US Hate Groups Decline After Obama Election Spike: Five Most Extreme Hate Organisations

Far-right extremist "hate" groups are declining in prevalence across the US, according to research by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The number of hate organisations has fallen 7% from 2012 to 2013, after a spike in reaction to the election of Barack Obama in 2008, which coincided with the financial crisis.

In 2012, the 1,007 groups fell to 939 last year. However, the numbers are still considerably higher than the 457 in 1999.

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), said: "We had four years of spectacular growth of the radical right." According to Potok, the US may be "turning a corner" in reducing the number or organisations.

Various reasons have been cited for the decline. Some suggest the adoption of right-wing ideologies by politicians in certain states, including Arizona, Kansas and Arkansas - which are among states campaigning to ban Sharia law - have led to the dissolution of organised hate groups.

Other groups have disbanded due to internal conflicts and issues. The National Alliance, a white-nationalist, anti-Semitic and white separatist group, has fallen from 1,400 to 100 members since its founder William Luther Pierce died in 2002.

IBTimes looks at which hate groups are still prominent in the US:

Stormfront

A white nationalist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi organisation, Stormfront created the Internet's first major hate site. It began as an online forum in the early 1990s and was established as a website in 1995 by Don Black, a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

In 2002, the site has been removed from French. German and Italian Google indexes for targeting an online FOX News poll on racial segregation.

The group contains political candidates, with the motto White Pride World Wide. Various incidences have brought Stormfront into the forefront of media attention.

In 2006, the SPLC reported a discussion on the website in which white nationalists were encouraged to join the US military to learn the skills necessary for a "race war". After Obama's election in 2008, the site gained 2,000 new members and collapsed due to an overwhelming amount of activity.

National Socialist Movement

The organisation embodies neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies and members participate in military-style protests and hate crimes. According to CNN, the group sparked the Toledo riots in 2005, as well as anti-African American demonstrations in Los Angeles and Wisconsin. NSM demands that "all non-Whites currently residing in America be required to leave the nation forthwith and return to their land of origin: peacefully or by force".

Three NSM members have been charged with the brutal murder of Daniel Delfin, a small-time drug dealer, near Cincinnati, Kentucky. Jeffrey Allen, Anthony Baumgartner and Stephen Harkness choked and beat Delfin with a metal pipe, before slitting his throat, stabbing him in the chest and rolling his body into bramble bushes.

Klu Klux Klan

The modern KKK is formed of small, independent chapters across the US. For this reason, it is difficult to estimate exactly how many members there are, but researchers suggest around two-thirds of the membership comes from the southern states of the US. Another third is situated primarily in the mid-west.

Recent campaigns have been based on issues such as people's anxieties about illegal immigration, urban crime, civil unions and same-sex marriage.

Some KKK groups encourage the appearance of white power skinheads. However, the number of members is steadily dropping. In the 1920s, there were 4,000,000 members. In 2008, the number fell to 6,000.

The Family Research Council

Despite the innocent name, the organisation focuses on "traditional Christian values" and was classified in 2010 by the SPLC. It was classified the group as an anti-gay hate group, for spreading false statistics about homosexuals in the media. It was formed in 1981 by James Dobson and became as part of his main organisation Focus on the Family, before becoming independent in 1992. The current president is Tony Perkins.

The FRC lobbies for socially conservative policies and it against LGBT rights, abortion, divorce, stem-cell research and pornography. IN 2012, a security guard working at the FRC headquarters was shot by a man who saw the group listed on the SPLC website. It has maintained its influence with right-wing candidates and anti-gay supporters.

Vinlanders Social Club

The organisation was formed in 2003 by former members of a rival skinhead group, the Outlaw Hammerskins.

They have a reputation for white supremacist racism, with excessive drinking and violence. They follow a racist version of Odinism, a form of ancient paganism once practiced by Vikings.

In 2011, the Vinlanders held a white power concert called Plunder and Pillage. It attracted over 50 racists to Ohio from across the country.

Brien James, a co-founder, wrote on the website in 2007: "Our beliefs stem from being deprived of our individual freedoms and from our witnessing of the decline of western civilization. One of the most obvious and sometimes relevant symptoms of this decline is forced integration and the decline of our towns and neighbourhoods based on racial make-up."