News21 investigates a growing climate of hate in the United States through analysis of national crime victimization data and on-the-ground reporting by 38 reporters in 36 states.
Watch the documentary as it explores the legacy of hate in America and how it has shaped the country today.
Experience News21’s 7,000-mile road trip across 23 states where reporters explored off-beaten paths and talked to more than 150 people about the state of hate in America.
Hear about the life cycle of hate, from indoctrination to reform.
Hatred and bigotry live online in a largely uncensored collection of public opinion and calls to action, including acts of violence.
Brewing among some young men is an intolerance and hatred that is bringing violence to the streets and white nationalist politics to the forefront.
From the historically unwelcoming American South to cities across the country, black Americans disproportionately face acts of intimidation, extremist rhetoric and violence.
Nearly 1,000 hate groups are active in the United States, and their numbers are growing.
Latinos and immigrants increasingly are fearful of reporting racially biased crimes and incidents to law enforcement, as the targeting of their communities is on the rise.
The rise in religious hate crimes is prompting different religious groups to take measures to protect and help other people attacked for their faith.
Native American women are being murdered and sexually assaulted on reservations and nearby towns at higher rates than other American women.
As colleges respond to a steep rise in reports of hate crimes on campus, conservatives and followers of the alt-right movement claim colleges are sanitizing campuses of dissent, in violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Even among the 45 states with hate crime laws, provisions vary widely.
Violent crimes and other hate incidents targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans consistently are unreported and often not prosecuted.
Hate crime law enforcement depends largely on the officer who responds to the call.
Scroll to zoom and click on a stop to jump to that place in the interactive.
Scroll to see the places we visited and click on a stop to jump to that place in the interactive.
We traveled 7,000 miles across 23 states. This is what we found.
The Virginian Cocktails in Twentynine Palms, California, is on the corner of California State Route 62 and Cholla Avenue. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Kari, 26, is a bartender at the Virginian Cocktails in Twentynine Palms, California.
PLAYLaurette (left) and Wedda have been drinking partners for close to three years.
PLAYThe first of Gus’ Fresh Jerky stores in Olancha, California, started in an old gas station in 1996. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Nora is a sociology major at Whittier College in Whittier, California. She spends her summers working at Gus’ Really Good Beef Jerky as a cashier.
PLAYThe restored mess halls, moved to Manzanar National Historic Site in late 2002, are the same as those used by Japanese-Americans interned at Manzanar during World War II. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Bernadette is the superintendent of the National Park Service at Manzanar Historic Site.
PLAYElizabeth and Terry have been divorced for more than 20 years, but still travel together.
PLAYMina visited the Manzanar Historic Site with her nephews, who were visiting from Japan.
PLAYVirginia City, Nevada, was a boomtown founded in the 1850s when silver and gold were discovered nearby. The mines played out in the late 1870s and the town’s population plummeted. It survives as a tourist town. (Jim Tuttle/News21)
We don’t really have a problem (with racism) up here. The only time we have problem is when we have some Arabs up here in their dress. They’re in full burka and people get very nervous. They don’t know if they have explosives underneath those outfits. All the merchants up here get nervous. There is a lot of people up here with guns and they’re standing at the ready in case there is a problem.
I come from an ethnic family. My daughter, Zoe, is half African-American, so I am very sensitive to the topic of hate. I think all races have a lot of work to do. It’s better than it used to be, but we have a long way to go.
The gas station in Stagecoach, Nevada, where we found Brian Baldwin. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Brian is a local produce mechandiser in Lyon County, Nevada.
PLAYWe’re going backwards. Totally backwards, when a large majority of us just want to be together. We’re all the same.
When you have something like that, where the president is saying there is blame on both sides, equivocating about straight-up racism ... then I think it gives people more license to be straight-out racist.
We don't want open borders, we just want people to be treated fairly and not cruelly when they come here. You know, I think America the beautiful is what we should strive for, and it should be both beautiful inside and out.
The right number of Americans voted for Donald Trump to win the election because they need a change from what Hillary Clinton was getting ready to deliver upon them. Every race causes problems for America. There are laws to keep civil order. If we don’t have civil order, our social order breaks down. So it’s not just the illegal immigrants that cause a lot of problems.
Located off Exit 68 on Interstate 80 in Wyoming, Little America is a combination of hotel, gas station and gift shop. It was intentionally built in a remote location to be a haven for westbound travelers. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Mike and his wife, Tirzah, returned from a pioneer trek to Martin’s Cove, in Wyoming, with their youth group.
PLAYMatt Mcomie (left) prepares for a game of pool with Kevin Farris (center left) while Kraig Smith and Buck Ward converse at the the Buckhorn Bar & Parlor in Laramie, Wyoming. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Hate and friction is everywhere around us. Even here in the bar, we disagree about politics. I think Trump is a big (expletive). He’s out of touch with America and what Americans want. It’s the things he’s saying and not saying that is spurring hate.
Everything becomes more heightened when the media can reach millions of people on their phones.
Being an interracial couple, [Fred and I] see the race thing. Talking about it and hyping it up makes it worse for us. People have made comments to us, but it’s a lot better in Wyoming. ... Here, there isn’t the history of racial tensions.
There’s definitely friction and I think 60 percent of our friction is the news. We show all bad and no positive because there are as many positive people in the country as there are negative.
These presidents (at Mount Rushmore) would agree with a lot of the policies that he’s adapted. I think that most of Americans are behind the president and what he is doing.
People criticize Trump for tweeting, but it’s the only way he can reach the American people because the media won’t report what he is doing accurately.
