Hate groups in Ohio: How many are there, and where are they?

After the events of Charlottesville, Va., last weekend and the condemnation of hate groups, many people are asking, “What constitutes a hate group?” or “Are there any near me?”

In Charlottesville, a rally called ‘Unite the Right’ drew large groups either for the rally or to protest it.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a domestic non-profit organization that tracks hate groups and extremists, exposes acts committed, teaches others to help reduce hate towards others and works to bring justice to those that would commit hateful acts.

The SPLC has a map of all the hate groups the United States. According to its database, there are 917 hate groups in the United States and 35 in Ohio.

What is a hate group?

Hate groups as defined by the SPLC are:

  • Groups that have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics

Is there a hate group in my city?

Possibly. To help answer that question, the SPLC compiled a list, and this news organization placed all of the known Ohio hate groups on the map below.

Each group has been categorized by its overall ideology and has been color-coded.

Note that all markers do not represent specific locations. Those that are statewide have been placed towards the center of the state for ease of understanding.

Seven black separatist (blue) groups, most notably The Nation of Islam, create the largest category of known hate groups (SPLC definition).

The Klu Klux Klan (black) has six groups listed, four of them being statewide groups (SPLC definition). 

Five anti-Muslim (gold) groups with an ACT for America group operate in each of the three biggest cities of Ohio (SPLC definition).

There are four known anti-LGBTQIA+ (purple) groups, which say they are Christians stopping the "homosexual agenda" and often resort to crude ad hominem hate speech (SPLC definition).

Four neo-Nazi (red) groups, including the headquarters of the Daily Stormer and a motorcycle gang, are in Ohio (SPLC definition).

Three racist skinhead (green) groups are known for being violent factions of white supremacists with their shaved heads (SPLC definition).

Three white nationalist (orange) groups are in Ohio. White nationalist is mainly an umbrella term, and the groups are those that suggest some type of inferiority of nonwhites (SPLC definition).

Two Christian Identity (yellow) groups are anti-Semitic groups that claim to be Christian despite having little to do with the religion (SPLC definition).

A single radicalized Catholic (grey) group, known as Radical Traditional Catholicism, is a group of anti-Semites that subscribe to an ideology rejected by Catholics (SPLC defintion).

Most of these groups are in the three biggest cities, however there are two known black separatist groups in the Dayton area.

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