Introduction
Since the start of 2021, Texas has experienced a significant amount of extremist activity. One driver of this phenomenon is Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that has distributed propaganda across Texas – and the rest of the U.S. – with alarming frequency, using the state as a base of operations. Two other factors are extremists who continue to target the LGBTQ+ community and QAnon supporters who have gathered for conferences and rallies across the state.
Texas has also seen a significant increase in antisemitic incidents over the last two years. It recorded the country’s fifth-highest number of antisemitic incidents in 2022, at a time when ADL has tracked the highest-ever number of antisemitic incidents nationwide.
This report will explore a range of extremist groups and movements operating in Texas and highlights the key extremist and antisemitic trends and incidents in the state in 2021 and 2022. It also includes noteworthy events and incidents from the first half of 2023.
Key Statistics
- Antisemitic Incidents: According to the ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, Texas has seen a dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years. In 2022, the number of incidents increased by 89% from 2021 levels, rising from 112 to 212 incidents. Since 2021, ADL has tracked a total of 365 incidents in the state.
- Extremist Plots and Murders: In 2021 and 2022, ADL documented two extremist murders in Texas and six terrorist plots. In 2023, a gunman who embraced antisemitism, misogyny and white supremacy opened fire in a mall parking lot in Allen, killing eight people and wounding seven more before police shot and killed him.
- Extremist Events: Since 2021, ADL has documented 28 extremist events in Texas, including banner drops, flash demonstrations, training events, fight nights, protests, rallies and meetings.
- White Supremacist Propaganda: In 2022, ADL documented 526 instances of white supremacist propaganda distributions across Texas, a 60% increase from 2021 (329). There have been 1,073 propaganda incidents since 2021. The groups responsible for the majority of the incidents were Patriot Front and the Goyim Defense League (GDL).
- Hate Crimes Statistics: According to the latest FBI hate crimes statistics from 2021, there were 542 reported hate crimes in Texas in that year, an increase of 33% from the 406 incidents recorded in 2020. Hate and bias crime data in Texas and nationally highlights how hate crimes disproportionately impact the Black community.
- Insurrection Statistics: Seventy-four of the 968 individuals logged by the George Washington University Program on Extremism who have been charged in relation to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol are Texas residents, the second most in the nation.
- ADL and Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative Threats and Harassment Dataset: The Threats and Harassment Dataset (THD) tracks unique incidents of threats and harassment against local U.S. officials between January 1, 2020, and September 23, 2022 in three policy areas (election, education and health). Texas recorded seven incidents of threats and harassment against local officials.
Antisemitism
ADL’s 2022 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents documented the highest number of antisemitic incidents since reporting began in 1979, with more than 3,697 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment nationwide, a 36% increase from 2021. Texas reported 212 antisemitic incidents in 2022, the fifth-highest number behind New York, California, New Jersey and Florida. Instances of vandalism increased by 418% (88 incidents in 2022, compared to 17 in 2021), while harassment increased by 28% (122 incidents in 2022, compared to 95 in 2021). Two antisemitic assaults occurred in Texas in 2022, up from zero in 2021.
Significant instances of antisemitism in Texas include:
- In October 2022, an individual associated with the Goyim Defense League, a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs, pepper-sprayed an Austin high schooler who attempted to remove the antisemitic propaganda the individual was distributing.
- In October 2022, an Israeli flag was torn from a sukkah at the University of Texas in San Antonio.
- In July 2022, an online threat was made against synagogues in Texas, leading to a disruption of Shabbat services in the San Antonio area.
- In January 2022, a Jewish student in Houston was harassed by a classmate who stated, “Your grandma should have died in the gas chambers.”
- In December 2021, an individual’s car was keyed with a swastika and hateful slurs in Austin.
- In November 2021, a rock was thrown through the window of an Austin home displaying a menorah.
- In October 2021, Franklin Barrett Sechriest allegedly committed an arson at an Austin synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, that caused $25,000 in damage. Authorities say Sechriest had stickers with white supremacist propaganda and symbols in his possession, as well as journals containing racist and antisemitic writings.
- In April 2021, a swastika, SS lightning bolts and a message that read “Happy Birthday Hitler” were found spray-painted on the side of a Hurst shopping center.
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