The Southern Poverty Law Center is expected to release its annual report Thursday on white nationalist, neo-Nazi and anti-government extremist group activity in the United States.
The Hate & Extremism Report will identify the number of active hate groups in 2024 and how that compares with previous years. It will also look at anti-government group trends. The law center based in Montgomery, Alabama, tracks racism, xenophobia and far-right militias.
Last year’s report found “record numbers” of white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ groups in 2023. The analysis highlighted how far-right groups tried to waylay democracy through disinformation, false conspiracy theories and threats to election workers. It also examined how supporters of Christian supremacy used similar topics to organize a movement toward authoritarianism.
The SPLC is a liberal advocacy organization that, besides monitoring hate groups, files lawsuits over justice issues and offers educational programs to counter prejudice. Frequently criticized by conservatives as biased, the nonprofit has faced lawsuits for its designation of some organizations as hate groups.
The report’s release comes as a Los Angeles college professor makes his first public appearance since he was severely injured in a hit and run that he reported as a hate crime. He is scheduled to speak Thursday morning at the Chinese American Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Aki Maehara, 71, was riding his electric bicycle in Montebello, 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles, on April 29 when he says he heard a driver yell a racial slur. Maehara says a car then struck him and the driver fled. He was hospitalized with a concussion, neck injury, cheek bone fracture and bruises and swelling up and down his body.
Maehara, who is Japanese American, teaches a course on the history of racism in the U.S. at East Los Angeles College.
The Montebello Police Department is investigating.
Photos of his injuries posted to a GoFundMe page have been shared multiple times on social media with users calling for hate crime charges. The crowdsourcing campaign has raised almost $77,000 for Maehara.
