A group says the number of hate groups in Missouri has climbed from the previous year.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a national legal advocacy group specializing in civil rights, says it has found 24 hate groups in the Show-Me State in 2018. The previous year, the organization found 18. The nonprofit shows Missouri has hate groups including two anti-Muslim, three neo-Nazi, one Ku Klux Klan, six black nationalists, one Christian identity, three white nationalists and one skinhead.
Of Missouri’s eight neighboring states, the center says the Show-Me State has more hate groups than any of them except for Illinois and Tennessee.
Nationwide, the center shows 1,020 hate groups in 2018, an increase from 2017’s 954.
