At least 13 extremist groups were active in WV in 2024, per the Southern Poverty Law Center
The map shows the locations across the United States of organizations considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be hate groups or extremists. (SPLC graphic)
At least 13 organizations espousing hateful, extreme or antigovernment rhetoric were active in West Virginia in 2024, according to a report issued last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Per the SPLC's 2024 Year in Hate and Extremism report, eight of those groups were local while five were considered to be active statewide. The groups vary from neo-nazi and white supremacist groups to organizations that are generally anti-government and militias.
The SPLC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and advancing civil rights across the South and the wider United States. Since 2000, the organization has mapped and identified extremist groups across the country while researching how their ideologies can, and often do, influence policy making.
The groups identified as extremist by the SPLC that were active in West Virginia in 2024 are:
The Constitution Party of West Virginia, a far-right, small-government focused political party that in 2024 succeeded in getting a gubernatorial candidate, former state delegate S. Marshall Wilson, on the ballot for the general election
The Kanawha County chapter of Moms For Liberty, a local arm of the national nonprofit that gained attention by being at the forefront of book-banning movements. The group has advocated against education on systemic racism and has peddled anti-LGBTQ misinformation. Moms For Liberty has pushed back against being labeled an extremist hate group as classified by the SPLC
The National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans, an antigovernment group based in Bridgeport, per the SPLC. A Taylor County chapter of the organization is also listed among active extremist groups in West Virginia
The First West Virginia Volunteer Mountain Infantry, a militia based in Huntington
Folkish Active Clubs West Virginia, a neo-nazi organization considered to be active statewide
The Asatru Folk Assembly West Virginia, a statewide Neo-Volkisch organization that, per the SPLC, is characterized by 'organized ethnocentricity and archaic notions of gender'
The Appalachia Active Club, a white nationalist organization considered to be active statewide
Full Haus, a white nationalist organization in Purgitsville. Per its website, supporters of Full Haus want a white ethnostate and traditional gender roles
Patriot Front, a white nationalist extremist group considered to be active across West Virginia. In 2024, dozens of members of Patriot Front — carrying fascistic symbols and face coverings to hide their identity — marched through downtown Charleston on a Saturday afternoon
The VDARE Foundation, a white nationalist organization located in Berkeley Springs that espouses myriad of racist and anti-immigrant views and conspiracy theories, including the 'great replacement theory'
Mountain State Contingency Group, a statewide militia
According to the SPLC, there was one more hate or extremist group active in West Virginia in 2024 compared to 2023. Several of the groups listed in 2023 — mostly militias and white nationalist groups — were not on the 2024 report.
Nationwide, the number of hate and extremist groups identified by the SPLC is declining.
Last week's report showed an almost 5% decline in the number of hate and antigovernment groups operating from 2023 to 2024. But on a call with reporters upon the report's release, representatives for the SPLC said that trend is not encouraging. Instead, it is likely the result of far-right extremism becoming more mainstream in otherwise accepted groups and movements.
'After years of courting politicians and chasing power, hard-right groups are now fully infiltrating our politics and enacting their dangerous ideology into law,' said Margaret Huang, president of the SPLC. 'Extremists at all levels of government are using cruelty, chaos and constant attacks on communities and our democracy to make us feel powerless.'XX
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