Mark Potok

Until recently, white supremacist rhetoric was the province of people previously known as the lunatic fringe. So, what's changed?

The New Republic's Jamil Smith discusses the recent surge of black church fires in the South.

A new Southern Poverty Law Center study aims to get homegrown terrorism, and especially the threat of so-called lone wolf American terrorists, back on the agenda. 

It's a somber start to the Jewish holiday of Passover after a gunman opened fire and killed three people outside a Jewish community center and retirement community in a suburb of Kansas City yesterday.

Fred Phelps, the founder and anti-gay preacher at Westboro Baptist Church, died on Thursday at the age of 84. Phelps was a disbarred civil rights lawyer and ran for local offices seve...

Now that the confusion and conflicting reports of this weekend's shooting in Wisconsin have settled, we're beginning to learn more about the alleged gunman who carried out the attack....

The election of President Obama triggered an explosion in the number of hate groups in the US, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The rise in numbers is due to changing racial demographics, a bad economy, and a divisive political atmosphere.  

The Supreme Court ruled on what may be the most controversial case this term: Snyder v. Phelps. Pastor Fred Phelps leads a small crusade against homosexuality. His Topeka, Kansas based Westboro Baptists Church has become infamous for protesting outside the funerals of fallen soldiers. Soldiers like Lance Corporal Mathew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. Snyder’s father, Albert, filed the suit against Phelps and his church for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of distress.

The FBI arrested nine members of a group called Hutaree this past weekend. According to officials, the group planned to wage an all-out war to bring down the U.S. government.  Authorities said Hutaree's initial plan was to kill a law enforcement official and then plant IEDs to kill more officials who attended the funeral. If you're thinking this is a militant Islamist group, you're dead wrong: Hutaree is a Christian militia group based in Michigan. Hutaree's philosophy, stated on their website, reads, in part, that they are "preparing for the end time battles."

An 88-year-old white supremacist walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. yesterday with a rifle, fatally shooting a security guard. The alleged sho...

Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center and Karen Boykin-Towns, president of the NAACP Brooklyn branch and member of the national board of directors, talk about the outbreak of noose and swastika placements since Jena.