Hundreds of masked members of the Texas-based white supremacist group Patriot Front marched in formation through Washington, D.C., on Independence Day, the Austin-American Statesman reports.
Patriot Front, which originated in the Dallas-Fort Worth city of Grapevine, frequently participates in “flash demonstrations,” or street marches in which its uniformed members don white face masks, according to media reports.
The only marcher photographed by the media Saturday without a mask was the group’s leader, Thomas Ryan Rousseau.
The D.C. marchers chanted “Reclaim America!” while carrying Confederate battle flags and U.S. flags, some displayed upside down, according to reporters on the scene.
Beyond its flash demonstrations, Patriot Front is known for aggressively distributing propaganda leaflets in communities nationwide, something that makes the group one of the nation’s most visible white supremacist organizations, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Patriot Front stemmed from Vanguard America, which splintered after the 2017 “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which made international headlines and left one counterprotested dead. Shortly before that rally, Rousseau took over the group’s social communication servers and locked out its former leader, Dillon Hopper, in what he called a “coup.”
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