National Expert on Extremist and Hate Groups to Speak at New College of Florida

Heidi Beirich’s job is tracking the activities of the nearly 1,000 hate groups – the neo-Nazis, neo-Coinfederates, Klansmen, white nationalists, racist skinheads and black separatists – operating in the United States.

Beirich who heads the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, will discuss her work in a talk entitled “The State of Hate and Extremism,” part of the New Topics New College discussion series, at New College of Florida’s Sainer Pavilion at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in 1971 to uphold the gains of the civil rights movement, is dedicated to fighting bigotry and hatred, and to seeking justice for the powerless. It has won numerous lawsuits that defeated institutional racism.

The Center is internationally known for its success in exposing hate groups. The National Review has called the Intelligence Project “one of the most respected anti-terror organizations in the world.” Beirich oversees its widely respected and quoted annual count of hate groups and anti-government groups, and contributes to the Center’s award-winning journal, Intelligence Report.

Her most recent piece, in the December 2014 issue, examined the rise of an American seeking to build connections between hate groups in the United States and Europe. It begins:

One of the most polished American racists of recent years is Richard Bertrand Spencer, a 36-year-old Ph.D. program dropout who, in his khakis and oxfords, looks more like some ambitious young Capitol Hill staffer than a white supremacist. Indeed, with a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia, Spencer’s resumé reads a lot like that of a well-heeled, up-and-coming politico. 

The Center reports that since 2000, the number of hate groups in America has risen 56 percent. Beirich will discuss the rising tide of hate groups and the factors that are driving this backlash to America’s increasingly diverse society.

Thursday, February 19, 2015 | 5:30 PM

“The State of Hate and Extremism,” with Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road

Tickets $20; free for New College faculty, staff and students

Reserve online at donate.ncf.edu/events or call 941-487-4888

More information at ncf.edu/new-topics-new-college.

Media sponsors for the season are the Herald-Tribune Media Group and WEDU-TV. Corporate sponsors are Courtyard by Marriott Hotels and Treviso restaurant.