We’ve just released the “Year in Hate” issue of the Intelligence Report, showing a staggering 48% jump since 2000 in the number of hate groups that operate in America. That translates into an increase from 602 groups that year to 888 in 2007 — growth almost entirely driven by the poisonous national debate on immigration. [...]

It’s been a heck of a year in the world of hate. As usual, white supremacists and sundry others on the radical right have shot, bludgeoned and maimed their way into police blotters and newspapers across the land. They’ve cursed, defamed and insulted the usual laundry list of their enemies. But for Hatewatch aficionados, that’s [...]

We’re pleased as punch to report that we just learned that the Intelligence Report — the quarterly magazine published by the Southern Poverty Law Center and written by the authors of this blog — has won an important award. The Utne Reader, which aggregates and reprints selected articles from some 1,300 publications around the country, [...]

Remember the good old days, back in the 1990s, when the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) was still claiming to be a non-racist, if conservative, group? That was when then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) was still trying to defend his ties to the CCC in the aftermath of an SPLC exposé revealing the virulent [...]

Charles Barefoot, the leader of a North Carolina Klan group that plotted to blow up the local sheriff’s office in 2001, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial for orchestrating the murder of a fellow Klansman. After reviewing a psychologist’s evaluation, a Sampson County Superior Court judge ruled that Barefoot, 45, was “not competent [...]

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is almost certainly the most-quoted immigration restriction organization in America. In just the last few weeks, its leaders have enlightened cable viewers with their views on such topics as “American ‘Intifada’ in Our Future?” “Driving While Illegal,” “Should ALL Illegal Aliens Be Deported?” and “Economic Impact of [...]

The FBI released its latest national hate crime statistics last week, and while these numbers are shaky they do indicate hate crimes directed at undocumented immigrants — and Latinos in general — are up 35% over the last four years. In light of this chilling trend, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report has compiled [...]

This morning, the FBI released its hate crime statistics for 2006. The report showed a rise of 7.8 percent from 7,163 to 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targeting victims or property as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability.
As in prior years, [...]

Over the past two years, the Watchmen on the Walls have brought their traveling anti-gay road show to Sacramento, Seattle and Riga, the Latvian capital. In Seattle last month, they were greeted by more than 100 protesters, who challenged the Watchmen’s beliefs that gays are a threat to society and were instrumental in orchestrating [...]

The first week of October was a rough one for World Pastor Tony Alamo, the cult leader who for decades has claimed “homosexuality is caused by demon possession” and the U.S. government is an agent of the “satanic” Catholic Church.
On Oct. 2, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries member Leslie Ray “Buster” White was indicted by a [...]