Georgia Among Most Hateful States In US, Analysis Shows

White supremacists and nationalist groups thrived in President Trump’s first year in office, according to a new report that showed a 4 percent increase in the number of hate groups nationwide. An analysis of the Southern Poverty Law Center’ report showed Idaho, an overwhelmingly white state where only 5.8 percent of the population is foreign-born, is the most hateful state in the country, with 12 active hate groups.

Georgia was ranked No. 9 on the list, with 40 identified hate groups. That amounts to 3.9 groups for every 1 million people in the state, according to the SPLC. It's an increase of eight groups from last year, when the SPLC identified 32 hate groups in Georgia.

In its 2018 Intelligence Project report, the civil rights advocacy group said the number of active hate groups in the United States has risen from 784 in 2014 to 954 in 2017 as “alt-right” white supremacy groups broke through a firewall that for decades kept overt racists underground.

"President Trump in 2017 reflected what white supremacist groups want to see: a country where racism is sanctioned by the highest office, immigrants are given the boot and Muslims banned," Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said in a statement. "When you consider that only days into 2018, Trump called African countries ‘s---holes,’ it’s clear he’s not changing his tune. And that’s music to the ears of white supremacists."

In its analysis of the hate map, 24/7 Wall Street reported that the 10 most hateful states are Idaho, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Virginia, Oregon, Arkansas, Georgia and Colorado.

The online financial news and opinion site looked at the number of hate groups per 1 million state residents, immigrant populations, and a range of socio-economic data, including the percentage of adults 25 years and older who hold at least a bachelor’ degree, the percentage of each state’s population that is white, poverty rates and median household income. The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Click here for more on the methodology

In Georgia, the hate groups identified on the SPLC Hate Map largely center around metro Atlanta or are considered statewide. They range from racist and neo-Nazi groups like Aryan Nations Worldwide, the National Socialist Movement and several chapters of the Ku Klux Klan to so-called "black nationalist" groups like the Nation of Islam and the United Nuwabian Nation of Moors.

In its 2018 Spring Intelligence Report, the SPLC said that within the white supremacist movement, the greatest growth was in neo-Nazi groups, to 121 in 2017 from 99 the year prior. The number of anti-Muslim groups increased for a third straight year, to 114 chapters in 2017, up from 101 in 2016. Those groups had tripled in growth in 2015, according to the report.

The number of Ku Klux Klan groups decreased to 72 nationwide in 2017, down from 130 a year earlier. The SPLC said the decline “is a clear indication that the new generation of white suprem­acists is rejecting the Klan’s hoods and robes for the hipper image of the more loosely organized alt-right movement.”

Click here to read the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Photo: White nationalist Richard Spencer, center, and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police in Emancipation Park after the “Unite the Right” rally was declared an unlawful gathering.