Hate groups in Kentucky, across US, rising, Southern Poverty Law Center report finds

The number of hate and anti-government groups in Kentucky doubled since 2022, according to an annual report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The legal advocacy nonprofit, which has been cataloging national hate groups since 1981, tracked 18 hate groups across the state in 2023, as opposed to 2022’s 9.

According to the SPLC's metrics, there are 595 hate groups and 835 anti-government groups across the country.

The SPLC defines a hate group as an organization that publicly espouses beliefs or practices that “attack or malign an entire class of people.”

“The organizations on the SPLC list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity—prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines,” the SPLC said.

The hate and antigovernment groups that are tracked in Kentucky include:

• Asatru Folk Assembly
• Church of Aryanity/Order of the Western Knights Templar
• Fellowship of God's Covenant People
• Kentucky Parents Involved in Education
• Moms for Liberty
• National Assembly
• National Justice Party
• No Left Turn in Education
• Patriot Front
• Proud Boys
• Tactical Civics
• Tea Party of Kentucky
• The American States Assembly
• Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan