The Southern Poverty Law Center reports there are currently 784 hate groups nationwide. Florida ranks second in the nation with 50 hate groups, while California tops the list with 57 groups.
Last week, the FBI revealed a plot by three prison workers in Florida with ties to a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan to kill a black inmate, putting one of the most easily recognizable hate groups into the spotlight. However, only two hate groups in Florida are KKK affiliated.
Mark Potok, a senior fellow and the editor-in-chief of the SPLC's quarterly journal, "The Intelligence Report," helps keep a list of known hate groups and follows the rise and decline of activity among them.
SPLC listed two cities in the north central Florida area - Gainesville and Ocala - as locations with active hate groups. Both cities made the list, having one hate group each.
SPLC cites The American College of Pediatricians in Gainesville as an "anti-LGBT" group, while in Ocala the Confederate Hammerskins are deemed a "racist skinhead" group.
SPLC's full report,"The Year in Hate and Extremism," found that despite the presence of these organizations the number of hate groups — statewide and nationally — has declined over the past few years.