A reputed white supremacist group is making forays into Connecticut with demonstrations and flyers

A reputed white supremacist group rooted in the Boston area has allegedly reached into Connecticut with a recent flash demonstration in Hartford and flyers distributed in East Hartford and Southington.

One leaflet from the New England Nationalist Social Club declared a stand “for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders,” and on Market Street in Hartford Saturday, people representing to be group members wearing black jackets, ball caps and face masks unfurled banners that said “White Lives Matter,” “Defend New England” and “Defend White Lives.”

On one hand, the group’s decision to flash signs on a quiet street on a Saturday afternoon showed a distinct lack of guts, Black Lives Matter 860 CEO Ivelisse Correa said Monday. Why not demonstrate on Albany Avenue or Park Street? Correa asked.

But the group’s foray into Connecticut, including the diverse suburb of East Hartford, also is worrisome, she said. Flyers also were distributed in Southington last week.

“They went to Market Street, where they would be safe, so as a result we’re not taking their actions as seriously,” Correa said. “But we are taking it seriously that they’re trying to recruit.”

BLM 860 held a counter-protest Monday and has scheduled a bigger rally for Sunday at noon in Keney Park, Hartford.

“This is a self-avowed neo-Nazi group,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said, “and no one should be confused about the fact that this organization is explicitly anti-American.

“Everything they stand for is vile and hateful - and contrary to everything we stand for as a country and as a community,” Bronin said.

The Anti Defamation League defines the Nationalist Social Club as a neo-Nazi group with regional chapters in the U.S. and abroad. Patched with the number “131,” alpha-numeric code for Anti Communist Action, group members “see themselves as soldiers at war with a hostile, Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race,” according to ADL.

“Their goal is to form an underground network of white men who are willing to fight against their perceived enemies through localized direct actions,” according to the ADL description.

The group emerged in December 2019 in Eastern Massachusetts with an initial focus on covering anarchist and gang graffiti with their own spray-painted messages. Asked about terms used to describe his group, including “racist,” “white supremacist” and “Nazi,” founder Christopher Hood told the Boston Globe in 2020, “If anyone calls me them, I don’t tell them they’re wrong.”

“At a different point during the interview,” the newspaper reported, “he said he does not think white people are inherently superior to anyone else. But when asked if he considered himself to be racist, he answered, ‘Sure.’ ”

Hood, who could not be reached Monday, told the Globe his group was “not inclined to commit violence,” but a hate group expert quoted in the article described the organization’s ideology as a mix of Neo-Nazism and violent white supremacy with an end game of creating an all-white society.

“We oppose the criminal anti-American & anti-White street gangs such as MS13, Black Lives Matter and Antifa,” one of the flyers spread around an East Hartford neighborhood said. “We are for us. By Us. And against those against us.”

“Our motivations to carry out this mission” the group declared, “do not come from a place of hatred, but a love for our own people. No one else will protect us!”

UConn sociology Professor Matthew Hughey, a specialist in hate groups, said the Nationalist Social Club’s membership is tough to tally, but likely ranges from 50 to 200. Many members split from other neo-Nazi groups after internal divisions, Hughey said.

New England is often viewed as a bastion of liberalism and socialism, but the NSC hopes to find fertile ground for an opposing ideology, or at the least a place where its message of white solidarity will resonate, Hughey said.

A group of about 20 people wearing black 131 face masks lined up along the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston last month, holding a banner that said “Keep Boston Irish,” the Boston Globe reported.

Group members translate all efforts by Black people to gain justice as anti-white, Hughey said, and their narrative is built on doomsday fabrications that end with white genocide.

Because Connecticut is “an incredibly segregated and unequal state,” the NSC’s message will impress some white people looking for scapegoats, Hughey said. Such organizations, he said, “appeal to a distaste for equity.”

The ranks of white nationalist groups have been growing throughout the U.S., but most people do not join for the ideology, Hughey said. The initial appeal, rather, is camaraderie, he said.

“We are a social club of nationalists from New England focused on building a network of likeminded men & women dedicated to defending their lands and their people,” the group’s flyer said.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com