Florida ranks second in the nation for number of hate groups

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — Out of 917 hate groups in the United States, 63 of them are in Florida, ranking the Sunshine State second in the nation. California is the number one home to hate groups with 79.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 22 hate groups exist in Central Florida alone. Just to name a couple: American Vanguard is based in Orlando; the Christian American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is in Bushnell.

A flyer circulating on social media advertising Saturday's deadly white nationalist rally 'Unite the Right' in Charlottesville, Virginia listed Florida attorney Augustus Invictus as a speaker for the event. Invictus ran as a Libertarian for U.S. Senate in Central Florida last year.

Multiple people were injured and one woman died after a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters.

University of South Florida adjunct professor H. Roy Kaplan tells WFLA these hate groups tend to recruit young, impressionable people online.

“The groups are looking at people who are alienated, isolated. These are the ones that are outcasts. You find them in schools, and they sit alone in the cafeteria. They don’t have friends. They keep to themselves.”

There are zero hate groups listed in Hawaii.