Hate groups on rise in state

By CHERYL FRANKENFIELD
Collegian Staff Writer

Hate group numbers are on the rise, and Pennsylvania is home to more of these groups than almost every other state in the country.

A report published last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center found hate groups nationwide had increased from previous years.

A hate group is considered to be a group whose members joined because of similar beliefs based on people of different ethnic backgrounds, race, gender or sexual orientation, said Laurie Wood, research manager of the Intelligence Project. These groups also have some sort of address and type of recruiting methods, either through mail or the Internet.

There were 537 hate groups in 1998, up from 474 in 1997, according to the center's World Wide Web page (www.splcenter.org). California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania, which has 27 groups, were some states with the highest number of hate groups in the United States.

Pennsylvania was ranked No. 4 by the center in terms of the number of hate groups. It also is ranked the sixth most populous state, so it potentially has more people to be members of these groups, said Daniel Welliver, director of Education and Community Services for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

"Pennsylvania has always been a very, very conservative state," said Steve McCann, treasurer for Lambda Student Alliance. He added he wasn't sure why Pennsylvania had a large number of hate groups.

"Typically, hate groups decrease when the economy is good," Wood said.

But one reason for increases this year, even though the economy is good, might be a result of increased usage of the Internet to recruit members, Wood said. Within a matter of minutes, many hate groups can be found on the Web.

In 1997, there were 163 Web sites representing hate groups and in 1998, the number listed on Web sites had risen to 254, Wood said.

McCann said these groups are protected under the First Amendment, but if the pages threaten people, they should be considered dangerous.

Another reason for large numbers of hate groups in Pennsylvania might be because communities in the state are better at reporting and monitoring these activities, said Welliver.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been in existence for more than 25 years and the Intelligence Project, which used to be Klanwatch, started in 1981, Wood said. The project monitors hate groups, crimes and patriot movements, such as a militia group.

There is a long history of Ku Klux Klan involvement in Pennsylvania, he said. In the 1930s the Klan was at its height and had numerous members in Altoona, he said.

Later in the month, Lambda Student Alliance members will be having a workshop dealing with hate as part of Pride Week, McCann said. Friends of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who was murdered in a hate crime, will be talking at the workshop.

Because of Shepard's death, some states have legislation pending that would extend protection to people based on their sexual orientations. Welliver said states deal with hate crimes differently, but generally these laws enhance penalties.