Southern Poverty Law Center Identifies 20 Hate Groups In Alabama

MONTGOMERY, AL — The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 20 hate groups in Alabama, which includes six statewide groups and 14 groups located in a specific city.

The SPLC released its annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report Monday, and the report does show a decline over the last year in the number of hate groups operating across the country. The report identifies 838 hate groups nationwide.

Hate groups in Alabama, as identified by the SPLC:

• American Identity Movement: White nationalists; Statewide
• Great Milestone: General hate; Birmingham
• Israel United In Christ: General hate: Birmingham, Mobile
• Isaelites Saints Of Christ: General hate; Huntsville
• League of the South: Neo-Confederate; Killen
• Nation of Islam: General hate; Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile
• National Socialist Liberation Front: Neo-Nazi; Statewide
• Occidental Dissent: White nationalists; Eufala
• Proud Boys: General hate; Statewide
• Southern Cultural Center: Neo-Confederate; Wetumpka, Dothan, Northport, Oxford, Weogufka
• United Klans of America: Ku Klux Klan; Statewide
• Wolves of Vinland: Neo-Volkisch; Statewide

The study's authors explained they define a hate group as "an organization or collection of individuals that — based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities — has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate group. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations."

The SPLC has begun conducting polling as an additional tool to measure extremist sentiment, according to the SPLC researchers. "Our August 2020 polling, for example, revealed that 29 percent of Americans personally know someone who believes that white people are the superior race," the report states.