radio host Eric Jon Phelps, whose Vatican Assassins tome serves as the basis for much of Phelps’ white purity gospel.

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The Right Stuff

Ideology: White Nationalist
Founded: 2012
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh
Prominent figures: Right Stuff founder Michael "Enoch" Peinovich is a vehement anti-Semite and host of the Daily Shoah, a prominent podcast of the alt-right movement.

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The Shoebat Foundation

Ideology: Anti-Muslim
Founded: 2012
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Newtown
Prominent figures in Pennsylvania: SPLC describes Walid Shoebat, this group’s founder, as “an extremist on the fringes of the anti-Muslim movement due to his outlandish conspiracy theories...”

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Vanguard America

Ideology: Neo-Nazi
Founded: 2015
Concentrations in Pennsylvania: Statewide
Prominent figures: Dillon Irizarry, a Marine Corps veteran, leads the group. It’s been alleged that James Alex Fields Jr. was a member of Vanguard America; he’s the man who drove a 2010 Dodge Challenger into a group of counter-protestors in Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

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Correction (8/29/2018): A previous version of this article named a member of a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a hate group. However, the member has denounced the hateful aspects that got the group on the SPLC list. The article has been corrected.

Help us create a database of hate incidents in the Pittsburgh region. Tell us your story by filling out this form.

Matt Stroud is a freelance reporter in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at matt@publicsource.org. Follow him on Twitter @mattstroud.

This story was fact-checked by Maria Rose.

Web design and development by Natasha Vicens.

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