Last year was the first year in recent memory with credible reports of white supremacist groups spreading propaganda around the Lehigh Valley and Warren County, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL this month announced that distribution of white supremacist literature including racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers, stickers and posters increased across the nation in 2019 with 2,713 cases, up from 1,214 the year before.

There were five documented instances of such literature locally from so-called alt-right groups.

The group Patriot Front was reportedly behind two instances last October in Allentown, including one reported on the Muhlenberg College campus. Two other occurrences in Bethlehem and Mansfield Township were from the New Jersey European Heritage Association, which the ADL says is trying to expand beyond the Garden State. Fliers with the logo of Identity Evropa, now known as the American Identity Movement or AIM, were seen in Hackettstown.

The ADL began tracking such propaganda in 2016. Similar fliers may have appeared in the Lehigh Valley before 2019 but the ADL may not have received a credible report before, according to spokesman Jake Hyman.

The organization tracks propaganda and other extremist activity on its HEAT Map, which stands for hate, extremism, anti-Semitism and terrorism. The map also documents anti-Semitic incidents in the Lehigh Valley since 2016 there were four reported in 2019, even with the two prior years and down from five in 2017.

NOTE: If you do not see the map and charts above, try opening this post in your Internet browser.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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White supremacists spread propaganda in the Lehigh Valley in 2019, ADL reports - lehighvalleylive.com