One of the most horrifying thoughts people should have in the world today is the advancement of organized hate groups. People should learn more about hate groups that brought so much terror and chaos to so many people. These groups are still trying to grow and regain the power they once had. We as a whole should not be ignorant to the fact that these groups still exist. In the following paragraphs I will tell you about hate group origins, goals, and law enforcement counter measures.

             One of the oldest hate groups in the United States is the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). This group was founded at the end of the Civil War around 1865. The Klan opposed former slaves having rights. They also opposed "Reconstruction governments" in the South, which under the protection of Union troops gave land to freed slaves and enforced other reforms following the Civil War. Reconstruction governments were often made up of newly empowered blacks whose job was to control the confederate state before they were reinstated into the union. Klan terrorism continued throughout the Reconstruction period but largely stopped following the defeat of Reconstruction in the late 1870s. Then in 1915 another group formed called the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. (Encarta Encyclopedia 99").

             The Klan was prominent again during the 1960s civil rights movement when Klan members murdered many civil rights activists. Groups like the Aryan Nations, founded in the early 1970s by Robert Butler were the next wave of hate groups. Like the Klan, Aryan Nations aims its hatred at blacks, Jews, and other minorities. Headquartered in Hayden Lake, Idaho, the group mixes racism with the teachings of Christian Identity, a religion that teaches Jews are the offspring of Satan, blacks are subhuman, and America is the new "Promised Land" that belongs exclusively to whites. Butler and his followers believe in a "day of reckoning" when the "usurper will be thrown out.