Virginia Among Most Hateful In US, Analysis Shows

Since violence broke out in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, resulting in the death of an anti-racism protester, a number of hate groups have disappeared from Virginia. But new groups have appeared to take their place.

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 Virginia, which has often been in the spotlight for its Confederate history, is the sixth hateful state in the country, with 37 active hate groups.

In its 2018 Intelligence Project report, the civil rights advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center 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 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’s 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

When Patch last looked at the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate group map—in the days following the Charlottesville violence—there were 42 hate groups based in Virginia, compared to 37 today. Virginia is one of eight states that have 35 or more active hate groups.

Twelve of the 42 hate groups on the SPLC's map last year have become inactive or have moved out of Virginia. On the other hand, other groups have been formed since then.

Among the new groups is the Charlottesville-based white national group called The New Byzantium Project, formed by Jason Kessler, the white nationalist who organized the Aug. 12, 2017 Unite the Right rally. Kessler has said he intends holding another Unite the Right rally on the one-year anniversary, although Charlottesville has denied a permit to the rally organizers.

In Virginia, 10 of the 37 active hate groups are white nationalist, including The New Byzantium Project and Richard Spencer's National Policy Institute. 12 other groups are identified as neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, racist skinhead, or KKK.

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.”

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.

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

Image: 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 on Aug. 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' clashed with anti-fascist protesters and police as they attempted to hold a rally in Emancipation Park, where a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is slated to be removed. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)