The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, adorned with onion domes and ears of corn, attracts around half a million people a year. The exterior murals change every year with a different theme. For 2017, the theme was “South Dakota Weather.” (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Lauren and Devon from Virginia quit their jobs and bought a RV to spend a year traveling the country.
PLAYWith a slogan of “Looking to the Future”, Tekamah, Nebraska, is a burg of 1,662 people northwest of Omaha. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
Frankie (left) and Keith are construction workers from Tennessee who worked over the summer in Tekamah, Nebraska.
PLAYLarry is a Tekamah native who served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1973.
PLAYI am proud of what America was founded to be. I am not very proud of what it is right now.
It’s just people aren’t talking to each other and not trying to get along. You just got to weigh both sides. And you got to look and not make an opinion right away. You got to think about it and listen to both sides.
I’m a veteran, so I will feel pride in America. I don’t know what others feel. Sometimes they don’t know enough to stand up and take their hat off when the flag goes by, but at least they show up for the event and that’s a starting point.
The media will take on something bad that happened and just continually talk about it over and over and over and over and over and over, to where it will get a group of people upset and angry.
Mustachio’s Bar and Grill is one of two food establishments in Carbon Hill, Illinois, a village that hasn’t grown or shrunk since its founding in the late 1800s. (Lenny Martinez Dominguez/News21)
There's no, like, 'I hate you and don't come in here' type thing where they're going to fight in the middle. ... I know you probably have the diverse people that don't get along and especially with politics or something ... they'll just be quieter or they'll just leave.
There’s a lot of growing that needs to be done, but I’m hoping [America] will get better.
Built from 1859 to 1865, this 31-room mansion on the Spiegel Grove estate in Fremont, Ohio, was home to America's 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes. (Jim Tuttle/News21)
Fremont native Chandra (left) and her friend Julie said social media contributes to the divisiveness in America today.
PLAYThis is just a country correcting itself because so many people hated the previous president.
You know the racial things with the blacks and then you have all these foreigners coming in here. They're not documented and we're paying to support them. That's no good. Trump is making America great again. Draining the swamp, and God love him.
Carol and Bob portrayed historical Confederate figures Flora Stuart and Capt. William Bradford.
PLAYHe's a former Navy sailor who said he feels Obama destroyed America.
PLAYJohn Spaziani, 72, portrayed Gen. Samuel Cooper in Gettysburg.
PLAYTen years from now, 15, or even 20 years from now, I believe it [the United States] will be different than it is now.
No matter what’s going on in the country in federal politics right down the road, I still think that these monuments and all of the ways in which the city set limits so no buildings can be higher than the Capitol, it allows us to venerate and remember the good things about the country.
Mexico has a lot of problems, like the United States, but as an American, people then can have better opportunities.
I always say the nation gets the leadership it deserves because they voted for it.
The Omelet Shoppe is a 24-hour diner off Interstate 64 in Beckley, West Virginia, that's popular with locals. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
Felicia is a waitress at the Omelet Shoppe.
PLAYWilliam (right) has been getting his morning cup of coffee at the Omelet Shoppe every day for the past three years.
PLAYA woman was murdered at the Travelodge Hotel in Beckley, West Virginia, on July 9. Felicia Robertson, a waitress at the Omelete Shoppe next door, attributes the murder to one cause — drugs. The community of 17,000 is in the grips of opioid abuse. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
Tristan "Turtle" Hylton of Beckley, West Virginia, reels in his line at Brandy's Catfish and Trout Pond while Leah J. King, Jayden Farnsworth and Uriah Farnsworth await what they hope is a big catch. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
Jessica Vance of Beckley enjoys bonding with her children over fishing at Brandy's Catfish Pond near Bolt, West Virginia.
PLAYThe beautiful thing about the United States is you can do anything you want. Nobody is stopping you from anything. You don't like the country, so get out.
Van Buren, Arkansas, is home to 24,000 people. The depot in the Main Street district (pictured) is popular with tourists. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
Reba and Larry said the South has gone backward to the times of their teen years.
PLAYI was never in the service, but 1 percent of the world wakes up every day and protects our freedom. Ninety-nine percent wakes up and enjoys it. I’m that 99 percent. I don’t take that for granted by no means.
People go to the store and bring [food] home. They don’t realize what all went in to getting that cow to where it's at. What we eat comes off the farm, no matter how you look at it.
Elk City is in western Oklahoma along Route 66. The city's population in 2017 was 11,555. Stout & Son Pawn Shop was started in 1952 by Steve Stout's grandfather. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
He's the pastor at Main Street Baptist Church in Elk City, Oklahoma.
PLAYHe owns Stout & Son Pawn Shop in Elk City.
PLAYAmarillo, Texas, is home to a number of popular tourist attractions, including Cadillac Ranch and the American Quarter Horse Association Museum. The city is the largest in the Texas Panhandle, with a population of about 200,000. (Jim Tuttle/News21)
Boozefighter Whiff (his biker name) said he is psychology professor and has worked in academia for 30 years.
PLAYCentral Grill and Coffee House is in Albuquerque, home to roughly 550,000 people. Waitress Maya Vigil (pictured) is a student at the nearby University of New Mexico. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
A college student at the University of New Mexico who waits tables at Central Grill, Maya said open conversation is the solution to the tensions that exist in America.
PLAYRiverwalk Park is in Grants, New Mexico, along Route 66. About 9,000 people live in Grants. (Tilly Marlatt/News21)
Melanie, 23, is a member of the Navajo Nation and fearful of the state of the nation.
PLAYStone works at the New Mexico Mining Museum and said that both Democrats and Republicans want change.
PLAY