Greensboro, NC -- According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 34 active hate groups in North Carolina last year, including some in the Triad.
On the "hate map" on its website, the SPLC identified 1,018 hate groups that were active in the United States in 2011. It defines hate groups as organizations having "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."
The group, which describes itself as "a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society," said on its website it built the "hate map" by using hate group publications and websites, news reports, field sources and citizen and law enforcement reports.
The SPLC says hate group activities "can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing." Inclusion on its "hate map" doesn't mean a group is involved in or advocates criminal activity or violence, the nonprofit said.
On its "hate map," the nonprofit identified Neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, anti-Muslim, white nationalist, black separatist, Neo-Confederate and Ku Klux Klan hate groups as active in North Carolina in 2011. Some of those groups were active in Clemmons, East Bend, Eden, Greensboro, Pelham and Winston-Salem, the SPLC said.
Hate groups have come under increasing focus since the SPLC tied the suspect in the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin to white supremacy organizations.
The SPLC found the links between Page and the white supremacist movement Monday morning when the organization ran his name through their database, which is detailed enough that it is often used by law enforcement. The SPLC found that Page had played in a number of bands that promoted white supremacy through their music.
WFMY News 2, Gannett News Service