National inventory of hate groups ranks Texas near top, with 8 in Houston

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The number of known far-right extremist groups in the United States fell significantly in 2013 for the first time in a decade, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Based in Montgomery, Ala., the organization recently published its annual report on hate groups and anti-government organizations in the Spring 2014 issue of its quarterly investigative journal, Intelligence Report. The report covers groups that existed in 2013.

With a total of more than 2,000 groups, the radical right remained at historically high levels, according to the report written by the organization's senior fellow, Mark Potok.

The decline followed four years of "spectacular growth" driven by President Barack Obama's election in 2008 and nearly simultaneous economic collapse, Potok wrote.

While Texas saw a decline in the number of groups, it remained an extremist hot spot, with 57 hate groups listed on an interactive map, the third highest number in the country in 2013. California ranked first with 77, followed by Florida at 58.

Texas has an even higher number of anti-government, or Patriot, groups, with 67 listed in 2013. That's down from 79 in 2012, a 15 percent decrease.

The two types of groups are divided geographically to some extent, with hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan clustered in the eastern half of the state, Potok said.

"Like other southern states, it's part of the legacy of slavery, segregation and Jim Crow," he said. "I don't think it's any secret to say that East Texas has had and continues to have serious problems with anti-black racism."

But the problem is not unique to East Texas, he said.

"Hate groups are distributed all around the country," Potok said. "It's not merely a phenomenon of the deep South."

The 2013 report, which covered 2012 data, listed 62 hate groups in Texas.

Among the 57 Texas hate groups listed in the most recent report, eight were in the Houston area:

First Century Christian Ministries (a Christian identity group), The Woodlands; League of the South (neo-Confederate), La Porte; Lone Star United (racist skinhead), Houston; Lone Wolf Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Ku Klux Klan), Livingston; Nation of Islam (black separatist), Houston; New Black Panther Party (black separatist), Houston; Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Ku Klux Klan), Houston; White Camelia Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (Ku Klux Klan), Pasadena and Cleveland.

Nationwide, hate groups dropped by 7 percent, from 1,007 in 2012 to 939 in 2013, the report stated.

The more significant decline, however, was in anti-government groups, from an all-time high of 1,360 groups in 2012 to 1,096 in 2013, a drop of 19 percent.

The lower numbers are not necessarily all good news, with the potential for violence remaining high, Potok said in a news release.

"Moreover, there is a disturbing dynamic at play," he said. "At the same time that the number of extremist groups is dropping, there is more mainstream acceptance of radical-right ideas."

For example, some state legislatures have passed or considered bills to nullify federal laws they oppose, which the law center called an unconstitutional tactic pushed by Patriot groups.

Seven states (not including Texas) passed so-called "anti-Shariah" laws to prevent Islamic moral code and religious law from being used in state courts.

In Texas, Senate Bill 1639, which would have prohibited the use of "foreign law" in Texas family courts, was filed in March 2013 but died in committee.