If it seems to you as though hate is more evident in West Virginia than in previous decades, you’re not imagining things. According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are six active official hate groups in the state. There were three in 2020.

Some of those organizations are statewide groups: Asatru Folk Assembly, a neo-Volkisch group (the Volkisch movement was an ethno-nationalist push in Germany leading up to and through the Nazi era); League of the South, a neo-Confederate group; Mass Resistance, an anti-LGBTQ group; and Patriot Front, a white nationalist group. Two others are tied to a specific location: Full Haus, a white nationalist group in Hampshire County; and the Vdare Foundation, a white nationalist group in Morgan County.

The diversity and reach of hate groups officially active in the state has grown considerably. According to the SPLC’s Hate Map, back in 2000, organizations included only Liberty Bell Publications, a neo-Nazi group in Roane County; and both National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, and Resistance Records, which featured hate music, in Pocahontas County.

In the SPLC’s view, across the U.S. such groups have “coalesced into a political movement that is now one of the most powerful forces shaping politics in the United States.” While that may be a touch dramatic, there is truth in the worry that the worst extremes are gaining all the attention.

Mountaineers are always free; not just some Mountaineers or those who look or live like the majority. If a growing hate movement has found safe harbor here, it is our responsibility to reverse that course, rather than turning a blind eye.